If Republicans were serious about stopping the president’s nominees and his systematic non-enforcement of the immigration laws, there would be an easy way to show it. A month ago, Senator Cruz called on Senator McConnell to announce that the Senate will not confirm Obama’s nominees “unless and until the president ends this lawless amnesty.” The soon-to-be majority leader’s response? Crickets.
If, as they claimed, Beltway Republicans really wanted to stop Reid’s rubber-stamping of Obama nominees this week, McConnell could have dramatically one-upped Cruz’s proposal. He could have publicly warned that if the majority leader steamrolled the minority this way, Democrats should expect to get nothing for the next two years — no nominees and none of the accommodations the majority typically accords the minority in the many uncontroversial matters lawmakers deal with. You negotiate by exploiting your leverage, not by relying on the good graces of Harry Reid. Republicans, instead, accommodate Democrats, saving their hardball tactics for use against conservatives who try to force fights GOP leaders have no interest in waging.
If Republicans were serious, they’d use the power of the purse to stop Obama’s lawlessness, and they’d drop the preemptive-surrender declaration that there will be no government shutdowns. Again, that just forfeits their leverage. As we’ve seen, there are no government shutdowns. Even when Leviathan “runs out of money,” more than three-quarters of government operations (including so-called entitlement payments and national-security functions) roll merrily along. And even the temporary cessation of “non-essential” operations is overblown: furloughed “public servants” always end up getting back-pay for the time off — sort of like the vacations the Senate takes.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member