Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:43 pm
How do you spell failure? GOP strategy. Yes, it’s two words now.
There are only seven legislative days left to fund the Department of National Security, which is sort of not cool especially given the ramped up threats against the U.S. right now. But hey. Republicans had to pout about something and they were gonna show Mr. President who’s boss if it kills us all. And it might.
As Mitch McConnell gives up and tosses the hot ball of national security funding back to the House and Republicans can’t stop pointing their fingers at each other, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi pointed out the obvious to the delusional Republicans: Their plan to deport millions of people just to spite Obama has failed. It’s time to get back to work and stop playing hostage.
“With only seven legislative days left before the funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapses, it should be clear to every House Republican what has been clear to the entire country for some time now: their extreme anti-immigrant riders are dead and cannot pass the Senate. It’s time for the House to pass a clean DHS funding proposal and stop playing games with the safety of the American people.”
And the clock goes tick tock as Republicans in power takes us to the brink of doomsville again.
“We’ve had a week on it…I think it’d be pretty safe to say we’re stuck…” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters Tuesday according to Talking Points Memo. “I think it’s clear we can’t go forward in the Senate. And so the next move, obviously, is up to the House.”
Yes. Isn’t that impressive? Goodness, the base must be so pleased they got out that vote. The GOP will have to pass out t-shirts “I voted Republican and all I got was a country placed in peril with no national security funding.”
This is yet another crisis manufactured by Republicans. Another example of just how adept they have become at scoring a goal for the other team. Republicans deliberately left the agency unfunded in a fit of pique over the President acting like a president, and now they can’t fund it.
Republicans can’t get themselves together to back down and fund it. But the Democrats aren’t budging, because they aren’t willing to deport millions of people and allow Republicans to pretend 2012 never happened. So the Republicans are left once again with no one but themselves to blame.
Even the conservative Wall Street Journal is not impressed. Why should they be? Republicans have shown themselves to be legislative clowns yet again.
And it gets worse.
Yes, worse.
“The House’s strategy widens the deficit by $7.5 billion — and that’s just the start,” Politico announced today:
Immigration riders attached to the Homeland Security spending bill by the House GOP turn out to actually widen the budget deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, the $39.7 billion measure will need a supermajority of 60 votes under Senate budget rules, even if Republicans get past the Democratic filibuster.
Yes, just 39.7 billion! Why it’s another Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) poutfest plus a few billion. Also known as “fiscal conservatism” in this day and age. Toss a bunch of taxpayer money into the garbage heap whilst harming the country and you earn your “fiscal conservative” badge.
Oh, but there is more.
Faced with a Feb. 27 deadline and the Presidents Day recess next week, time is short. And the CBO report never addressed an added cost implicit in the Republican position: How much would it cost for the government to deport all the undocumented workers who stand to benefit from Obama’s most recent executive order?
That could be upward of $20 billion to $25 billion, according to the best estimates collected by POLITICO.
Tick tock! Time for Republicans to waste billions of dollars trying to play BMOC only to end with legislative egg on their faces again as they harm taxpayers out of spite.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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