GOP On The Hill Are In A Clown Car Playing Chicken With A Man Driving A Tank

Editorial Cartoon by Glenn McCoy

by ALG Staff: There have been recent reports the Trump administration is planning to use Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as a bargaining chip to get funding for the border wall in the upcoming Continuing Resolution (CR). If so, this would break one campaign promise while attempting to keep another. The President must realize he cannot trust the other side to keep any promise and appreciate that he holds all the cards, despite the media spin.

President Barack Obama issued many controversial edicts during his eight-year regime, but two of them drew the ire of Americans across the country. In 2012, Obama concocted the DACA program. He followed DACA with the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program in 2014.

DACA was a policy implemented to allow illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year safety net that gave them a work permit and deferred any deportation. Don’t let the word “children” fool you, 64 percent of eligible applicants are legal adults, with 24 percent being 24 or older. It is estimated this program could affect up to 1.7 million illegal immigrants.

DAPA was a policy that targeted the illegal immigrant parents of children that were a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. It would do the same thing DACA did and grant a work permit and deferred deportation. This program had a larger impact than DACA. It was expected to affect 3.6 million people.

Make no mistake, both of these programs had one goal, amnesty. The Democrat party realizes it made a mistake by passing Obamacare instead of amnesty in 2010. In 2005, a Bear Stearns study put the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. up near 20 million. Using two Pew Research studies putting the percentage of illegal immigrants from south of the border at 76 percent, and another study giving the Democrats 70 percent of that vote, the Democrats are fighting to add over 10.5 million new voters. If amnesty were to pass, Texas and Florida would be forever lost to the Republican party. This fight is literally the whole ball game.

On June 16, the Trump administration canceled the DAPA program after years of legal battles. Then on June 23, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling stating President Obama had overstepped his authority and ruled the program unconstitutional. Since the ruling, Homeland Security had been working out a way to take the program back to court until the cancellation.

Now, several states have threatened to sue the federal government if it does not end the DACA program.

This is where the President has the upper hand. Because the DAPA program was ruled unconstitutional and was founded on similar principles, the DACA program should be ruled the same, because it would be heard by the same court. DACA is off the table and does not matter.

The President can dare the Republicans in Congress to not fund a border wall, a border wall that he won the election on. He can do so because they want to fund an unconstitutional program. He can dare Republicans to shut down the government and break dozens of campaign promises. Republicans on the Hill are driving a clown car and playing chicken with a man driving a tank.

President Trump’s base is unshakeable. For several months, the media has blasted the president with disproven story after disproven story. In the past two weeks reaching a new low and declaring the President racist, because he took the Martin Luther King, Jr. approach to violence. This did not shake his base. Even Democrat Super Pac MSNBC had to admit that President Trump’s base was still with him earlier this week.

The same cannot be said for Congress. A new poll from Gallop shows that only 16 percent of Republicans approve of Congress. This is after Congress managed to accomplish nothing in 7 months. The numbers can only go down if more promises are broken with the CR.

The President can use the power of his Twitter account and challenge the Republicans that don’t feel the need to keep America safe. Nothing scares a Member of Congress more than a primary challenger. The President has already done so with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and a new poll shows his challenger Kelli Ward leading him by 14 points.

The President has the bully pulpit and his world-famous media obsessed Twitter account which allows him to put pressure where it belongs, on Members of Congress. The President needs to be willing to travel to the districts and states of troublesome GOPers, and threaten to support a primary challenger. Primary season is coming up, and the last thing any member wants to see is the leader of their party shaking hands with their challenger.
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Americans for Limited Government staff editorial.

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