Anyone who thinks Republicans should defund President Obama’s unlawful directives on amnesty evidently has forgotten the multiple catastrophes that occurred the last time Republicans irresponsibly played games with funding the government. Does no one recall the horror of the sequester? It was, after all, a mere two years ago. Just as Democrats predicted, nearly every form of calamity known to man — from asteroid strikes to dogs and cats living together — befell the nation.
Among the administration’s predictions recklessly ignored by Republicans, were that 1.6 million jobs would be destroyed, air travel would be imperiled for lack of air-traffic controllers, tens of thousands of poor and disabled would be thrown into the streets, drug safety would be be compromised, patients would be deprived of HIV treatments, travelers would wait at TSA checkpoints for hours, our borders would become sieves, seniors would go unfed, workplaces would become kill zones, weather forecasters wouldn’t be able to track hurricanes or other dangerous storms, children wouldn’t receive educations, pollutants would fill the air, and criminals would pour into the streets.
As the president gravely warned, “If Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it would jeopardize our military readiness, it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research, it won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that’s outlived it’s usefulness or a vital service that Americans depend on every day. These cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They’ll add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls . . .”
Nonetheless, here we are once again. A small-minded group of right-wing zealots more concerned about national security, the Constitution, the rule of law, sovereignty, and other antiquated concepts, refuse to fund actions taken by the president that almost every college professor and member of the media thinks is compassionate. That means only 90 percent of the personnel in a horribly bloated bureaucracy will be on the job should those nuts prevail.
Fortunately, more enlightened Republicans should be able to muster enough votes to legalize millions of people who will do jobs Americans just won’t do. And do it for a lot less. Imperative in this roaring economy.
Charlie Brown, meet Lucy and her football.