This week, Speaker Boehner identified immigration reform as one key issue that he and President Obama agree on. “He wants to get it done,” Boehner said. “I want to get it done. But he’s going to have to help us in this process.”
Um, what? As Steve Benen at MSNBC today pointed out, “Obama has already done what he’s supposed to do: he’s helped create an environment conducive to success. The president and his team have cultivated public demand for immigration reform and helped assemble a broad coalition – business leaders, labor, immigrant advocates, the faith community – to work towards a common goal.” The reason that NCLR yesterday called Obama the “deporter-in-chief” is because Obama has been setting deportation records in a misguided attempt to get Republicans to the table on immigration reform.
Speaker Boehner and the House GOP have spent more than a year pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. There are enough votes to pass immigration reform through the House today, if Boehner would allow the vote. But the House GOP continues to take no action. And that’s going to come back to haunt them. As Steve Benen continues:
It’s not up to the White House “to help us in this process”; it’s up to House leaders to help themselves in this process. Immigration reform isn’t waiting for Obama to come up with some magical way to ask Republicans nicely to pass a bill. The issue no longer has anything to do with the president at all.This is about House Republicans, after having already killed immigration reform in the Bush/Cheney second term, struggling with a popular, bipartisan proposal they simply don’t like. Boehner has an easy solution – bring the Senate compromise to the floor – but he’s choosing not to act. That’s not on Obama; it’s on him.
