Why Republicans Don’t Want To Solve the Border Problem
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I
There are two major pieces of bipartisan legislation in Congress right now and House Republicans are reacting to them in strikingly disparate ways. The first, a bipartisan measure to cut taxes, has won over sweeping support from conservatives and is poised to sail through Congress. The second, a bipartisan plan to reduce the inflow of migrants, is meeting a massive wall of resistance.
,Why are Republicans so willing to deal on taxes and so unwilling to deal on immigration? The answer is that the Republican Party has an informal division between issues that are intended to build political capital and those that are intended to spend political capital.
,Immigration is a political capital-building issue. Republicans use it as a wedge against Democrats to win elections. If Biden were to sign a tough border bill, it would reduce the efficacy of the immigration message. They would rather blame the border problem on Biden than let him take credit for helping to solve it.
,Taxes are a political capital-spender. Republicans want to do certain things when they win power and the highest item on that list is always cutting taxes for affluent people. That is an unpopular position among voters, but Republicans are willing to accept some pain in order to achieve a policy goal they consider vital.
,Once you understand the difference, the choices Republicans have made on the two bills make perfect sense. It certainly isn’t the case that the tax bill is just a better deal for Republicans than the immigration bill. Just the opposite, in fact. The tax deal Republicans are embracing is an actual compromise, with give and take for both sides. Democrats are getting an expansion of the child tax credit, which benefits working-class families, and Republicans are getting tax cuts for businesses.
,The immigration deal, by contrast, has no give-and-take. It’s a pure enforcement bill, with none of the traditional protections for Dreamers or increases in legal skilled immigration that liberals have traditionally demanded in return.
,Republicans claim they reject the immigration deal because toughening laws and beefing up enforcement staff won’t make a difference, and only presidential authority can change things. But none of them believe this.
,Donald Trump and his allies insisted during the Trump presidency that Congress had to act to change immigration law. (“The only long-term solution to the crisis, and the only way to ensure the endurance of our nation as a sovereign country, is for Congress to overcome open-borders obstruction,” said Trump in 2018, one of many times he said similar things). And they were right: While Trump did take a lot of executive action to reduce immigration, the overwhelming majority of his actions (33 of 35) were reversed in court.
,They are back to insisting executive actions, and only executive actions, can end the migrant surge. But if Trump is back in office, they will revert to demanding Congress change the law. It’s just a constant bait-and-switch technique to keep the issue alive, passing the blame to Congress when they hold the presidency and passing it back to the president when they don’t.
,Remember, it was during the Trump years that Fox News devoted obsessive attention to the caravans in the run-up to the midterm elections. If Trump had genuinely closed the border, the caravans would not have been a threat. But they wanted the threat to exist to give people a reason to vote Republican, so that Republicans can get in office and pass another regressive tax cut.
,Republicans think explicitly in terms of building and spending political capital. When Republicans gained seats during the 2002 elections by running on the terrorism threat (classic political capital-builder), Dick Cheney famously insisted on using the newfound clout to pass a regressive tax cut, saying, “We won the midterms. This is our due.” And when Bush won reelection two years later by emphasizing the dangers of same-sex marriage (political capital-builder), he immediately ignored the issue and attempted to privatize Social Security.
,The flip side is that, because Republicans care so deeply about regressive tax cuts, they become uncharacteristically reasonable when negotiating for them. Bill Clinton got the Children’s Health Insurance Program created by trading a capital-gains tax cut for it. Barack Obama got permanent extensions of tax credits for low-income people by locking in tax cuts for the top rate. Biden is now making the same trade.
,Democrats have spent more than a decade trying to cut immigrations deals, but they always fall apart. Republicans simply don’t care, or at least don’t care enough, about the issue to settle for incremental policy gains the way they do on taxes. They demand total victory and blame Democrats when it fails to arrive.
,It is common for critics to call the congressional Republicans “nihilists.” But the truth is that they really do care about something. It’s just not the thing they say they care about.
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This might be the best article I've seen on this topic so far.
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How so? It does not tell us what is in the immigration deal.
The Senate votes on it next week and we still haven't seen it.
Keep posting articles on the same bullshit over and over again doesn't make it any more true.
Brandon has all the authority he needs to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws as written. Nothing is stopping him; but himself.
The Republican House has already passed an immigration/border security bill. Republicans in the Senate are trying to bring it to the floor. You need to ask Schumer why he is blocking it.
