Since the president announced he will be trying to fix some of our badly broken immigration system by issuing an executive order, the congressional Republicans have gone ballistic -- elevating their whining and crying to record levels. They do this in spite of the fact that presidents of their own party have done the same thing, and that it is their own intransigence that has forced the president to do this.
Now they have issued a "threat". They say if the president doesn't immediately surrender and withdraw this executive order, they will not compromise with him when the new 114th Congress convenes in January. That's a lot like a rattlesnake promising not to bite you if you'll just extend your hand to pet him. That snake's going to try to bite you no matter what -- and the congressional Republicans won't make any effort to compromise no matter what the president does or doesn't do.
Anybody with even a tiny portion of a brain knows the Republicans never intended to compromise on anything. They were preparing to try to force the president to submit to their own ideological and economic desires, and many were already threatening to shut down the government if they don't get their way. Their gaining control of both houses of Congress has changed nothing. They are still the party of "NO".
In my opinion, one of the best (and funniest) things written about this latest GOP temper tantrum is by satirist Andy Borowitz. He writes:
In a sharp Republican rebuke to President Obama's proposed actions on immigration, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the President, on Thursday night, of "flagrantly treating immigrants like human beings, in clear defiance of the wishes of Congress."
McConnell was brutal in his assessment of the President's speech on immigration, blasting him for "eliminating the fear of deportation, which is the great engine of the American economy."
"Fear is what keeps immigrants working so hard and so fast and so cheap," McConnell said. "Remove the fear of deportation, and what will immigrants become? Lazy Americans."
In a dire warning to the President, McConnell said, "If Mr. Obama thinks that, with the stroke of a pen, he can destroy the work ethic of millions of terrified immigrants, he's in for the fight of his life."
He added that Obama's comments about deporting felons were "deeply offensive" to political donors.
