RUSH: Senate Democrats say they are at an impasse over the funding for the Department of Homeland Security. This is about Obama’s executive immigration. There are eight Democrats who said, “We’re not completely happy with this,” as best I’ve been able to figure out what this is about, ’cause it’s happening during the heat of the moment here, during the busy broadcast time.
It’s about who’s gonna vote first on this thing, so the Democrats can avoid going on record first in whatever the end result of this is. So there’s a game of cat and mouse, chicken and the egg being played right now between Mitch McConnell and some Democrats in the Senate committee on this.
Anyway, greetings, my friends, welcome back. Great to have you. 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
Chris Stirewalt of Fox News has some of the details. “After maintaining a weeks-long filibuster of a Republican bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security but roll back president ObamaÂ’s executive actions granting amnesty and work permits for millions of illegal immigrants, Senate Democrats are starting to splinter.”
Had you heard this, Snerdley? Yeah, it’s interesting. Senate Democrats all bluster, all this, all that, until the moment of truth. They realize what happened in the last election. They realize the American people do not want amnesty, they do not want executive amnesty, but they’ve gotta show their support for the president. But now, now it’s nut-cracking time, and they’re not so sure that they want to go all the way to the wall on this.
Mitch McConnell is splitting the bill, trying to make the Democrats vote first on immigration so that they will go on the record as favoring amnesty. That’s what McConnell wants them to commit to, which is the only natural and honest thing for them to do, because that’s who they are. But they don’t want to go on record as being first to support this. They want to make it look like they’re tagging along rather than being the leaders in this effort for executive amnesty.
By the way, this little reference here, rolling back Obama’s executive actions granting amnesty and work permits. Do you realize the number of work permits Obama’s already granted is eight or nine million? De facto amnesty already. (interruption) Oh, way exceeded what Congress authorized, I mean, over-exceeded what Congress authorized. But when he’s granted these irrevocable, or irrevocable, if you’re a lawyer, if he’s granted these irrevocable — irrevocable, for those of you in Rio Linda — work permits, that’s de facto amnesty as it is.
“Unable to break the Democratic logjam, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he would instead offer a standalone bill to block ObamaÂ’s amnesty gambit before resuming the funding fight. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he would vote to ‘prevent the president from his executive action’ and suggested that there might be the five other Democrats necessary to advance the legislation.” There might be. They might have five.
McConnell said in a floor speech today, “Well, this bill removes those excuses. It sets up a simple political equation: Either stand in defense of extreme overreach, or stand with constituents in support of shared democratic values.” Now, Obama would almost certainly veto the bill. That’s the objective. Make him veto it. That has always been the objective. Why the cowardice? Make him veto it. If we’re talking about the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, look what the Democrats and Obama are trying to do here in the midst of all of this going on with ISIS.
The Democrats are trying to make it look, with the assistance of the media, like the Republicans don’t care about terrorism because the Republicans aren’t gonna fund DHS because of Obama’s amnesty. And since the Republicans aren’t gonna fund DHS, Homeland Security, the Republicans don’t care if terrorists go crazy in America. That’s what Obama’s trying to pull off of here. But it’s the Democrats who are preventing the funding of the Department of Homeland Security.
Now, it’s taken guts for the Republicans to get here. They haven’t caved yet. I thought they would have by now. But the objective all along is to expose who really is stopping the funding of DHS, and that’s Obama, either with his veto or the Democrats with their refusal to vote for it in the Senate. The Republicans have a bill out of the House, any number of ways they’ve tried to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but they’ve also put in it, we are not going to fund the parts of DHS that enable Obama to break the law and grant blanket amnesty via executive order to who knows however many millions of illegals.
So take your pick. Either fund the Department of Homeland Security with the exemption we’re not gonna pay for breaking the law, or the opposite. And the Democrats are showing signs of, well, I wouldn’t say revolting, but maybe some splintering going on here, which I always thought would happen as we got to the moment of truth ’cause they’re all bluster on this stuff until it’s time to go on the record.
Did you see Dingy Harry show up? Yeah, looking a Blues Brother. What is that? (interruption) Oh, he had eye surgery from when he was beat up? He got beat up by the exercise machine, I remember that. Yeah, he looks like a Blues Brother out there. (singing) “I’m a soul man.” “While Obama would almost certainly veto the bill, significant Democratic objections to his policies combined with the federal court ruling against the administration on the actions could start to shift the debate.”
This little court decision in Texas, this little bitty gnat of a federal judge has just thrown the biggest speck of sand in the gears here that you could possibly imagine and just sent a chill of fear up the spines of these Democrats. It’s nice to see. Anyway, that’s where we stand on that now. The point is it’s not the slam-dunk that everybody led us to believe that it was gonna be. Yeah, there’s reason for a small bit of optimism.