Welcome to John Boehner’s Demoralize the Base Act of 2014. He seems to fear having a united Republican Congress to thwart Obama’s last two years in office.
House Republican leaders plan to unveil their principles and outline their priorities on the politically potent issue of immigration reform this week, as President Barack Obama revisits the issue in his State of the Union address.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, expects the outline will help gauge which pieces of reform — increased border security, changes to the visa system, a pathway to citizenship and others — can win support from his House Republican Conference. Boehner intends to consider a series of immigration bills rather than the comprehensive legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate last summer.
Let’s take those piecemeal.
Increased border security — a bill that meaningfully increases border security won’t get through the Senate without a Christmas tree of add-ons and pork, and if that happens, Obama will just ignore all the security provisions while the add-ons and pork sail right on through.
Changes to the visa system — what sort of changes? Details would be nice.
Pathway to citizenship — well, kiss the border states goodbye, Republicans. Enjoy permanent minority status, before the Democrats just go ahead and wipe out the Tea Party and render the GOP the Washington Generals of politics.
Whatever the Republicans pass, if it doesn’t provide an immediate pathway to citizenship, it will just renew the issue. So what’s the point of doing this now?
Seems one point is to try getting immigration off the table, but as long as there’s a border, immigration will be an issue. The other point is to side with the business side of the GOP over the grassroots. The GOP will be cash-flush but voter poor.
Maybe that’s how they want it.
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