House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are taking an increasingly bellicose stance against President Obama, with Ryan refusing to rule out a shutdown and saying Republicans will force the president to accept their poison pill policy riders on a spending bill. And it's looking more and more likely that the key flashpoint for them is going to be Syrian refugees. As of now, there's a plan in the House, decided upon between Ryan and McConnell, to vote Thursday on a bill to step up background checks—but not to completely halt the refugee program.
That's probably not going to be enough, because there's already some "grumbling" among House Republicans who don't think the bill they're voting on Thursday goes far enough. There's also the likelihood of Senate Democrats blocking that bill on the floor there. Even if the Senate doesn't derail it, Obama would veto it. With all this in mind, the Republican leadership isn't ruling out stronger action.
GOP leaders have left open a must-pass spending bill as an option to attach policy changes that would enact tougher oversight of the resettlement program. A growing number of GOP lawmakers are pushing leadership to be more aggressive; 55 House Republicans have signed a letter led by Rep. Brian Babin of Texas demanding a rider in the Dec. 11 spending bill that would strip funding for the Obama administration’s plans to accept 10,000 more refugees from Syria.
Republican rhetoric is getting increasingly unhinged and horrifying and hardline and inhuman. It's hard to see that turning on a dime, and impossible to see them backing down in just a few weeks' time.
There is not one voice of sanity among Republicans as they try to one-up each other in the xenophobia game. This is turning into something that McConnell and Ryan probably can't stop from being a shutdown fight, even if they wanted to.
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