One of the current political conflicts is over immigration and Obama's executive orders regarding immigration. The immigration policies of both parties, to the extent they are sufficiently coherent to be said to exist, are deeply flawed, but that is not my subject now. Obama's executive orders, like his recess appointments and many other actions, are an attempt to circumvent the Separation of Powers; other presidents, Republican and Democratic, have done the same thing; but that is also not my topic. My topic is the reaction to the attempt by the Republican Congress to reverse those orders by attaching legislation to that effect to the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security.
The Democrats, attempting to defend Obama, have accused the Republicans of putting their immigration policy over homeland security, and this accusation has been duly reported. Fair enough. What is not mentioned -- ever -- is that Obama, by threatening to veto the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security if it violates his immigration policy, is doing exactly the same thing. This does not seem to be just an omission in the reporting; the Republicans themselves seem to share this blind spot. Nor is this merely an example of the press favoring the Democrats; there has been the same bias in the past favoring Republican presidents.
This is like a game of chicken. It's stupid to say that a collision is the fault of the blue car driver, because he didn't pull off, and is not at all the responsibility of the red car driver, because he had said he would not pull off.
In this case, once again it is the Republicans who have chickened out.
No comments:
Post a Comment