NAPLES, Florida — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tells Breitbart News that Senate Democrats need to drop their filibuster of the House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill if they want to show Americans they can move beyond partisanship.
“The disappointing thing about the Democrats is they don’t seem to be able to get beyond partisanship to actually address important issues so I think there’s an important constitutional issue here between the separation of powers,” Paul said in an exclusive interview while on a trip. “It would be nice, I think, if some of the Democrats stood up and said ‘you know what? We need to reassert Congress’ authority even though this is a Democrat president. I will vote for congressional power here as opposed to presidential power.’ But not many of them will do it. In fact, right now none of them will.”
Democrats are currently blockading the DHS funding bill under orders from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid because the bill blocks funding for President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty orders. Some Republican establishment figures say that Congress should water down the bill and remove restrictions on executive amnesty, but Paul said the recent court order from federal judge Andrew S. Hanen that put a hold on Obama’s amnesty means Congress should stay strong and block all of Obama’s executive amnesty.
“It should give Congress even more backbone to stand up and oppose this because the courts have now said it’s illegal and they’re stopping it,” Paul told Breitbart News of the court order.
Congress should do the same thing. Let’s do the same thing. Congress should completely stop it until the courts have finally decided. This is a struggle that’s above and beyond immigration. It’s a struggle between the executive branch and the legislative branch.
It’s a good struggle because this is what our founding fathers envisioned: Ambition pitted against ambition would struggle and they would check and balance each other. This is exactly what our founding fathers wanted us to do. Stopping it in the DHS bill, trying to prevent the president from usurping power, is exactly what our founding fathers wanted us to do.
Several Senate Democrats are facing pressure to drop their resistance to the bill and stand with their constituents who would have to compete for jobs with illegal aliens rather than with Schumer or Reid.