Conservatives say that Republican leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be “complicit” in President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty if they don’t pull out all the stops to block him.
They warn that chaos is around the corner if that’s how it goes down, even though they’d much rather have Republican leaders fight the president alongside them.
“Fight or be complicit in lawlessness,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Breitbart News, is the message to congressional GOP leaders on Obama’s amnesty.
If Republicans move forward with the plan from House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) to fund the entire government–including Obama’s executive amnesty, which the president is set to announce on Thursday night–in an omnibus spending bill, a Senate GOP aide told Breitbart News conservatives will spread chaos across Washington.
“If Obama announces executive amnesty and the House passes an omnibus with no language blocking it, there will be no Senate vote, because conservatives will burn down the Capitol,” the aide said. When asked to clarify if he was serious they’d burn the building to the ground–or if he was speaking metaphorically–the aide said “open rebellion.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), one of many Republicans conference-wide who will be helping lead the charge to force Boehner to stop Obama, told Breitbart News that Republicans must stand and fight–and that they can and must win.
“Even though around three-quarters of voters this year opposed the idea of executive amnesty, President Obama is apparently going to announce his new royal amnesty decree before going to Las Vegas to promote it,” Gohmert said, adding:
Perhaps ‘Caesar’s Palace’ is an appropriate venue for the American Caesar’s regal proclamation that gambles away jobs for Americans. As an equal branch of government where legislation must originate, Congress must either fight it or we will be complicit in this amnesty as royal subjects and the democratic republic will be gone. Now is the time that Republicans need to stand strong for the principles for which the majority of American voters sent them to Washington. Dissatisfaction with the White House and Senate over amnesty issues was a significant reason the American people added Republican seats in the House and Republican control of the Senate. Congress must protect the Constitution and the American public from such a decree from Mt. Olympus that declares a state of lawlessness in America.
Elsewhere, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote for Politico that Obama is “not a monarch” and Congress can’t allow him to succeed:
The Constitution designs a system of checks and balances for our nation, and executive amnesty for immigrants here illegally unilaterally decreed from the White House would seriously undermine the rule of law. Our founders repeatedly warned about the dangers of unlimited power within the executive branch; Congress should heed those words as the President threatens to grant amnesty to millions of people who have come to our country illegally.
Incoming Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said that Congress should fund the government while blocking funding for this “unconstitutional” act by Obama:
President Obama previously said he could not issue an executive amnesty because ‘I’m the President of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.’ Well, apparently we now have an ‘Emperor of the United States.’ President Obama’s immigration order would provide illegal immigrants with the exact benefits Congress has repeatedly rejected: Social Security numbers, photo IDs and work permits–which will allow them to now take jobs directly from struggling Americans in every occupation. Congress must not allow this unconstitutional action. That means Congress should fund the government while ensuring that no funds can be spent on this unlawful purpose.
George Rasley, the editor of Viguerie’s ConservativeHQ, told Breitbart News Republicans have a mandate from the voters to stop Obama.
“Obama’s extra-constitutional attempt to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens flies in the face of the results of the 2014 wave,” Rasley said. “If the Nov. 4 election was a demand for anything, it was a demand by grassroots American voters for a return to constitutional government.”
Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler told Breitbart News that any long-term funding bill is a “blank check” for Obama’s amnesty.
“Heritage Action welcomes creative thinking from congressional Republicans so long as creativity is not a synonym for inaction or delay,” Holler said. “Congress must use every tool at their disposal to block the President’s executive amnesty. A long-term funding bill is little more than a blank check for amnesty.”
Glyn Wright, the executive director of Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, told Breitbart News that since immigration is such an important issue Republicans need to fight this and block Obama. “Immigration is the issue that defines all other issues, and the American people know it,” Wright said. “That’s why the President waited until after the midterm elections to take this action, and why voters gave the GOP a historical majority in the House and control of the Senate. If the Republicans want to be seen as viable and worthy of the power they have been given, they must stop this unprecedented and lawless act.”
Schlafly herself added that Obama is offending Americans with the executive order.
“Every action Obama is taking on amnesty is illegal, unconstitutional and offensive to the majority of the American voters,” Schlafly said.
