Posted on 12/04/2014 12:24:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
This was the bill proposed by conservative Ted Yoho that would, if also passed by the Senate and signed by Obama, block Obama’s authority to remake immigration policy on his own. I … thought we had a Constitution that does that, but I guess we don’t anymore. Obviously, a bill like this isn’t going to get past a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, which means this was an empty gesture designed to show grassroots righties that the leadership shares their concerns about O’s power grab even if they’re not prepared to play hardball to stop it.
The burning question: With House tea partiers complaining that the bill was meaningless and ineffectual, could Boehner still find a majority to pass it? Yup, as it turns out. Although he needed a little Democratic help to cross the 218 threshold.
JUST IN: House votes 219 to 197, 3 voted present, to block Obama from changing immigration laws by executive authority
— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) December 4, 2014
Three Democrats voted yes while seven Republicans voted no and another three Republicans voted “present.” The roll isn’t out yet so we’re not sure who those 10 GOPers are but I’ll update as soon as it’s available. The White House, incidentally, has already all but promised to veto this bill. If Boehner had wanted to make Obama choke on it, he could have followed the Lee/Cruz plan by inserting this as a rider to a spending bill that would fund the entire government for a few months. That way, Reid and Obama would have a stark choice of either approving the money with this condition attached or else blocking it and bracing for the resulting shutdown. Instead, by splitting Yoho’s bill off from the “cromnibus” funding bill that’ll be voted on later today (I think), Boehner made it easy for Democrats to oppose Yoho’s language without risking any standoff over government funding. The name of the game here for Republican leaders is no shutdown, no shutdown, no shutdown. The solution was an empty gesture.
While we wait for the roll, here’s something from the Weekly Standard to chew on. Next year, after the “cromnibus” has passed and the new Republican Congress takes up funding for the Department of Homeland Security again in March, Boehner and McConnell will be prepared to pull the plug on DHS money if Obama doesn’t rescind his amnesty, right? Right?
John Boehner said he would not commit to bringing up a bill to strip critical funding from the Department of Homeland Security in the next Congress. Instead, the speaker of the House says there are “lots of options” for blocking President Obama’s executive order on immigration. At a Thursday press conference in the Capitol, Boehner did not guarantee the House would vote to block or cut off funding from DHS once Republicans had control of both houses of Congress in 2015.
“There are a lot of options on the table,” said Boehner in response to a question from THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals of what we could or couldn’t do. But I do know this. Come January, we’ll have a Republican House and a Republican Senate, and we’ll be in a stronger position to take actions.”
They’re gonna cave, because at the end of the day they fear pissing off Latino voters in 2016 by fighting O on amnesty a lot more than they fear pissing off conservatives who’ll go to the polls and vote against Hillary no matter what. Stand by for updates.
Update: Aha. Turns out it wasn’t the tea partiers who voted no.
Focus was on tea party, but GOPers Denham, Ros-Lehtinen, Valadao, Coffman, Diaz-Balart — all w large HIspanic constituencies — voted no
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) December 4, 2014
Update: Here’s the roll. Republicans voting no include the five named above by Benjy Sarlin plus Louie Gohmert and Marlin Stutzman. The three Republicans who voted “present” are Paul Gosar, Steve King, and Raul Labrador. And the three Democrats who voted yes are John Barrow of Georgia, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, and Colin Peterson of Minnesota. Barrow lost his reelection bid and McIntyre is retiring so neither had anything to lose.
Vote liberal and you are liberal.
I will work to destroy liberal republicans whenever I can, including the general elections.
Live with it. You don't get to make rules for other people, regardless of how much you want to.
/johnny
Breaking: Freeper kevkrom will only symbolically vote for the GOP in future elections instead of actually casting a ballot.
Our Economy is already in the toilet. Yesterday, I read our percentage of spending v. GDP is the HIGHEST in the WORLD (101%?)
Shut. Government. Down. Can’t hurt, might help! I know it would show the ‘Rats we mean business.
(But we don’t, so never mind...) Grrrrrr!
/johnny
I just passed some gas, symbolically of course...
I prefer ...”Gutless Obsolete Party ...et alia’ (neuter plural)”.... Hope yer well Jean !!
Breaking: Rush Limbaugh plays Magic Negro
Thank you. I hope you are as well. ITA with you by the way about the GOP.
Nobody, they just need to do Like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and DEEM IT PASSED!
True a phony executive order.
they are not gutless.
the gop-e/rino leadership does not want to change the status quo. they have no desire to. they want all this in place, and all the precedents obama is setting, whenever they get back in charge.
I’m really ticked off. What am I missing? I just saw on Fox News that the pubbies believe their mandate “from the people” is to make sure the govt is not shut down.
Do they hear people at all anymore? I don’t care if they shut it down. With $18T in debt, we SHOULD stop it. The only mandate I remember giving my Senator Ron Johnson in the last few weeks is to Stop Amnesty and the illegal actions of the president. Power of the purse and all of that. WTH?
I agree, this is yet another “symbolic” do-nothing, mean-nothing act by these political cowards...
The fix was in before he even signed the damn thing...Bonehead and McClowner were already cowering in the spotlight (ironically)...
The proof will be in the pudding very soon...
Republicans in the House passed the bill but the democrat controlled senate won’t pass this bill.
Republicans passed the bill stopping executive action on amnesty in the House
that is all they can do . all a congressman can do is vote yes or no on a bill. they voted the right way. the reason they call it “symbolic” is because democrats control the Senate. so many of you instead of blaming democrats who are the ones stopping this bill and the media for not reporting it you all blame Republicans who did actually write and pass a bill stopping Obama’s executive action on amnesty
many of you here read the headline and just knee jerk bash Republicans. that helps the socialist cult called democrats.
i’m not saying any group of politicians is perfect . what people here fail to realize is that Obama and the democrat party need to be stopped. that is the main goal.they have the media ,academia and other institutions . creating divisions and attacks on anything that could stop the enemy is helping the enemy. in any war you form alliances to defeat an enemy.
You hopeless wonder— If it is not initiated in the House— THERE IS NO FUNDING. WAKE UP!!
You are NOT going to stop them (democrats) with a “symbolic” media attention grabbing bill, that at the end of the day means NOTHING!!!
And capitulating republicans DO deserve to be bashed all to hell...EVERY SINGLE TIME, they do these CYA maneuvers...
When they ACTUALLY get a bill passed in the majority in both houses and it ends up on that idiots desk for the Veto...Then YOU can claim they actually did something...
That is what it really will be for the next two years...If you believe things will be done, things will be repealed, better fiscal control exercised...
Hey, I got some swampland in Louisiana I wanna sell you...Make you a good deal...
;-)
Then, there’s this:
http://netrightdaily.com/2014/12/death-southern-dems-house-treachery-allegations/
Pulled a fast one on us rubes!
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