I’m starting to think that the Democrats are really, really desperate to get their immigration “reform” bill passed. Not a day goes by now that they don’t make some noise about how great that bill is, how much it is needed, how much the Republicans will rue the day that they failed to pass it.
As if Democrats really have Republicans’ interests at heart. As if Chuck Schumer really wants anything but total Democrat control over every lever of power. As if Democrat don’t really want Barack Obama to just do as he pleases.
The Obama administration is “not bluffing” in its intent to take executive action on immigration policy if House Republicans don’t act soon, top Democratic leaders warned Thursday.
President Obama has delayed any potential changes to his deportation policy to allow House GOP leaders time to bring legislation to the floor this summer. But if the Republicans don’t act in July, the Democrats say, unilateral changes by Obama are inevitable.
“We’re at the end of the line,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. “We’re not bluffing by setting a legislative deadline for them to act.
“Their first job is to govern,” Menendez added, “and in the absence of governing, then you see executive actions.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) piled on. Noting that a year has passed since the Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill with broad bipartisan support, he urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring a similar bill to the floor.
“I don’t know how much more time he thinks he needs, but I hope that Speaker Boehner will speak up today,” Durbin said. “And if he does not, the president will borrow the power that is needed to solve the problems of immigration.”
From whom will Obama “borrow” that power? When will he return it? How stupid does Dick Durbin think we are?
Schumer compared House Speaker John Boehner to a kid who murders his parents, an odd analogy to use if you’re really negotiating with an equal from a position of strength.
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democrat in the upper chamber, said Boehner and other Republican critics of Obama’s executive actions have “a very good antidote” for their fears: “Put a bill on the floor.”
“He’s, like, shooting his parents and then throwing himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan,” Schumer said. “Pass a bill, and that won’t happen.
“If they don’t bring any bill to the floor, the president has no choice — on a humanitarian basis and on a policy basis — to act where he can on his own,” Schumer added.
The president has another choice: Enforce existing law. Attempt to persuade Americans and our elected leaders of the rightness of his position, rather than resort to threats to undermine our system of government. Compromise. Be honest.
This is Democrat desperation. They want that bill so bad — for the demographic changes that it will bring about, for the security provisions they can pretend to support and then gut at the first opportunity — that they’re willing and eager to do whatever it takes. When you have no ethics and no lie is too low, every tactic and every smear is on the table.
The Democrats will be intentionally provoking constitutional crises by September. They’re not going to take the prospect of losing the Senate without resorting to some of the dirtiest tactics this country has ever seen.
Update: Video of Durbin’s remarks.
Durbin: “Speaker Boehner, who’s refused to call this bipartisan measure out of the Senate, is critical of this president for using his authority to try to address the many challenges of immigration facing our nation, recalls that moment in history in my mind. We passed a bill after a lot of long, hard efforts and negotiation. It was a bill that had the support of business, of labor, of the faith community, all across the United States. It is a bill that really appeals to all of America because it solves an American challenge that still continues to this day. Despite his majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Boehner refuses to call this bipartisan measure because he knows quite simply it would pass. and if it passes, it would begin to solve the problems of our broken immigration system. A year has gone by. I don’t know how much more time he thinks he needs, but I hope that Speaker Boehner will speak up today, and if he does not, the president will borrow the power that is needed to solve the problems of immigration, and he shouldn’t be sued as a result of it.”
By Durbin’s own logic (bear with me, I know that he’s a Democrat and therefore impervious to logic) should’t Harry Reid have taken up any of the many House bills that would repeal Obamacare?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member