Faced with one of the most favorable political environments in decades heading into a mid-term election, Republicans are assiduously laying the groundwork to, once again, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Let’s review: President Obama’s approval rating hovers around 40 percent. Millions have lost their health-insurance plans due to Obamacare; millions more have seen their premiums and deductibles increase. The labor-force-participation rate is at historic lows and a record 92 million Americans – nearly 10 million more than when Obama took office — are not in the workforce. The 16 million Americans who’ve gone on food stamps since the president took office bring the total to 48 million, or one in seven Americans, dependent on the government for food. The poverty rate has spiked 32 percent. The national debt stands at 17.3 trillion, more than 7 trillion more than when candidate Obama declared the debt unpatriotic. Iraq is in chaos, Iran is on the verge of getting a nuke, and almost every other administration initiative in the Middle East has been a debacle. Despite the Herculean efforts of the administration’s praetorian guards in the mainstream media, Americans are not happy about Benghazi, the NSA, or the IRS. Every political prognosticator not on the DNC’s payroll declares that Republicans are delicately poised on the cusp of taking control of the senate.
And yet, according to a flurry of news reports in the last week, House Republicans are about to tackle the one issue polling at the very bottom ( 3 percent according to Gallup) of voters’ concerns: immigration reform. And Republicans are about to do so in a way guaranteed to rile the base and depress GOP voter turnout in November — by granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Make no mistake — the central features of the proposed “reform” constitute amnesty. After all, lobbyists generally don’t have to spend tens of millions of dollars trying to convince lawmakers to do something their base supports enthusiastically. No, conservatives and all other sentient beings know that Republicans’ promise of ”a series of intelligent, small, step-by-step” bills (as opposed to “comprehensive” reform) is code for amnesty. Moreover, conservatives have seen this president in action and know he’ll merely ignore any purported border-enforcement provisions in any reform package.
The Hill reports that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging Republicans “not to be scared off by criticisms from a minority of conservative opponents [to immigration ‘reform’].” No worries there. Lots of Republicans have shown that while they may be scared of criticism form the New York Times, they are unconcerned about criticism from conservatives.
American workers, particularly, those who are low-skilled, are going through one of the worst patches in 80 years. Yet many of our elected representatives of both parties seem to be devoting more attention to those who can’t even lawfully vote in America. Yet.