Sometimes, I get excited. What if this plays out?
The House of Representatives may decide to let Obama’s immigration reform bill die. The House doesn’t kill it. It just lets it sit.
This caught my attention: an article with the catchy title, “Obama’s Immigration Nuclear Option: Stopping Deportations Unilaterally.”
When it comes to the idea of a political nuclear war between the President and the House of Representatives, I get all tingly.
If that happens, advocates of immigration reform have another idea: They’ll push Obama to press the button on the immigration-reform nuclear option.
The option commonly referred to by immigration reformers as “Plan B” would see the president take executive action to prevent undocumented immigrants from being deported — along the lines of the deferred-action program the administration created for “Dreamers” last year. It wouldn’t be a panacea, and it wouldn’t give them citizenship. But such an action could at least spare some from the constant threat of deportation. And perhaps just as important, it could exact major political revenge on Republicans, galvanizing the Hispanic electorate against them and further hurting their image with the fastest-growing segment of voters.[amazon asin=1479371599&template=*lrc ad (right)]
By now, you know the phrase “undocumented immigrants” is MediaSpeak for “illegal aliens.”
Obama does not have to enforce the deportation law. He can just sort of forget to enforce it. That would be round one of the “nuclear option.”
But that might not end it. Spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, according to the U.S. Constitution. (You remember the Constitution, don’t you? That’s the document that says that Congress must declare all wars.) The House might sort of forget to provide any funding for the laws that President Obama decides to enforce.
What would be President Obama’s nuclear response? How could he force the House to provide the funding?
He could get out his teleprompter and deliver a speech against the House for not funding the laws of the land. Then Boehner could do a YouTube video on enforcing the laws against illegal aliens.
Then Obama could threaten to tell the Secretary of the Treasury to stop cooking the books and admit that the debt ceiling was breached on June 1 — something the President has refused to do.
Then the federal government would shut down.
That’s why I get all tingly.
I don’t think it will come to nuclear war. One side or the other will surrender. Obama and Boehner are both very good at strategic capitulations. It’s President Sequester vs. Congressman TARP. Both of them are willing to eat a mud sandwich or two.
