Despite some nativist tweaks aimed at getting conservatives on board, the House GOP leadership (operating for the first time with Kevin McCarthy instead of Eric Cantor holding the whip) had to pull its much trumpeted border bill this afternoon, apparently abandoning the whole effort while Members head off on their long August recess. Here’s Sahil Kapur’s summation for TPM:
Immigration-weary conservatives said the $659 million supplemental, and the subsequent measure to end the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, didn’t go far enough in rebuking the president’s actions.
It was a remarkable defeat for the new GOP leadership team on the day that Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) stepped down as majority leader.
Seems language prohibiting any extension of DACA wasn’t enough–probably because it wasn’t going anywhere in the Senate. If the House was going to pass any primarily symbolic DACA measure, it would have to restrict and reverse the earlier program implemented by the president in 2012 to provider relief for DREAMers.
You may recall that after the government shutdown fiasco last autumn, we were assured by Establishment Republicans and the MSM that the House Conference had learned its lesson, and wouldn’t engage in these sort of undisciplined actions. Now the destructive chaos is back for the whole world to see, and the only cover being provided (other than the usual effort to blame Obama) is an emptying Capitol.
Nice work, House GOP.
