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12/11/14, "5 Reasons We Can't Wait to Fight Obama's Amnesty," Daniel Horowitz, CNS News
"Conservatives have won the debate over amnesty and certainly over Obama’s executive order.
Our arguments are so compelling that GOP leaders can’t openly oppose
them. Instead, they have concocted Gruber-style arguments to hoodwink
conservative members and the public into thinking we lack the leverage
to fight amnesty now, but somehow, we will have that ability next year.
The GOP establishment’s argument goes something like this: we don’t
have the votes to fight amnesty now, but wait until next year when we
have the Senate and we can really take it to Obama. That’s why we are
isolating the funding for DHS and timing out its appropriations in late
February. There are many misleading implications and obfuscations in this line of thought. Here are just a few:
1. They Don’t Want to Defund – Not Now, Not Ever: The
entire debate over when to fight Obama’s amnesty is only predicated on
the understanding that GOP leadership indeed wants to fight the amnesty
in any consequential way – ever. Have these gullible members received a
promise from Boehner that if they pass this bill he will fight to the
death to attach a full defund rider onto the DHS appropriations bill in
February? Of course not. Senate Republicans haven’t even promised to
block Obama’s nominees, and that is something that would not even risk
the much-dreaded government shutdown.
Not only do Boehner and McConnell oppose any form of defund on any
issue for risk of a shutdown, on immigration they downright support
Obama’s action. They all support amnesty. Boehner told his conference that he told Obama “do what you gotta do.” Valerie Jarrett said that Boehner told Obama to simply wait until after the primaries were over to enact amnesty.
If you believe that Boehner will effectively fight this next
year, you shouldn’t be serving in Congress. Supporting this bill will
simply give Boehner and Co. the much-needed out to begin negotiating
legislative amnesty next year instead of fighting Obama.
2. February 27 is Too Late: There is a reason why Obama
enacted his proclamation through a memorandum instead of a formal
executive order. He has the ability to implement this policy
immediately. He is already illegally using existing funds to hire 1,000
new employees to process the amnesty applications and the work
permits. This affects the future of people, not just expenditures. Once
the implementation begins, the policy is immutable. And Obama knows it. So does Boehner.
3. Immigration is Funded in Other Agencies Long-Term:
Even if Republicans miraculously fight amnesty in the February DHS bill,
by passing the CRomnibus this week they would have funded a number of
agencies tasked with immigration responsibilities without any
restrictions. The most prominent agency outside of DHS that is involved
with immigration is the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They have helped
disperse illegal minors throughout the country so that they will never
be deported. The State Department, the Justice Department, and the
Department of Education will all play a vital role in helping Obama’s
amnestied illegals establish roots here. All of those departments and
agencies will be fully funded for the entire year under this bill.
4. Provides Additional Funding for Immigration: It is
not as if Republicans are only declining to defund amnesty. This bill
provides gratuitous funding that will help Obama accelerate amnesty. As
the Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper notes,
this bill contains $2.5 billion to accommodate illegal immigrants and
refugees. And again, much of that funding comes from agencies outside
of DHS. As we know, Obama has abused the refugee and asylum system to
help facilitate his illegal immigration agenda.
5. Lose Public Backing and Outrage: The success of any
budget brinkmanship hinges on public support. The public supports us
stopping amnesty, certainly as it relates to Obama’s unconstitutional
action. However, if we wait and agree to continue funding it for
several months, we will lose the moral and intellectual clarity of the
argument. It will become harder to harness the requisite degree of
outrage as the executive action begins to take on a sense of
inevitability and an aura of legitimacy with time.
Finally, it’s important to note that we will not have much more
leverage next year than we do now. Some Republicans are misleading
their constituents and fellow members into thinking we will have the
ability to slam a regular budget bill on Obama’s desk next year. Not
true.
Democrats can still filibuster it. Either way, we control the House,
and either way, we force a vote in the Senate – whether it’s on the
underlying budget bill with a defund policy rider (next year with a GOP
majority) or on an amendment stripping out the defund rider (this year
without control of the Senate.) – we don’t have the luxury of waiting." via Levin twitter
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