In a critical blow to the GOP’s claim that it is capable of governing, the House just voted 203-224 against a short-term resolution funding the Department of Homeland Security for the next three weeks. Fifty-one Republicans voted no. Though House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said that more votes could follow tonight or this weekend, the GOP will need to act fast as the government will officially shut down at 11:59 PM ET tonight.
Let’s review what’s happened over the last month. House and Senate Republicans, angry at President Obama’s 2014 executive action, decided to take a stand in favor of mass deportations by refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless executive action was defunded. DHS, you’ll remember, is the department in charge of our national security, and the GOP is the party that likes to fearmonger about national security. Tying executive action to funding this critical was such a foolish move that even the right-wing is blasting GOP leadership for the mess.
Still, the House GOP passed a DHS bill that contained anti-executive-action amendments. Senate Democrats, rightfully insisting on a clean DHS bill, prevented the bill from moving through the Senate. A standoff ensued, during which time House Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell inexplicably did not speak to each other for two weeks. Today, the Senate passed a bill which would fund DHS through September. The House GOP, still wanting to cling to opportunities to attack executive action, floated a bill to fund DHS for a mere three weeks. Yet even that attempt to kick the can down the road has failed.
At least the House right wing is happy. As you can see from the tweet below, Steve King and his extremist caucus are apparently pleased that so many Republicans have (in their minds) stood strong against executive action. Even if that destroys the GOP’s credibility and electability in 2016 and beyond.
Defund of Obama’s lawless #Amnesty still lives. Effort 2 fund just failed in House. Thank you fellow COS Members. Still have long way 2 go.
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 27, 2015
View the Twitter conversation on the just-failed vote:
