Now it’s time for a depressing conclusion to Congress’s battle over Homeland Security funding and President Obama’s unlawful immigration edicts. To recap, House Republicans passed legislation in January that fully funded DHS, with the diminutive exception of amnesty money. Obama’s latest executive order is deeply unpopular with the audience, it was repeatedly rejected considered illegal by Obama in the recent past and has been blocked by a federal judge. Senate Democrats have blocked the House-passed bill four times, preventing it from being debated or amended. Several of those Democrats previously pretending to be concerned over the president’s takeover, yet they unanimously blocked DHS funding to protect it. The partial closure of the agency ( the extensive majority (DHS employees and services would not be affected) just days later, Democrats refused to even consider any measure that didn’t give them exactly what they wanted: a “clean” funding bill that would deny Republicans any opportunity to employ their fiscal leverage — granted to them by voters — to defeat Obama’s amnesty, which the electorate also rejected. And as expected, divided Republicans back downrewarding the Democrats’ dishonest intransigence:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he is willing to hold a vote on Homeland Security funding legislation that is free of controversial provisions that undermine President Barack Obama’s immigration actions. bowing to Democrats’ demands for a so-called “clean” funding measure…McConnell (R-Ky.) has outlined a strategy that would include a single vote to fund DHS — which runs out of money after Friday — through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and a separate vote Friday that would block sweeping immigration measures Obama took last fall…But immediately after McConnell spoke, Reid said he first wanted assurances from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the GOP-controlled House of Representatives would also pass the neat funding bill. Such a measure would face significant opposition from conservatives because it would end Republican attempts to employ DHS funds to thwart Obama’s immigration decisions.
McConnell backed down, and Reid (acting as majority leader) decided to rub it in the Republicans’ noses by holding out and making further demands of House Republicans. Reid ultimately he withdrew from This is a stunningly abhorrent position, but he has already made his point. Senate Democrats’ obstructionism has worked, allowing the pressure to shift back to the House, which did its job weeks ago. And so the story of Democrats threatening a national security shutdown to protect Obama’s widely opposed policies turns back into a story about those “fringe” Republicans in the House. It’s a active that Democrats exploited repeatedly between 2011 and 2015, and the press was eager to join them in “blaming the Republicans.” When the GOP took control of the Senate in January, the Democratic playbook theoretically became obsolete: Finally,
They would like to be the ones who resort to procedural (and veto) tactics to block bills and avoid debate. They would like to finally find yourself in an uncomfortable situation when it comes to certain political pressures.
A functional, strategic Republican majority would call for a vote on the House DHS bill every day, creating a ticker to count the number of times Democrats “obstructed national security funding.” They would speak with one voice in the media, denouncing their opponents’ nihilistic and hypocritical zeal to shut down the government, and demanding that Harry Reid “at least allow debate on this critical legislation to begin.” They would focus on Democrats feeble links with targeted attacks on senators from red and purple states, rightly portraying them as puppets who “put Obama’s divisive amnesty ahead of national security.” In fairness, many Republicans have tried this messaging strategy, but a lack of unity and persistence has doomed their efforts. Before you blame Mitch McConnell, remember that his options have been eviscerated by people like John McCain and Lindsey Grahamwho have been reciting White House policy points on DHS funding virtually every day. (“Leave that to the courts,” they say, blithely abandoning their constitutional role as elected members of the legislature.) Democrats have predictably applauded, and the media has dutifully quoted them with prominence. Remember, too, that some members of McConnell’s faction have been
telegraphing the final surrender from the beginning. It is McConnell’s crew tries to lead. The offensive senators’ commitment to national security is not in question; their judgment and ability to grasp medium- and long-term strategy certainly are. Hopeless.
Perhaps most glaringly, Republican senators somehow timed their work in the cave to perfectly align with President Obama’s veto of Keystone—the absurd justification for which is truly stunning in his brazenness. Here we had a president openly exposing his rhetoric of pragmatism and unity as a total fraud, giving a damp kiss to wealthy special interests (while offering another chance to highlight his hypocrisy). He rejected a hugely popular, creating jobs infrastructure project that won 332 bipartisan votes in Congress — and would have cost taxpayers zero dollars. That veto was nothing more than a edged slap in the face to bipartisanship, job creation, “middle-class economics” and all the ideals and platitudes Obama loves to spout. And on this dayRepublicans decided it was time to step back and free Obama and the Democrats from the lockdown/amnesty trap they created for themselves. Bravo. By the way, the other half of McConnell’s “compromise” includes introducing a separate bill that would ban Obama’s unilateral immigration orders. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV)
he announced that he will vote with Republicans when the time comes. Others may, too. But so what? Republicans have given up their influence, as well as the opportunity for bloodshed in a government “shutdown” — all while sending a message of future budget skirmishes. Instead, they are giving Reid and Obama what they want (a “clean” DHS bill) AND furnishings moderate Democrats with a convenient opportunity to cast a meaningless “no” vote on Obama’s amnesty. Even if the GOP were to break the inevitable filibuster on a stand-alone anti-amnesty bill with Democratic support, Obama would immediately veto the resulting legislation the moment it reached his desk. He made it clear that he didn’t care about the will of Congress; moreover, that veto would be far less embarrassing and politically painful than one that, say, extended the controversial Democratic-induced shutdown. Fortunately for him, he won’t have to think about such unpleasantness.
The end result is a complete Democratic victory. Obama wins on a day that should have been reserved for the relentless, richly deserved beating of Keystone. Reid’s “hostage-taking” and Orwellian propaganda win out, and the Democrats’ stubborn discipline is reinforced as effective. John Boehner is thrust back into the awful situation of having to figure out what to do next, with a ticking clock and a ready-made “blame the Republicans” script written against him…helpfully provided by fellow Republicans, no less. And pliant Democrats can tell the people of the country that they avoided a Homeland Security shutdown and “opposed” the administration with empty, Republican-provided show votes. Even an immigration “crushing” and infamous RINO like me has no choice but to call it what it is: an all-around strategic disaster.
