President Obama debunked the basis for every single Republican argument that he is abusing his executive powers during an interview on ABC’s This Week.
Video:
http://youtu.be/C8w8ajtYne8
Transcript via ABC News:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But do you have the right to make that decision on your own?
OBAMA: Absolutely. If you look, every president – Democrat and Republican – over decades has done the same thing as I mentioned in my remarks today. George H. W. Bush, about 40% of the undocumented persons, at the time, were provided a similar kind of relief as a consequence of executive action-
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know the response of both Reagan – but in that case, there were bipartisan bills passed, they were acting after the bills were passed, not because Congress did not act.
OBAMA: Well George, I’m not sure that argues in favor. If Congress acted specifically and left something out and then a President goes ahead right afterwards and does more than Congress agreed to, it’s actually not different. It’s similar. The fact is is that we exercise prosecutorial discretion all the time. And, you know, the primary response that I have to Speaker Boehner and others is go ahead and pass legislation. They don’t need me to act. In fact, I encourage them to act but in the meantime what we’ve got to make sure of is, number one that our borders are secure and what I’m doing is going to allow us to put more resources there, number two it’s going to allow us to focus on the people that we really want out. Number three, what it allows us to do is to say to folks who have been here for a while, register, we’re gonna submit — you’re going to submit to a criminal background check and you’re going to pay taxes. Why we would prefer a system in which they’re in the shadows, potentially taking advantage of living here but not contributing makes no sense.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you respond to the argument, a future president comes in, wants lower taxes. Doesn’t happen. Congress won’t do it – he says I’m not going to prosecute those who don’t pay capital gains tax.
OBAMA: Well, the truth of the matter is, George, that the reason that we have to do prosecutorial discretion in immigration is that we know we are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time. The vast majority of folks understand that they need to pay taxes, and when we conduct an audit, for example, we are selecting those folks who are most likely to be cheating. We’re not going after millions and millions of people who everybody knows are here and were taking advantage of low wages as they’re mowing lawns or cleaning out bedpans, and looking the other way – but then you got politicians suddenly going out there saying, suggesting somehow that we should be deporting all of them. Everybody knows, including Republicans, that we’re not going to deport 11 million people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don’t think it’d be legitimate for a future president to make that argument?
OBAMA: With respect to taxes? Absolutely not. But what is true – what is true today is we don’t audit every single person, but we still expect that people are going to go ahead and follow the law. And we have limited resources, we have to make sure that we prioritize those folks who are most dangerous and we should acknowledge what everybody has already acknowledged through their actions – and Congress acknowledges through their budget – which is we’re not in the business of deporting millions of people or breaking up families.
The political reality is that Republicans had no intentions of passing their own immigration bill. John Boehner has spent years fleeing from the immigration because his caucus is deeply divided. Many House Republicans oppose everything. The position that any immigration reform bill is amnesty is a bedrock piece of the Republican platform. Ever since President Bush’s failed attempt to pass bipartisan immigration reform, opposition on the issue has been wired into the DNA of the Republican Party.
The idea that Obama is acting like an emperor or a dictator by using his constitutional powers to define federal prosecutorial discretion is laughable. The president easily dissected the Republican argument based on historical precedent and their own behavior.
What the president wants is for Speaker Boehner to have two choices. Either the House votes on the Senate passed immigration reform bill, or they shut down the government. Those are the options for Boehner and the Republicans. House Republicans do have a third option, and that would be to pass a clean funding bill, and let the immigration issue drop, but their caucus is out for revenge. Boehner’s vow to stop Obama means that the country is on course for a showdown on funding the government.
President Obama is on firm legal footing, so Republicans are being forced to decide which way they are going to lose. Are they going to lose by capitulating on immigration, or are they going to self-destruct and shut down the government?
Given the Republican Party’s recent history, the smart money is on self-destruction.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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