Thread: MARCO RUBIO, GOP LEADERS: WE'LL 'ABSOLUTELY' TRY AGAIN ON AMNESTY IF WE GAIN CONTROL

MARCO RUBIO, GOP LEADERS: WE'LL 'ABSOLUTELY' TRY AGAIN ON AMNESTY IF WE GAIN CONTROL OF SENATE



VIDEO OF RUBIO'S REMARKS AT THE LINK.

by TONY LEE
15 May 2014

Conservatives who believe that winning back control of the Senate will destroy any chance of amnesty legislation passing are sorely mistaken. In fact, a Republican-controlled Congress may make it easier to provide a path to citizenship for all of the country's illegal immigrants if this Congress fails to do so.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who has his eye on the GOP presidential nomination and was the central figure who backed the Senate's amnesty bill that passed last year, said that Republicans in the Senate would "absolutely" take up amnesty legislation again if they gain a net of six seats to take back the upper chamber. He indicated that piecemeal or bite-sized bills would be better than his Gang of Eight amnesty bill that he championed and which faced stiff resistance from House conservatives.

If Republicans retain the House, that would mean GOP leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who would become Majority Leader, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) may promptly abandon the conservative base to strike a deal on amnesty legislation.

Rubio conceded that he did not "think a comprehensive bill can pass," but emphasized that he did not "want us to waste another two years on an approach that has no chance of passing."

“I certainly think we can make progress on immigration, particularly on topics like modernizing our legal immigration system [and] improving our mechanisms for enforcing the law, and I think if you did those things you could actually make some progress on addressing those who are illegally,” Rubio said on Wednesday, according to The Hill.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who would be Chairman of the Judiciary Committee if the GOP takes back the Senate, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who would become Majority Whip, also agreed.

“We’d start over again next year,” Grassley, who said he supported the amnesty provisions in the Senate bill but not the lax border security measures, told The Hill. “I’d make a decision about whether you could get more done by separate bills or a comprehensive bill."

Establishment Republican leaders believe the only way a GOP candidate can have a chance in the 2016 presidential election is to pass massive amnesty legislation to win over Hispanic voters. They agree with Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue's remarks Monday in which he half-joked, “If the Republicans don’t" pass amnesty legislation, they "shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016."

The evidence for that sentiment may be lacking, though. Two national surveys have shown that a plurality of voters would be "less likely" to support a candidate who favors amnesty, which could enhance the number of Democrats at the polls, which could make states like Arizona, Texas, and Georgia even more competitive. To complicate matters even more, an Eagle Forum report documented how mass immigration may doom a conservative Republican Party, by depressing conservative voters who may not turn out at the polls like they did not for Mitt Romney in 2012, while perpetually importing more Democrats.

Prominent pro-amnesty liberals like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) have insisted that this year is the last chance to pass sweeping amnesty legislation. For that reason, amnesty advocates have pushed President Barack Obama and House Republicans to act by August while business executives are hoping Congress can pass amnesty as the "final act" of this Congress in the lame-duck session. Conventional wisdom has suggested that Republicans would not want to touch the amnesty issue in the middle of their presidential nominating process.
Rubio disagreed with that assessment, perhaps ensuring that immigration issues which almost doomed Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) 2008 candidacy when Republicans as a whole were less conservative than they are now will be front and center in the 2016 GOP presidential primary.

“I don’t agree with that," Rubio told The Hill. “I understand there’s some conventional wisdom out there in that regard but I don’t believe that to be true."

The Senate passed an amnesty bill last year that the Congressional Budget Officedetermined would lower the wages of American workers. Rubio then went silent on amnesty issues as his popularity and star faded. He even backed away from his own bill, refusing to support efforts by pro-amnesty House Republicans to go to conference on his bill. Meanwhile, his standing with the conservative base plummeted, especially in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, two states that will immediately be in the spotlight as the 2016 presidential jockeying gets underway in earnest in 2015.

Pro-amnesty Republican senators will not be able to get amnesty legislation through without a fight from conservative senators like Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), who were instrumental in stopping the House from passing amnesty legislation when they deemed the House GOP leadership's "immigration principles" as "amnesty" earlier this year.

Sessions, who from the outset has been a fierce champion and voice for American workers in opposing the wage-depressing amnesty bill, continued to emphasize that “Washington can’t rewrite the law of supply and demand: we can’t rebuild our middle class if we continue to bring in record numbers of new workers for companies to hire at the lowest available wage."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...trol-of-Senate

Rubio's remarks at the National Press Club, May 13, 2014.
Social Security
Medicare
Climate Change
Immigration at: 48.3

Patriots serf the right wing blogs. And whenever the name of this this lying, deceitful, treacherous, back stabbing, opportunistic, amoral, two faced, double dealing, shyster, conman, Judas Goat, puke is mentioned immediately post a stinging indictment of him reminding people of his deceitful betrayal of the good people who trusted him. Be sure to mention the Zuckerberg ads. Remind people that his promoting amnesty is not a "difference of opinion." It went on for months and used his false image as a conservative in an obviously cynical attempt to deceive conservatives into supporting amnesty.

This is not a matter of "getting even." It is critical that we demonstrate that if a politician deceives us on amnesty, we will put an end to his political career; we must prove that Zuckerberg's, the Chamber of Commerce's money and Rubert Murdock's Fox news can not save him.

Rubio must be challenged and defeated in the next Republican Senate primary.

May. 15, 2014 5:11pm Fred Lucas
The Blaze

Top Senate Republicans say if their party wins the majority November, they’ll support an immigration reform bill. Converts would likely include at least two GOP senators that voted against the measure that passed the Senate last summer.

“It could pass if we break it down into smaller pieces,” Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who could be majority whip if the bill passes, told The Hill. “[The House] has always been amenable to passing smaller bills on a step-by-step basis.”

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) would be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if Republicans win control of the Senate in November, and told The Hill he would vote to pass a GOP version of the bill.

“We’d start over again next year,” Grassley said, when asked about the next steps if Congress does not pass immigration reform by September.

Some Republicans said they might have voted for the package if it were a series of bills, separating border enforcement measures from a pathway to citizenship for the some 11 million illegal aliens in the country.

“I’d make a decision about whether you could get more done by separate bills or a comprehensive bill,” Grassley said, adding he would have supported the previous bill if it had tougher border enforcement.

Last year, 14 Republican senators joined Democrats to pass the comprehensives immigration reform bill in the Senate, which has stalled in the House.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has given mixed signals about whether he would support bringing the Senate bill to the floor for a vote. President Barack Obama and other Democrats insist there are enough votes in the House to pass the measure even if a majority of the Republican caucus doesn’t support it.

Republicans are being pulled from two ends. The more conservative base and Tea Party voters oppose granting legal status to illegal aliens, which they call amnesty. However, earlier this week Thomas Donohue, president of the Chamber of Commerce made what sounded like a threat if Republicans don’t pass an immigration bill.

“If the Republicans don’t do it, they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016,” Donohue said. Then adding that it was a joke, he said, “Think about that. Think about who the voters are. I just did that to get everybody’s attention.”

However, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, has objections.

“Washington can’t rewrite the law of supply and demand: we can’t rebuild our middle class if we continue to bring in record numbers of new workers for companies to hire at the lowest available wage,” Sessions said.

However, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of four Republicans to make up the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” with four Democrats that sponsored the bill, said he is hopeful about 2015, The Hill reported.

“I certainly think we can make progress on immigration particularly on topics like modernizing our legal immigration system, improving our mechanisms for enforcing the law and I think if you did those things you could actually make some progress on addressing those who are illegally,” Rubio said.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014...pport-amnesty/