Are Republicans Credible on Anti-Amnesty Talk?

Last weekend, Senator John Thune (R-SD-61%) appeared on Fox News Sunday and stated that Republicans would not “shut down the government” over President Barack Obama’s brazen lawlessness “executive amnesty.”

From the Washington Examiner:

Any such debates, Thune assured “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace on Sunday, will not jeopardize funding for the department at large, however.

“We’re not going to shut the government down,” the South Dakotan said. “Including that.

“We recognize it’s important that we fund the government,” Thune added. “Now that we are in the majority, we have the responsibility to do that.”

Still, Thune indicated Republicans will indeed look to roll back some of the president’s executive action on immigration.

“We’re also going to use the power of the purse, which is what the Constitution gives the Congress, as a mechanism by which to challenge the president on issues we think he overstepped the authority,” Thune said. “What he did on immigration is clearly an example. …That needs to be challenged.”

Okay, so Republicans aren’t going to “shut the government down,” but they’re “going to use the power of the purse” to “challenge” President Obama’s brazen lawlessness “executive amnesty.”

What exactly does that mean?  Because experience, that great teacher, says a whole lot different from what I think Senator Thune (R-SD-61%) wants us to hear.

Giving Thune every benefit of the doubt that I can, it’s possible he meant that Republicans weren’t going to shut down the government in an attempt to stop President Obama’s brazen lawlessness “executive amnesty”…but that if Republicans funded everything except the ability of the executive branch to carry out brazen lawlessness “executive amnesty”, then that would be President Obama shutting down the government.

I’d like to give Thune and the Republicans this much credit…but that’s exactly what they could have done and should have done in October 2013 when they made a half-***ed attempt to defund ObamaCare, only to allow the Left to run away with the fake narrative that “Republicans are shutting down the government” (even though 86.4% of the budget was still barreling ahead full-steam and very few Americans actually missed the federal government during the “shutdown”).

The truth of the ObamaCare defunding “effort” was that Republicans funded the entire federal government except for ObamaCare.  It was President Obama who, like a petulant child, insisted “All or nothing!” and shut down the federal government…to the extent it was shut down (very little was actually shut down, just things Obama could use as propaganda tools to “make it hurt” for the American people).

But instead of repeating the truth at every opportunity and not allowing the Left to control the narrative, the RINO establishment was more inclined to fight Republicans than the Democrats, and couldn’t wait to cave in.

What would be any different about a theoretical attempt by Republicans to fund everything except the federal government’s ability to give amnesty to illegal aliens…when Republicans were willing to fund everything in the federal government except ObamaCare…and Republicans folded like a cheap suit when the Left screamed?

So can I really assume the best of congressional Republicans when it comes to stopping President Obama’s brazen lawlessness “executive amnesty”?

Ah, no.

And this is a major problem. Even though many of us would like to believe Republicans when they say they’re going to finally do the right thing, after about a decade or more of ineptitude, inaction, ineffectiveness, capitulations, betrayals and outright contempt toward their own party’s documented values, the GOP establishment simply has no credibility whatsoever left.

The American people had gotten a close-up, in-your-face look at the agenda of the Left when ObamaCare started to come online in late 2013, and were desperate enough in 2014 to give the Republican Party (even though the GOP stood for nothing during the election) control of congress.

Do you think they’ll be desperate enough to do it again in two years, especially if the Republican establishment blows this chance they’ve graciously been given by the American people?

Don’t count on it. And America will suffer for it.

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Bob Ellis has been the owner of media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran, a political reporter and commentator for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for over 20 years. He was a founding member and board member of the Tea Party groups Citizens for Liberty and the South Dakota Tea Party Alliance. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Bob Ellis

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