Why do Brandon/Democrats care more about securing Ukraine's borders than they do our own?
Why is it so hard to spell "Biden"?
giggle
Nancy Reagan said just say no.
Because Brandon is his name.
He's even embraced it.
Brandon fucks everything up; so the name suits him.
Brandon is more accurate.
Why is there so little outrage with any of the dozen names Trump is called daily?
Which one?
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Then Brandon should be totally acceptable
Sigh.....The hypocrisy of this comment, how many times have you typed this?
The triggered effect ….
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Brandon Smith?
Far more childish too.
C'mon man...it's childish and you know it. You're better than this.
I agree Frosty which is why I can’t in good conscience follow the path being pushed by goober and Bidenettes.
Could be because they, i.e. the Biden Crime Family, will receive more money from Ukraine than they will from the Southern/Northern borders.
Ya gotta get paid for your crimes, 'member?
Oh do tell. How much did Ivanka and Jared rake in over 4 years as, "advisors"? 640 million and that's not counting the 2 billion Jared got from the Saudi's for.....no one knows why. Trump has what, 91 felonies pending? Impeached twice, indicted 4 times now.... Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Grisham....etc.. Christ, just about everyone trump is or has been involved with is a fuckin' criminal.... Trump literally took top secret info from Israel and gave it to the Russians.... THEN BRAGGED ABOUT IT!
But do tell us about the, "Biden Crime Family".
If the Republicans didn't want to solve the border problem (or the correct term crisis) why did the Republican house submit H.R.2 - Secure the Border Act of 2023?
If Biden was serious about the border problem why was he so insistent that the US border was not on the same Bill as the Ukrainian border? Why is the Ukrainian border taking a priority over the US border?
If the Dems and Schumer were so concerned about the border why didn't they bring H.R.2 - Secure the Border Act of 2023 to the senate floor for debate and a vote?
If Joe is concerned about the border why isnt he doing all within his current power to do anything about it?
Why doesn't anyone on the left address any of those questions as they are trying to blame the republicans (and now Trump) for the mess on the border?
Yes, actually answer with something other than "they didn't want to". It looks like the bill would put a band aid on the bleeding that joe and the dems obviously want.
Since we have an enforcement crisis....
But you have to understand, democrats aren't voting for anything unless you bribe them first, 100 billion for Ukraine will by 100 deportations.
Some subhuman piece of shit assaulted a police officer in NY, there are pictures of him walking out of jail with no bond, what should of happened is he should have been put on the first plane back to whatever shithole he "immigrated" from.
You want to demand that the president and the Democrats adopt a bill that not a single one of them voted for in the House last May.
The bill on the table now is bi partisan.
The seeded article remains totally correct.
As long as by "correct" you mean left wing propaganda.
Is this the same one that wants to "limit" the influx to 5,000 a day? If that is the case, screw that bullshit
What your comments do, and the one below yours, does is verify the truthfulness of the seeded article.
It is just another one that Joe can take credit for and then ignore right after the election.
How you got to that conclusion based on what was said is nothing less that fantasy.
Not at all, the article is partially premised on the idea that the Republicans won't compromise. By you demanding the passage of a bill that not a single Democrat voted for you are saying "no compromise". That is Trumps position because he wants to use the issue for his campaign.
I am not. I am saying bring it up in the senate so it can be debated and the American citizens can see where each individual senator stands on it
No I am not. Is the only way you can win an debate is to try and put words into other peoples mouth?
What bill? Show the text.
Biden has taken 64 actions that weakened security. Were they bipartisan?
They won't. They are scared shitless to.
They want to pass the Bill without anyone reading it.
Literally Pelosi's "We have to pass the bill to see what is in the bill"
This supposed bi-partisan bill to give Biden discretionary power that he had already has that no one has ever seen.
Oooops - sorry, but NANCY said you can read it AFTER you approve it - from the Dems/Libs, standard operating procedure manual of lying through their teeth.
Jeezzz John - that's just standard MO for the Dems/Libs - why let the Repubs actually do their job - the job they were elected to conduct?
It's interesting that they claim 33 of 35 Trump orders were reversed in court, yet biden issued six executive orders reversing Trump on the day he was sworn including a n order signed by President Trump in January 2017 that broadened who immigration agents could arrest and deport.
I'd love to see the basis for that claim and the reasons the orders were reversed. given the source, it's almost certainly more disingenuous manipulation. I doubt any were based on the claim the President lacked the executive power to defend the border and after the declaration of an emergency.