Republicans in Congress would shoulder the blame for a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security if they are unable to enact a new spending bill to keep the agency running, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The survey finds 53% of Americans would blame the Republicans in Congress if the department must shut down, while 30% would blame President Barack Obama. Another 13% say both deserve the blame.
If a spending bill is not passed by Feb. 28, the agency's funding will run out. (our emphasis)The 30% who would blame Obama? That's the reality-averse Republican base.
Here's a sampling of the analysis from pundits and editorial boards that underline where the problem lies:
Eugene Robinson
The House of Representatives seems to be trying mightily to make itself irrelevant, with Speaker John Boehner leading the effort. I can’t help but think of the old proverb: “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”
The caravan, in this case, consists of President Obama, the Senate and the American people. It’s still early, but one has to wonder whether anything but yipping and yapping will emerge from the House before the next election. Prospects, thus far, are not promising.
Under Boehner’s leadership, House Republicans are holding the Department of Homeland Security hostage in an attempt to force Obama to undo his executive actions on immigration. (our emphasis)The Miami Herald
Congressional Republicans bungled just about every chance to take action on immigration reform. President Obama, eventually, took action on immigration reform. So the GOP doesn’t want to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Makes sense, no? Only in that parallel universe called “Inside the Beltway.”
DHS, is set to run out of money on Feb. 27, less than two weeks from now. For all its faults, DHS should not be the political football with which the Republican-controlled Congress attempts to score a touchdown against President Obama. (our emphasis)The
“The House has done its job,” Mr. Boehner (R-Ohio) said, imperiously.
By Washington’s cynical standards, Mr. Boehner may have a point. The Republican-controlled House indeed did do a job — a job on the American people. It passed a funding bill for DHS — with poison-pill riders attached to defund President Obama’s immigration policy — that it fully knew had no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law.
Mr. Boehner’s implicit argument is that the obligation of lawmakers begins and ends with posturing. Not compromising. Not moving the ball forward. And not accepting political reality and doing the responsible thing, which in this case is to maintain funding and operations at a department with 240,000 employees that oversees border and airport security, the Secret Service and dozens of other critical government functions.
The bill passed by House Republicans would defund Mr. Obama’s executive order to shield several million illegal immigrants from deportation. In the kabuki theater of Congress, the bill has followed a predictable course. It has been taken up three times in the Senate, where it lacks the 60 votes needed to clear procedural hurdles, and three times it has been filibustered by Democrats, just as Mr. Boehner and every other member of Congress knew it would be. (our emphasis)Only a fool or a shameless right-wing partisan (same diff?) would lay the blame for this destined- to- fail "strategery" at the Democrats' doorstep. No, it's the same old government-hating cranks and crackpots that have taken over the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party back to playing their old games. Anyone who seriously thought this bunch was ready for "governing" needs to take a remedial class in recent American history. Their aim has been, is and always will be to undermine, discredit and stymie government in order for their klepto-plutocrat sponsors to ultimately run amok. If, in the process, they can demonstrate to their racist, nativist base that they want to stick it to the children of Hispanic immigrants, so much the better.
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