BOEHNER FIBS AGAIN ON IMMIGRATION REFORM?, by Steve Benen --
what eye thynk: With all the recent (mostly negative) news coming from the crowded Republican presidential hopefuls field regarding immigration, one has to wonder when Washington's GOP leadership is going to do something about ratcheting down the anti-immigrant rhetoric and start to ingratiate itself with all those immigrant voters.
John Boehner would like everyone to believe that his party's immigration reform plan is imminent...again. (Any underlines are mine.)Exactly two years ago yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made a specific, public vow on the issue of immigration reform. "It is time for Congress to act... I believe the House has its job to do, and we will do our job."
Twenty-four months seems to be a long time to wait before starting, but then he was busy holding all those repeal votes on the ACA. I'm sure hunting up a law firm willing to sue the President for doing HIS job took up a lot of time too, as did all that talk about impeachment. But, really I have to wonder when exactly Mr. Boehner intends to begin....The Republican leader first ignored the popular, bipartisan reform bill approved by the Senate and endorsed by business leaders, unions, the faith community, law enforcement, and reform advocates, and he then ignored his own stated commitment. The GOP-led House never even held so much as a hearing
On the contrary, the only action Boehner was willing to take on immigration was threatening to cut off funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
No longer satisfied with bamboozling America, Speaker Boehner now appears to be taking his worthless promises show on the road....Boehner was in Dublin late last week, addressing the Independence Day lunch of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. The Irish Times published (a) piece with a headline that read, "John Boehner pledge: Immigration reform top of agenda."...
...There is nothing--literally, nothing--to suggest Boehner has any intention of working on immigration reform in this Congress. Despite the public promises he was willing to break, the Speaker has no bill, no plan, and no working group. He's initiated no conversations. He's talked about his priorities for this Congress, and immigration reform isn't on the list.
To be sure, Boehner may like the idea of a reform package being done--he's openly mocked his own members for their reluctance to do actual work on this--but the Speaker hasn't demonstrated any leadership whatsoever on the issue. It would have taken some courage to tackle the issue in the last congress, but Boehner simply wasn't able to lead effectively. He hardly tried.
This is nothing new. John Boehner has demonstrated near zero ability to actually lead on ANY issue, preferring instead to spend most of his time assuaging tea partiers in order to keep his butt in his cushy seat.
His GOP counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has proved to be equally ineffective since he took over Senate leadership, but at least he's been honest in his program to obstruct the President at every turn. Boehner can't even be honest about his own agenda--assuming that he even has one beyond kowtowing to Ted Cruz et al.
Donald Trump seems to be devoting himself to singlehandedly squashing any chance the GOP has of picking up support from Hispanic voters in 2016; and anyone with real leadership abilities would be taking the opportunity to do everything in his or her power to counteract Trump's disastrous anti-immigrant rants. As Mr. Benen's article concludes:Boehner probably realizes it's a serious problem. (But) like so many policy challenges, it's one the Speaker intends to do nothing about.
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