Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) boldly predicted last month, Senate GOP: shutdown off the table:
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) pledged that Republican leaders would not allow funding for the Department of Homeland Security to expire under any circumstances.
Cornyn said Republican leaders will ensure a funding bill is signed into law by Feb. 27, when existing funding expires.
“No more drama associated with shutting down, for example, the Department of Homeland Security. That’s off the table,” he told reporters during the joint Senate-House retreat.
“Under no circumstances will we see any shutdowns,” he said.
This falls into the category of “famous last words” that turn out badly.
The nativist and racist Deportation Republicans in the TanMan’s House GOP passed a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill last month that also includes provisions attempting to defund President Obama’s executive orders for prosecutorial discretion in deferring deportation actions for certain categories of qualified undocumented immigrants.
GOP spinmeister John Feere previewed the GOP talking points for the coming shutdown fight at The Hill. Dems to decide what’s more important, amnesty or funding DHS. This framing might play to the haters who live in the epistemic closure of the conservative media entertainment complex feedback loop, where the GOPropagandists endlessly squawk “amnesty!” like a deranged parrot, but right-minded Americans aren’t buying it.
The fact is that the TanMan’s House GOP, once again, has taken the DHS funding bill hostage and is threatening to kill the hostage unless President Obama pays the ransom demanded in their ransom note — rescind his executive orders. GOP holds security hostage to immigration – Washington Post editorial board. As Steve Benen wryly commented today, “Every pundit who said the GOP was ready to prove it can be a governing party: go sit in the corner for a while.”
Benen notes that the GOP does not have a “Plan B,” so they are left with two equally bad options: break their pledge not to shut down the government over DHS funding and demonstrate, once again, that they are incapable of being a governing party; or cave on the hostage demands of the Deportation Republicans in the TanMan’s House GOP and pass a “clean” DHS funding bill — which would be a victory for President Obama. These “geniuses” (sic) thought they had set a trap, and then fell into their own trap. GOP lawmakers get stuck in their own immigration trap:
Congressional Republicans thought they had a brilliant idea. They would fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only on the condition that they also get to destroy President Obama’s immigration policy. Democrats would have no choice but to go along, Republicans [convinced] themselves, because if Dems balked, the GOP would defund Homeland Security operations.
It was, in other words, the latest in a series of hostage strategies. “Meet our demands,” the Republicans’ ransom letter said, “or the DHS gets it.”
Dems in the White House and on Capitol Hill, to the surprise of absolutely no one, said they would not pay the ransom. More importantly, Democrats said the GOP majority should stop fooling around, fund DHS before the end-of-February deadline, and move on to their next silly game.
All of this is coming to a head very soon, and as Sahil Kapur noted this morning, Republicans don’t have the foggiest idea what to do about the mess they’ve created.
Senate Democrats are threatening to filibuster Republican-led legislation to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded because it overturns President Barack Obama’s immigration actions, and a divided GOP hasn’t yet settled on a fallback plan to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of February.
No, of course they haven’t. They excel at coming up with doomed schemes, but Congress’ majority party struggles with the idea of “Plan B” strategizing. Republicans had the bright idea of setting a trap, which they proceeded to fall into.
So what happens now? The House has already passed its ridiculous version, which is now headed for the Senate floor. Democrats will almost certainly block it — which is to say, they’ll deny it the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster — at which point Congress will have limited time to come up with something else. The House says it won’t pass a clean bill; the Senate says it can only pass a clean bill.
That said, according to Politico, there are signs of GOP buckling.
At a closed-door lunch late last month, one Republican senator after another questioned how their party will escape its political jam on immigration…. [S]ome GOP senators were in no mood to play endless games with the House.
“We just need to rip the Band-Aid off,” said one Republican senator, saying the Senate should strip out all the immigration language and pass a “clean” DHS funding bill. “I think the House guys rolled a grenade in the room,” a second GOP senator said later.
Making matters slightly worse for the GOP, there’s no doubt who would be blamed if the Republican stunt fails and Homeland Security funding falters: the ones holding the hostage.
As for the Obama administration, the president is keeping the pressure on, reminding Republicans of the dangerous consequences of their little gambit, and the three former Secretaries of Homeland Security – two of whom are Republicans – are publicly urging Congress not to allow a partial shutdown of their former agency at the end of the month.
Something else the Deportation Republicans in the TanMan’s House GOP had better consider: shut down DHS over your anti-immigrant hysteria and then, God forbid, some kind of terrorist attack occurs within the U.S. during the DHS shutdown, and you are finished.
UPDATE: Senate Republicans fail to advance bill to fund Homeland Security due to anti-immigrant riders:
As predicted, Republicans could not garner the 60 votes necessary to advance a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which contained measures designed to roll back President Obama’s immigration initiatives.
The vote failed 51-48, with no Democratic support. Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada was the sole Republican defector. GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois abstained and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voted “no” as a procedural matter so he could bring the bill up later.
McConnell has not indicated that he has an alternative plan for passing a bill that extends DHS funding, which ends Feb. 27.
h/t Donkey Hotey graphic
If dhs is shutdown all the deported family members can reunite! And if anything happens Obama should tell the country the blood of victims is on republican hands! But don’t hold your breath that he will!