It was apparently a race to see who was going to do this first. After a number of governors have said, not only no but hell no to more Syrian “refugees” coming into their states, senators are working at putting such a ban – or at least a “pause” – in place on a national level. Ted Cruz fired off a letter to the DHS already this week advising a hold and he told CNN today that he wanted to get a bill put in motion. No sooner had he done that than Rand Paul came out and said he already had a bill of his own. (Politico)

Sen. Rand Paul announced Monday that he was introducing legislation calling for an “immediate moratorium” on the United States issuing visas to refugees from about 30 countries with a “significant jihadist movement.”

Paul first announced the legislation during a conference call with a small group of reporters. The announcement comes as a growing list of governors around the country calls to block Syrian refugees from coming to their states in the wake of Friday’s attacks in Paris.

“My bill will also stop refugees as well as others from obtaining visas to immigrate, visit or to study in the U.S.,” Paul said on the conference call. The bill would be paid for by “a special tax on arms sales to the more than two dozen countries on the list,” the Kentucky senator added, though his campaign did not immediately release the list.

Unfortunately, this is where the rubber meets the road and politics gets seriously ugly. The majority of the nation is worried about this, as well as wanting a better plan in terms of what to do to stop ISIS. They certainly don’t want a repeat of what happened in Paris taking place in one of our cities if it can be avoided. The type of legislation that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz (among others) are talking about is just common sense. Not only should there be a pause, but we need to take a long, hard look at our vetting procedures for people seeking access from not only Syria but a number of other nations.

The President, however, has taken a stand and declared that not only will he refuse to take the lead and do more to wipe out the menace, he plans to ignore the concerns of the nation he represents and will push forward to somehow bring 100K people in from Syria in the coming year, most of them young, single, healthy men rather than impoverished women and children. Having done his press conference from France before jetting off to Asia, it’s now unlikely that he’ll back down. I seriously doubt his pride will let him. So if a bill such as this from Cruz, Paul or both of them together reaches his desk, I honestly believe that he would have the gall to veto it. We can only hope that a handful of Democrats will, in a situation as dire as this, abandon blind party loyalty and vote to nix the President’s hubris and take care of their constituents.