GOP wimps cave to the right: New plan resumes Obamacare fight, ditches immigration
Under pressure from conservatives, GOP leaders unveil new agenda that shows they haven't learned a thing
SIMON MALOY
On Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor released a
memo detailing the June legislative agenda for the House of Representatives, and in doing so drove yet another final nail into immigration reforms already well-sealed coffin.
Cantors memo lays out the various bills and issues the House GOP plans to address over the next three weeks, and immigration is conspicuously absent. By leaving it off the agenda, Cantor has effectively cut in half the time available to the House to take up any reform proposals.
To recap: A bipartisan group of senators passed a comprehensive reform bill last June that has been gathering dust ever since. The House Republican leadership refuses to bring it to a vote. They also wont bring their own immigration principles up for a vote. Every few weeks or so they renew their verbal commitment to immigration reform, and then continue doing absolutely nothing. President Obama threatened to take executive action to limit deportations, but recently backed off that threat in order to give the Republicans the time and space they needed to bring up a bill.
Cantor, in leaving immigration reform off the June agenda, has made clear that time and space are not the issue. The GOP is just not going to take up immigration reform. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made clear that the window for action by the Republicans
closes at the end of July, just before the August recess. At that point, everyone expects Obama to move forward on his own.
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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/09/gop_wimps_cave_to_the_right_new_plan_resumes_obamacare_fight_ditches_immigration/