- Jun 6, 2007
- 852
- 483
- 910
The Senate Republicans were an utter disgrace today blocking the Bipartisan Border Protection Bill from moving forward in the legislative process; they put the Republican Party before the country with this move. It is really shocking their raw partisan behavior in this matter, I have been following politics heavily for the last twenty plus years and never in that time have I seen a wide numbers of Senators from a major political party say I am not going to pass a bill through my chamber because it won't get through the House Chamber. A Senator's duty is to vote in the best interests of the citizens of their own state it doesn't matter if members in the House of Representatives won't or don't do their duty.
Senate Democrats should stand up for principle here and penalize the Republicans over the stunt they pulled here Democrats should create a deterrent to this abuse of the system. What the Republicans did here is they said to the Democrats on must pass legislation (funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan) you have to address this other serious national security problem we know Washington hasn't produced any major legislation in this area for forty plus year because it is so politically contentious but we need a meaningful deal now on this issue or the must pass legislation doesn't pass. So the Democrats act like good citizens and negotiate in good faith and produce a great compromise bill that will make great headway on this problem and made politically hard compromises in the process. And what does the political party do that demanded this issue be linked to the must pass legislation after the compromise bill is created they essentially say never mind we want to use the issue as an election issue our presumptive Presidential nominee thinks your party's Presidential nominee is very vulnerable on this issue so our party does not want to give up this advantage! Democrats should say no way Republicans you cannot abuse the legislative process like this and just move on scot-free, there is a price to be paid for this reneging!
The Republicans are vulnerable on this broken border problem; their vulnerability is that they are offering the House Bill HR 2 as the solution to this problem and it is a bad bill on so many fronts, it is not a solution for America. The Democrats should and can hurt the Republicans bad on this HR2 bill; there is literally dozens of meaningful reasons why this bill HR 2 should not become law and will not solve the open border problem. The Democrats should break HR2 into sections and spend the next six weeks to two months holding hearings on each section bring in experts to explain to the American people the problems with each section; have strong Democrat leadership in those hearings don't allow Republican Senators use the hearings to explore solutions for the various aspects of this problem (cut them off is they try this shenanigans), the hearings are for scrutiny of the provisions of HR2, the Republicans said this bill is the solution for America let's examine that claim. After this period where the Democrats have demonstrated that this HR 2 bill is absolutely wrong for America then the Democrats should bring the bill to the floor allow no amendments the Republican House has claimed HR 2 is what America needs so no amendments needed ; all the Democrat Senators should agree even though they know the bill is a bad bill they are going to make all the votes needed to get this bill through all the legislative hurdles to make it to the stage for an up or down vote on passage and of course they will vote no on passage because that is what the bill deserves. Senate Republicans will then be faced with a damned if you do and damned if you don't vote, if they vote yes they will be voting for a bad bill on many fronts that will expose them to hurtful campaign attacks and if they vote no they will be acknowledging that the Republican Party's solution for America is a bad solution and the Republican Party will be hurt that way. Senate Republicans will probably filibuster HR 2 which is the same as voting no it will be considered by the American people as an acknowledgment that HR2 is a bad bill that is not a solution for America!
I have just made a cursory read of the HR2 bill and found so many flaws in the bill, a staff of good people knowledgeable on the respective public policy could have a field day on this bill. HR 2 mandates that the border wall be completed as set forth in the authorizing legislation when Trump was President but then HR2 goes on to make the definition of Border Wall ambiguous it could be barriers it can even be high technology, this writer thinks overall Trump is an atrocious candidate for President but he is absolutely right on the wall the big imposing walls work they channel illegal immigrants away from the wall the walls are mischiefed/cut but that just requires a maintenance program to fix; bottom line HR 2 doesn't guarantee completion of the border wall! HR 2 mandates asylum seekers be held in Mexico; but that is meaningless policy because that requires the consent of the Mexican government which is currently not forthcoming; so the practical effect of HR 2 meaning after the courts get through with the legislation is that it will not end the catch and release practice of the border patrol. HR2 provides bonuses for Border Patrol agents but I did not see any major funding increase in the bill to hire more BP agents to apprehend and process illegal immigrants on the border. I don't think there is more money in the bill for asylum hearing officers which is desperately needed. There is no circuit breaker provisions in HR 2 to allow the President to shut down the border and stop taking asylum applicants if the number of asylum seekers reaches a specific threshold! HR 2 mandates the creation of a new E-Verify system for employment eligibility for employment applicants for U.S. employers; how much is that going to cost and how long will that take to build and work out the bugs on and where are the additional resources to build an expanded enforcement staff! What the Republican Party did on this Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan needed supplemental bill and linking it to meaningful border protection legislation is just a four-month manipulation of America's system of government and anyone that is knowledgeable and is using a conscience knows that Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting an enemy the Russian Army who America will likely have to fight defending a NATO country in ten years if Ukraine loses some of these Ukrainian soldiers died because of this delay and their Army not receiving needed delivery of artillery shells from America and someone should be held accountable for this political gamesmanship which is truly government official misconduct!
