Ha! I love that “Pass immigration reform” has a 1% chance of being pursued.
“There are options like funding restrictions, or just straight-up legislation. But people are looking at all kinds of ideas,” one senior Republican aide said.
Yes, “or just straight-up legislation”, THERE’s an idea!!
Democrats, the GOP is writing all your campaign commercials for you right now, please pay attention.
The “defund and threaten a government shutdown” option seems like the most realistic option for Republicans. The GOP quite justifiably received all of the blame for the last shutdown because the House simply refused to pass a spending bill. In this particular case, however, the dynamics would be quite different. If the GOP congress attaches a de-funding rider to a spending bill and gets it all the way to the president’s desk, then much more of the onus would be on the POTUS because then the shutdown would literally be in HIS hands. While it’s still possible the American public would see through this Republican ploy, I believe that it would be a much stickier proposition for Democrats than the last time around simply because Obama’s executive action is already highly divisive and a huge percentage of Americans don’t agree with it. In the end, I could see this strategy being one that creates the dreaded “both parties are equally to blame” sentiment that Democrats fear. Arousing that feeling in the general public is how the GOP ultimately won the midterms.
I’m going with the stomp their feet and ultimately do next to nothing option. The rabid base is going to unhappy with anything that doesn’t lead to impeachment or at least some imaginary targeted defunding, so leadership is going to have to disappoint them anyway, and might as well get it over with and move on to something potentially less damaging to the party with Americans as a whole.
The wingnuts are already convinced that the ACA lawsuit is a deflection, and are debating among themselves if Trey Gowdy is in on the Benghazi whitewash obviously agreed to by Boehner, but as long as the Republican leadership can convince the base that they are still the last line of defense against the Muslims and Marxists, the wingnuts will still vote for them anyway.
One way Republicans can stop Obama in immigration is pass their own bill. You know…“Repeal and Replace.”
The chance that Republicans will solve the problem with legislation is preciously 0%. They don’t do that kind of thing.
Nobody wants to throw the nation into that kind of turmoil
But it’s OK to throw the nation into the sort of turmoil that would result from defaulting on our debts.
This isn’t about what they think is good for the country, it’s about what they think is good (or bad) for the Republican Party.
Yep, you got it! Congressional Republicans are behaving like 2-year-olds in need of a nap.
I saw something along that line in a chyron on MSNBC last night. I’ve just about resigned myself to the fact that nobody really knows how to speak this language any more.
Please don’t even joke about that this close to the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. I followed a link yesterday evening to a very good rebuttal to some of the conspiracy arguments, and in the midst of that stumbled onto an autopsy photo of the dead president’s head. It still haunts me.
It won’t be the first time the democrats reach for and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
They have the same problem that the Republicans had in Virginia the last time they controlled both houses of the legislature, and struggled for weeks past the budget deadline trying to put a budget together: the kamikaze Republicans in the House of Delegates could not come to an agreement with the establishment Republicans in the state Senate. The extremists in the party simply cannot bring themselves to compromise a single inch.
Yeah, but the GOP tried something like that when Clinton was president. Clinton vetoed it, and the Republicans still got the blame for the resulting government shutdown.
Ultimately, it is the responsibility of Congress to put together legislation that can be enacted into law.
“Pass immigration reform (1% chance)”
Do you really think the odds for the Republicans to pass immigration reform are that high? I’d rate the probability, as “a snowball’s chance in Hell”
There’s another problem with defunding. The money that will be used to fund processing undocumented immigrants applying for work permits would reportedly come from Customs fees, not from the budget. The Republicans would have to defund something not directly related to Obama’s new rules. That would make it even more clear that the Republicans are just throwing a tantrum and breaking whatever is in their reach to vent their rage.
In short, just like always, they have no plan and dislike EVERYTHING that Black Man in the White House proposes. They would rather scream and yell than do anything whatsoever that would improve the lot of the American People.
GOP teaPotty floaters…
It definitely backfired on the GOP when Clinton was in office. And it COULD backfire again. But I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that it will. After all, the reason why the GOP were such overwhelming victors during the midterms is because they were able to convince a lot of voters that both parties are equally to blame for congressional gridlock. Obviously this is total b.s., but to a large degree, their strategy worked. And it could potentially work again here.
Sorry - agree that it is a squirm inducing thought - but did not make that comment as a joke - it was inspired by Sharron Angle’s use of the phrase and is indicative of the mind set of those like her. I find the ever escalating rancidness of the right wing’s outbursts and vaguely encoded threats to be deeply disturbing - they seem to be be caught up in some sort of sick game of ‘chicken’ - trying to see who can get closest to the edge of outrageousness without getting nailed for being entirely over the line. Most of them are just engaged in this twisted game of tantalizing & throwing raw meat to their base … and some of them are just so thoroughly caught up in the vitriol that they have become vile to the core.
Regardless of which road these clowns go down they will always end up shooting themselves in the butt and blame Obama for pulling the trigger.
Interestingly, I don’t see “legislating” anywhere on this list. I wish I could be as shitty at my job as Rep. Senators and Congressmen and get paid as much and have almost promised job retention.