AZ Congressional Delegation

The GOP is ‘the party of maximum deportations’

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The Arizona Republic today once again editorializes that Congress needs to pass an immigration reform bill this year. Fan the glimmers of immigration hope — Our View: Reform could emerge from Congress in late summer. Let’s press to ensure it does:

Image: Latinos protest in favor of comprehensive immigration reform while on West side of Capitol Hill in WashingtonAs the Senate-passed reform bill creeps toward its first birthday in June, the House continues to insist the omnibus approach won’t work. OK. So break it up.

Utah’s Rep. Mike Lee, a staunch tea party Republican, said recently that “most” House Republicans favor some sort of reform — as long as it is done piecemeal and “step-by-step.”

A piecemeal approach can work. Step-by-step is problematic if it means cherry picking the popular stuff.

Legalizing the current undocumented population remains the most contentious issue. It can’t be left out. A solution could coalesce around legalization that falls short of creating a special path to citizenship.

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Most of all, Congress needs to pass reform. House Republicans should build on the glimmers of hope and produce a bill that moves the nation — and their party — forward.

Did you catch that? The Arizona Republic wants legalization without a pathway to citizenship. What really matters to them is moving the Republican Party forward.

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Tea-Publican Senators filibuster the minimum wage bill

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Tea-Publicans in the millionaires’ Boys & Girls Club that is the U.S. Senate, Millionaires’ club: for first time, most lawmakers are worth $1 million-plus, today filibustered the minimum wage bill for low wage American workers struggling to get by.

In a real democracy with a simple majority vote, the bill actually passed 54-to 42, with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) taking the procedural step of voting against the bill so that he can reintroduce it at a later time. Senate GOP blocks minimum wage increase:

The Senate voted on Wednesday against going ahead on a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, another rejection for legislation that has been a major focus of the Democrats’ 2014 midterm campaign.

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mccain_flakeDemocrats needed to amass 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster of the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). But they were able to sway only one Republican — Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) — to vote in favor of proceeding.

[It’s time to fire ideologue Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake.]

Four senators — Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R- Miss.) — missed the vote.

Pryor, Cochran and Wicker were in their home states dealing with the response to deadly tornadoes. Boozman was home recovering from heart surgery. All four were expected to vote against advancing the bill.

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Phoenix VA Medical Center — time to weigh in on the controversy

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Cross posted from the Arizona Eagletarian

Today, three members of Arizona’s Republican Congressional delegation sent letters to Veterans Affairs Secretary Erik Shinseki and Phoenix VA medical center director Sharon Helman calling for Helman’s resignation.

“Under your leadership, a ‘secret list’ or second set of books was kept, holding the official number of days that veterans waited for service artificially low.  Because of you and your leadership team’s choices, over forty veterans have died due to lack of care,” the letter reads.

“The mistakes made by the PVAHCS cannot be undone, and drastic changes need to be made to ensure that this never happens again.  In order to begin to restore faith in the veteran’s health care system, department executives who were aware of and presided over this unethical and alarming mismanagement must be held accountable,” the letter continues. “It is for this reason we demand that you and the leadership team at PVAHCS resign from all leadership positions.”

Of course, Helman has been interviewed by Arizona Republic reporters, on camera, denying the allegations. I cannot say to what degree the specifics in Schweikert’s letter are complete and factual but I know that the Congressman has specific information from veterans [disclosure: including me, because I live in the district he represents and have required the assistance of his constituent services staff to resolve several problems at the Phoenix VAMC over the last 6 to 8 months and less frequently prior to that] that he is not at liberty to disclose publicly at this time.

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Immigration reform bill in Congress before August?

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Screenshot-6I posted last week that “The weakest Speaker of the House in modern American history, and the consensus ‘Worst. Speaker. Ever.,’ John Boehner, is the only reason that comprehensive immigration reform has not come up for a vote in the House that he controls.” Boehner admits House Tea-Publicans are the problem on immigration reform.

Immigration reform still isn’t on the agenda for the House GOP this spring, according to a memo sent Friday by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to Republican members. Immigration Not On House GOP Agenda For Spring.

The Beltway media villagers who deem themselves the oracles of conventional wisdom also say that Immigration reform isn’t happening anytime soon in the House. No matter what John Boehner says.

The thing about “conventional wisdom” is that it is almost always wrong. Behind the scenes is strategic maneuverings. The GOP leadership is trying to get past the 2014 Congressional Primary Calendar (.pdf) to avoid giving any red meat to its nativist and racist crazy base, and hopefully elect GOP establishment candidates in the primary who won’t cost the party seats in November. Most primaries are concluded by the end of June, with the last slate of states holding primaries in August and early September.

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