These days, members of Congress have adopted the habit of arguing, bickering, and filibustering this policy and that policy instead of actually rolling up their sleeves and coming up with solutions. President Obama has called them on their lack of production and has demanded Congress to actually do something.
There is a proposal in front of Congress that would increase federal funding intended to deal with the high influx of immigrant children coming across the Mexican-American border. There has been a drastic growth in the number of illegal border crossings recently, with thousands being unaccompanied minors.
The president is asking Congress for $3.7 billion to confront the issue. However, Republicans in Congress are playing politics won’t budge on approving the funding unless Obama does something for them. Yes, in order to get something done with Congress, you have to wheel-and-deal with the Republicans.
“The problem here is not a major disagreement around the actions that could be helpful in dealing with the problem,” said Obama. “The challenge is, is Congress prepared to act to put the resources in place to get this done? … Are folks more interested in politics, or are they more interested solving the problem?”
Case in point, the politics-playing has gotten so out of hand that House Speaker John Boehner filed a lawsuit against Obama for the president’s use of executive powers. Let’s not forget, the GOP-darling George W. Bush issued way more executive orders than Obama, but the GOP was okay with it. But really, the suit is just a GOP hissyfit because Obama decided to show some gall and circumvent, legally, the obstructing Republicans in Congress.
Obama believes the GOP will block the request simply because they oppose him. Which they will. They’ve been doing it since January 2009.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