Senate Democrats should stand up for principle here and penalize the Republicans over the stunt they pulled here Democrats should create a deterrent to this abuse of the system. What the Republicans did here is they said to the Democrats on must pass legislation (funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan) you have to address this other serious national security problem we know Washington hasn't produced any major legislation in this area for forty plus year because it is so politically contentious but we need a meaningful deal now on this issue or the must pass legislation doesn't pass. So the Democrats act like good citizens and negotiate in good faith and produce a great compromise bill that will make great headway on this problem and made politically hard compromises in the process. And what does the political party do that demanded this issue be linked to the must pass legislation after the compromise bill is created they essentially say never mind we want to use the issue as an election issue our presumptive Presidential nominee thinks your party's Presidential nominee is very vulnerable on this issue so our party does not want to give up this advantage! Democrats should say no way Republicans you cannot abuse the legislative process like this and just move on scot-free, there is a price to be paid for this reneging!
The Republicans are vulnerable on this broken border problem; their vulnerability is that they are offering the House Bill HR 2 as the solution to this problem and it is a bad bill on so many fronts, it is not a solution for America. The Democrats should and can hurt the Republicans bad on this HR2 bill; there is literally dozens of meaningful reasons why this bill HR 2 should not become law and will not solve the open border problem. The Democrats should break HR2 into sections and spend the next six weeks to two months holding hearings on each section bring in experts to explain to the American people the problems with each section; have strong Democrat leadership in those hearings don't allow Republican Senators use the hearings to explore solutions for the various aspects of this problem (cut them off is they try this shenanigans), the hearings are for scrutiny of the provisions of HR2, the Republicans said this bill is the solution for America let's examine that claim. After this period where the Democrats have demonstrated that this HR 2 bill is absolutely wrong for America then the Democrats should bring the bill to the floor allow no amendments the Republican House has claimed HR 2 is what America needs so no amendments needed ; all the Democrat Senators should agree even though they know the bill is a bad bill they are going to make all the votes needed to get this bill through all the legislative hurdles to make it to the stage for an up or down vote on passage and of course they will vote no on passage because that is what the bill deserves. Senate Republicans will then be faced with a damned if you do and damned if you don't vote, if they vote yes they will be voting for a bad bill on many fronts that will expose them to hurtful campaign attacks and if they vote no they will be acknowledging that the Republican Party's solution for America is a bad solution and the Republican Party will be hurt that way. Senate Republicans will probably filibuster HR 2 which is the same as voting no it will be considered by the American people as an acknowledgment that HR2 is a bad bill that is not a solution for America!
I have just made a cursory read of the HR2 bill and found so many flaws in the bill, a staff of good people knowledgeable on the respective public policy could have a field day on this bill. HR 2 mandates that the border wall be completed as set forth in the authorizing legislation when Trump was President but then HR2 goes on to make the definition of Border Wall ambiguous it could be barriers it can even be high technology, this writer thinks overall Trump is an atrocious candidate for President but he is absolutely right on the wall the big imposing walls work they channel illegal immigrants away from the wall the walls are mischiefed/cut but that just requires a maintenance program to fix; bottom line HR 2 doesn't guarantee completion of the border wall! HR 2 mandates asylum seekers be held in Mexico; but that is meaningless policy because that requires the consent of the Mexican government which is currently not forthcoming; so the practical effect of HR 2 meaning after the courts get through with the legislation is that it will not end the catch and release practice of the border patrol. HR2 provides bonuses for Border Patrol agents but I did not see any major funding increase in the bill to hire more BP agents to apprehend and process illegal immigrants on the border. I don't think there is more money in the bill for asylum hearing officers which is desperately needed. There is no circuit breaker provisions in HR 2 to allow the President to shut down the border and stop taking asylum applicants if the number of asylum seekers reaches a specific threshold! HR 2 mandates the creation of a new E-Verify system for employment eligibility for employment applicants for U.S. employers; how much is that going to cost and how long will that take to build and work out the bugs on and where are the additional resources to build an expanded enforcement staff! What the Republican Party did on this Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan needed supplemental bill and linking it to meaningful border protection legislation is just a four-month manipulation of America's system of government and anyone that is knowledgeable and is using a conscience knows that Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting an enemy the Russian Army who America will likely have to fight defending a NATO country in ten years if Ukraine loses some of these Ukrainian soldiers died because of this delay and their Army not receiving needed delivery of artillery shells from America and someone should be held accountable for this political gamesmanship which is truly government official misconduct!
