GOP Submits First Bill To Defund Obama’s Unlawful Amnesty

by JASmius



The canary in the House GOP leadership's coal mine?:

Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX2) and Diane Black (R-TN6) have introduced legislation to prohibit funding to implement President Obama's executive action on immigration.

Their bill, titled The Separation of Powers Act, would block the use of funds for deferring deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally or providing work permits.

Poe said the legislation would reinforce the constitutional principle of checks and balances.

"This legislation will allow Congress to exercise its 'check' on an out-of-control White House that treats the Constitution as a mere suggestion, not the law of the land," Poe said.

Black said the measure could be one of the options for Republicans to respond to President Obama's action.

"My colleagues and I will explore our options to stop this overreach and restore the proper Constitutional balance to our government — this legislation is an important start," Black said.

Incidentally, don't buy the bogus argument that because the agency that processes work permits, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is funded mostly through application fees, it's "not subject to the appropriations process."  Congress can just as easily bar use of said application fees for that specific purpose as it can refuse to appropriate funds for it.  The Legislative Branch has the power of the purse, whether by "writing checks" or by "swiping a debit card".  Period.  When Barack Obama scams, swindles, bilks, and steals the money some other way, it will be an escalation in his criminal conspiracy and the case for eventual impeachment will build right along with it.

The interesting question will be what John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, et al do with the SOPA.  Remember, just this morning the Speaker said:

In the days ahead the people’s house will rise to this challenge.” “We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country and places lives at risk.” “We’ll listen to the American people, we’ll work with our members and we will work to protect the Constitution of the United States.”

Here is a bill that does precisely what he promised.  Will the most powerful Republican in the country put his money where his mouth is, or will he turn out to be all hat and no cattle?

Your members were listening, Mr. Speaker.  Time to go to work.