A letter being circulated around the conservative movement and sent to all Republican members of Congress–signed by top conservative luminaries, including Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General Ed Meese, former Rep. David McIntosh, and more–calls on Republicans to use the power of the purse to block Obama’s amnesty. Other signers of the letter include Heritage Action CEO Mike Needham, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, ForAmerica chairman Brent Bozell, RedState’s Erick Erickson, Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony List, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of the Senate Conservatives Fund, Tea Party Patriots’ Jenny Beth Martin, Let Freedom Ring’s Colin Hanna, Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly, ConservativeHQ’s Richard Viguerie, Conservative Leadership PAC’s Morton Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, former Reagan advisers Becky Norton Dunlop and Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Al Regnery, former Rep. Bob McEwen, and others.
“Passage of a long term Continuing Resolution (CR) would rob newly elected members of the ability to begin making spending decisions and would remove a key leverage point they will have with President Obama to further pursue our agenda,” they write.
“Conservatives will be watching these next few weeks very closely,” they add. “We urge you to begin earning the trust placed in you by passing a short term CR, stopping President Obama’s planned executive amnesty, going home, and returning in January to pursue the agenda that the American people sent you here to enact.”
Blackwell, the former Ohio Secretary of State, and others from that group have drafted a one-page resolution they hope the House will pass this week condemning Obama’s amnesty plans.
The Concurrent Resolution Of Congress they are pushing for a vote on cites Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution which reads: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” The resolution reads:
And whereas it is the Constitutional right and duty of the Congress of the United States to exercise vigilance in protecting this sovereign legislative power from any encroachments by other branches of government or any other source whatsoever; And whereas Barack Obama, the President of the United States, may issue a purported Executive Order that has the effect of changing the law and policy of the United States relative to the status of millions of illegal aliens currently residing within the United States; And whereas his argument that he must act because the Congress has not acted regarding the status has no valid standing in law under the Constitution.
The resolution concludes by saying that Congress considers whatever executive action about to be taken “null and void.”
“It is the sense of Congress that this purported Executive Order is a usurpation of the legislative power vested solely in the Congress of the United States and, as such, is null and void,” the resolution says. “And be it further resolved that the Congress of the United States will use all of its Constitutional powers, particularly the power of the purse, to prevent the implementation of the provisions of said Executive Order.”
Gaston Mooney, the executive director of the Conservative Review, told Breitbart News that when Obama does the executive order, Republicans should not allow a single dime of taxpayer money to be spent implementing it.
“Republicans campaigned and overwhelmingly won on the promise to stop Obama’s agenda; now we will see whether or not they will make good on that promise or if they try and propose a bait and switch, hoping the American people won’t notice,” Mooney said in an email. “Stopping Obama’s lawless amnesty starts first with Republicans standing up.”
The three things Conservative Review is working to ensure happen are that Republicans use the upcoming budget fight–and they believe that there shouldn’t even be a short-term continuing resolution that funds the executive amnesty until the newly elected Senate GOP majority takes over–to stop him, that they block his judicial nominations and they fight him from governorships across the country.
Conservatives are making headway in this battle to get Republicans to fight Obama over this. On Wednesday, Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Mike McCaul (R-TX)–the chairmen, respectively, of the House Judiciary and House Homeland Security committees–wrote to Obama promising Republicans will use every power they have to stop this if he goes through with it. They write:
Instead of proceeding with ill-advised executive action, we implore you to work with Congress to enact legislation to address our broken immigration system. We strongly urge you to respect the Constitution and abandon any unconstitutional, unilateral executive actions on immigration. Let’s secure the border, enforce our immigration laws in the interior of the United States, and build a broad consensus for immigration reform. Otherwise, as the chairmen of the committees with oversight over border security and our nation’s immigration laws, we will be forced to use the tools afforded to Congress by the Constitution to stop your administration from successfully carrying out your plan.
McConnell has said that “it’s always appropriate” for Congress “use the power of the purse.” He adds he expects House Republicans to soon deliver a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government until early next year when his Senate Republicans take over.
“Yeah, we expect the House to go first,” McConnell said. “And I anticipate supporting whatever the House sends over. And so, I think we’re going to wait and see how the House handles this…But our goal is to fund the government.”
Even Boehner has gotten a bit tougher with his rhetoric, though he’s still not committing to using all options-such as blocking funding–to stop Obama.
“If ‘Emperor Obama’ ignores the American people and announces an amnesty plan that he himself has said over and over again exceeds his Constitutional authority, he will cement his legacy of lawlessness and ruin the chances for Congressional action on this issue – and many others,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email to reporters on Wednesday that circulated a post on the Speaker’s website that references 22 separate times Obama himself said he doesn’t have the authority to do this.
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