Senate told to go 'nuclear' on Obama's amnesty
Published 3 hrs ago
Bob Unruh
'Rules can be changed to protect the Constitution and the separation of powers'
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., when he used to be Senate majority leader, changed that body’s rules simply so he could eliminate GOP objections and Barack Obama could get his federal appointees approved, and now a member of Congress now wants the rules changed again – this time to protect Americans and America.
In a recent House floor speech, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., noted the precedent that was set when Reid, in 2013, exercised what was called the “nuclear option,” changed the rules so that Senate Democrats would only need 51 votes, not 60, to approve nominees.
Brooks said the issue now is much more important than nominees – it’s the future of the nation and its citizens who are threatened by Obama’s executive memo-driven amnesty program.
That is expected to hand over to millions of illegal aliens many of the rights of citizens and the House has voted to defund the program. Those efforts are held up in the Senate by the lack of 60 votes, so far.
“The Senate leadership claims they lack the 60 votes to overcome a Democrat filibuster and pass the House’s Homeland Security funding bill,” said Brooks. “Yet a mere majority of the Republican Senate has the power [to] overcome Democrat senator obstructionism.
“Just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrat Senate majority in 2013 used the ‘nuclear option’ to change Senate rules and cut off filibusters on presidential appointees, now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican majority has the power to exercise the ‘nuclear option’ and eliminate filibusters for any bill that funds the federal government.”
Yellowhammer News, which is “all things” Alabama, reported, “Brooks’ statement reflects the country’s growing frustration with the inability of Congress to reform immigration.”
“I vote to put the jobs and wage interests of struggling American families over the interests of illegal aliens,” Brooks said. “I encourage all senators of both parties to do the same.
Brooks cited data from the Center for Immigration Studies that revealed from 2000 to 2014, there were 5.6 million net new jobs in America. But during the same time American-born citizens saw a net loss of 127,000 jobs – because of all the hiring of illegal aliens as well as legal immigrants.
“American-born citizens are still in a recession,” he said. “The priorities of Obama’s executive amnesty do not lie with American citizens. They lie with people of all kinds other than American citizens.”
He explained the House has addressed the problem, and now “it is time for the Senate to act.”
Brooks continued, “I would submit that it’s time for the United States Senate to change their rules, to reflect the will of the American people. And certainly if those rules can be changed for mere appointments by the president, they can also be changed to protect the United States Constitution and the separation of powers.”
WND had reported on the CIS research, noting that the organization accused Obama of setting up a shadow government program to operate where Congress had not authorized.
“This is a huge parallel immigrant work authorization system outside the limits set by Congress that inevitably impacts opportunities for U.S. workers, damages the integrity of the immigration system, and encourages illegal immigration,” said the report by Jessica M. Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“A huge number of work permits, 1.7 million, were issued to aliens whose status was unknown, not recorded by the adjudicator, or not disclosed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes the applications,” the report said.
“This should be a concern; work permits are gateway documents to driver’s licenses and other benefits, and if the government agency issuing them does not know or will not disclose how the bearer arrived in the country, how can others rely on the authenticity of an individual’s identity?
“It is equally disconcerting if the government does know and chooses not to disclose it,” the report said.
Obama has issued a series of presidential memos that defer deportation and offer privileges to several million illegal aliens, effectively granting them amnesty, according to his critics.
The chief of the CIS also told WND that the fight over amnesty actually will determine whether the United States can be run by a president and his decrees, or by a chief elected official who enforces the laws Congress writes.
Mark Krikorian said earlier, “If I were a Republican politician, I wouldn’t even be arguing this on the basis of immigration. I would be talking about this as just the latest and most egregious example of a president’s rule by decree.”
He said the coming dispute, which very well may extend into the 2016 presidential election or beyond, is going to decide “the balance of powers, whether Congress actually makes law or is an advisory body like the U.N. General Assembly, which is how Obama sees it.”
Obama already has challenged America’s laws a multitude of times, simply issuing orders to make changes to the Obamacare law, and on a variety of other issues, all without the benefit of a decision by Congress, which originally wrote the laws.
The fight over amnesty is one of two focal points – the other is Obamacare – of a letter-writing campaign to encourage GOP members of the U.S. House to replace Speaker John Boehner.
The “Dump Boehner Now” campaign allows voters to reach every single Republican House member with hard-copy letters asking them to reconsider their choice as speaker. The letter says House members had the chance to stop Obamacare and amnesty, but Boehner failed to take advantage.
Joseph Farah, WND founder and campaign organizer, set up the letters campaign. He said the opposition to Boehner is based on the Obamacare and amnesty program that voters rejected in the 2014 midterm elections.
The letter explains to members of the U.S. House that two issues have “prompted Americans to turn in droves to the Republican Party in November 2014 – Barack Obama’s blatantly unconstitutional executive action to provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, and the deliberately deceptive restructuring of America’s health-care system through Obamacare, which threatens to unravel the greatest health delivery system in the world.”
Pointing out that Republicans before the election “solemnly vowed to STOP this lame-duck president,” the letter states: “Now you have the power, right and duty to stop him.
“But it won’t happen with John Boehner leading you. You know this to be true. The trillion-dollar budget deal is just the latest proof that Boehner is not capable of leading the House to victory during this critical period.”
It’s because during the lame-duck Congress, Boehner agreed to Obama’s plan to continue funding for Obamacare and amnesty into 2015.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/senate-to...bamas-amnesty/
