Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Senate Republicans are making noises about maybe
not shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, after all, but so far it doesn't look like House Republicans are embracing the idea. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a
separate bill targeting President Obama's executive action on immigration, which would allow Republicans to save face while passing a clean DHS funding bill and not having a partial government shutdown on their record after just two months in control of Congress. But House Republicans have been effectively letting Rep. Steve King dictate their immigration policy and he ... isn't on board with McConnell's plan, to say the least:
Senators arguing to $ lawless amnesty acts of Obama that Fed Judge Hanen ruled unconstitutional. Reason? Courts will decide. Born yesterday?
— @SteveKingIA
Senators arguing fund DHS but vote a separate bill to defund executive amnesty. Have you heard of Obama veto? Think we were born yesterday?
— @SteveKingIA
Senators want separate bill to defund exec amnesty. Fine, when & only when Obama signs bill to defund exec amnesty, we will then fund DHS.
— @SteveKingIA
And 4 the dim of wit, it's Obama who threatens 2 shut down DHS unless Congress funds HIS lawless violations of Constitution. Born yesterday?
— @SteveKingIA
Born yesterday? Born yesterday? Born yesterday? Yes, Steve, I was born yesterday, believing that Dreamers have
calves the size of cantaloupes from all the drugs they haul.
King couldn't be making it more clear that he believes that all government policy on this issue should be determined by House Republicans. Forget the Senate, forget the president, forget the idea of letting the process play out in the courts, the most anti-immigrant members of the House Republican caucus will get what they want right now, or they will furlough 30,000 workers, force hundreds of thousands more to go to work every day without pay, and disrupt programs like Secret Service training and Federal Emergency Management Agency trainings for first responders and grants for local emergency management officials.
Many political reporters like to treat King like a fringe figure, but his immigration positions have made their way to the center of House Republican policy. When he writes that "when & only when Obama signs bill to defund exec amnesty, we will then fund DHS," he's embracing hostage-taking. Which is exactly what House Republicans are carrying out this week, as the countdown clock to a DHS shutdown goes into its flashing blinking beeping final days.