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Conservative House GOP Members Come out Swinging on Immigration Reform

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Photo Credit: Getty

A group of Republican House members led by Iowa Rep. Steve King spoke forcefully in opposition to a mass legalization before first solving the problem of illegal immigration at an event with reporters Thursday.

“We held our powder dry but decided to come forward now because we are seeing the inertia [of immigration reform] and we are concerned about having this wash over us and not have the opportunity for constitutional conservatives in this country and in this Congress to have their voice heard,” King explained.

Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta stressed that the conversation should be about strengthening the borders, not a pathway to citizenship.

“As this issue comes to the forefront here it is interesting that there is any talk at all about a pathway to citizenship. As soon as I hear that I think political — we would not be talking about any type of pathway to citizenship if we were seriously about illegal immigration,” he said, referencing President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 amnesty.

“We’re offering amnesty at a time when we know our borders aren’t secure. And just today, as I said, you have now encouraged people to come here illegally. We’ve given a green light to people all over the world to come to the United States and steal jobs away from the American people when 22 million Americans are out of work,” he added. “When the legal immigrants who are starting here are now going to have to compete for jobs with millions more.”

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House Republicans Ask Why Saudi Arabia Was Added To Trusted Traveler Program

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and the panel’s subcommittee chairmen are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain why DHS has extended a trusted traveler program to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In a letter to Napolitano released Thursday, the seven GOP lawmakers voiced their concerns about “potential risks” associated with opening the Global Entry trusted traveler program — which “allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States” — to Saudi Arabia

“Of the 19 individuals who hijacked American planes on September 11, 2001 — 15 were from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the committee members wrote in the letter dated March 27 but released the following day. “More recently, following the plot to blow up an international flight over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, the Department saw fit to increase the scrutiny of passengers from countries like Saudi Arabia. This must be a factor in determining who to admit into the Global Entry Program.”

Napolitano and Saudi Arabian Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef announced the agreement to expand the trusted traveler program to Saudi Arabia and begin plans for a similar program for American travelers to Saudi Arabia in January.

“In effort to reaffirm the extraordinary bond between them and advance this partnership, [Ministry of Interior] and DHS have signed an arrangement to begin implementation for each nation’s trusted traveler programs,” the pair said in a joint statement. “The trusted traveler programs will facilitate trade and travel between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America and will help authorities from MOI and DHS more effectively identify potential threats to keep their borders and countries secure.”

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Conservative House Republicans Propose Balancing Budget In Four Years

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Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin

As Republicans and Democrats try to find middle ground between the budgets that each side has proposed, the most conservative members of the House are throwing another budget into the mix, one that would balance the budget in four years.

The Republican Study Committee’s “Back to Basics” budget proposes some of the same things as the budget introduced last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, but it proposes to balance the budget by 2017, rather than 2023.

It does so by returning discretionary spending to $950 billion, lower than 2008 levels, cutting non-defense discretionary spending by $6 billion over 10 years and making serious cuts to entitlements.

Under the RSC budget, the retirement age at which people could receive Social Security payments would go up to 70, a change that would “slowly phase in” for people 51 and younger, and it would also adopt the chained CPI cost of living adjustment.

The budget would also raise the age at which people become Medicare eligible for individuals who are currently younger than 55. Like the Ryan budget, it would turn Medicare into a premium support system, but the RSC budget would enact this reform for persons under age 60, while Ryan’s budget changes it for people younger than 55.

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House Republicans Meet The New, Same Old President Obama

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Photo Credit: AP

After years of pining for more face time with the president, House Republicans found out Wednesday that Barack Obama looks and sounds the same behind closed doors as he does on TV.

That’s not to say they didn’t appreciate the personal touches — gentle banter, praise for some of their ideas and handshakes all around afterward — but the president’s rare meeting with House Republicans in the basement of the Capitol yielded little in the way of movement on either side of the partisan divide. It’s the first time the president has met with the House GOP since 2011.

Obama still won’t take any big risks on entitlement reform unless Republicans agree to raise taxes again, he declined to say whether he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and he still won’t slash discretionary spending. Within a couple of hours of leaving the Capitol, Obama issued a threat to veto a job-training bill championed by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

So much for the bipartisan note Obama struck in his closing remarks. Or, as some House Republicans concluded as they shuffled out of the meeting room: Meet the new president, same as the old president.

“I heard what the president had to say. I’ve heard it before,” said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has had his share of failed negotiations with the White House. “I thought it was good for all of our members to hear it, so they have an understanding of where he’s coming from. We’ve got big problems in our country — they need to be addressed, we’re willing to get them addressed. I hope the president continues his outreach.”

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House Conservatives: GOP Leadership Killed Measure To Defund Obamacare

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

As Republican senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and James Inhofe prepare to introduce a measure to defund Obamacare — and threaten to hold up a continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government if the measure is not given a vote — some conservatives are unhappy that the House, controlled by Republicans, did not do the same thing.

It wasn’t for lack of effort, at least on the part of some conservative Republicans. As the House prepared to consider its own version of the continuing resolution last week — it ultimately passed 267 to 151 — more than two dozen conservative GOP lawmakers signed on to an amendment that would have defunded Obamacare. They submitted the amendment and hoped it would receive a vote but were stymied when the House leadership declared that no amendments would be allowed.

“If that amendment had gone to the floor, far and above a majority of the conference would have voted for it,” said Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, one of the supporters, in an interview Saturday. “I think everyone in the conference would have voted for it,” added Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, another supporter.

Nevertheless, the Republican leadership did not allow the amendment to be considered. And that, Salmon, DeSantis, and other conservative Republicans believe, is a measure of the leadership’s uneasiness with continuing the legislative fight against Obamacare. Some Republicans — lawmakers who might have felt pressure to vote to defund Obamacare — believe privately that the fight is essentially over, and that the GOP should come to terms with the reality of national health care.

“I do think there’s a feeling in the conference among some folks who think that the 2012 election settled Obamacare, that we kind of need to move on,” said DeSantis. “I’m on the other side. I don’t think it did, because I don’t think it was a major issue in the campaign.”

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How Do You Kill Obamacare Now?

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WASHINGTON – Things are looking bleak for Republicans and conservatives around the country after the 2012 election.

But there is a Plan B, says Joseph Farah, founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND, who says House Republicans alone have it in their power to kill Obamacare, cut $1 trillion in borrowing and spending and start the nation’s return to constitutionally limited government with one vote.

That vote, he says, is a rejection of raising the debt limit – thereby denying Obama the funds he needs for Obamacare and “a thousand other programs that are wasteful, unconstitutional, immoral and about to take the country off the fiscal cliff.”

Is there a chance Republicans will do it?

“It will happen only if Americans rise up in big numbers and demand it of them,” he says. “Republicans have it in their power. They only need an injection of courage.”

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Boehner Faces Backlash On Immigration Overture

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photo credit: Fibonacci blue House Speaker John A. Boehner’s overture to Democrats and President Obama on immigration reform is already drawing fire from within the GOP, where lawmakers say he’s writing checks that his fellow House Republicans won’t cash for him.

“I’m concerned that Speaker Boehner is getting ahead of House Republicans when he commits to getting a ‘comprehensive approach’ to immigration taken care of ‘once and for all,’” Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement late Thursday, telling Mr. Boehner to “pull back” on his comments.

In an interview with ABC on Thursday, two days after his party saw Hispanics vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, Mr. Boehner said the time had come to address immigration.

“This issue has been around far too long and while I believe it’s important for us to secure our borders and to enforce our laws, I think a comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others, can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all,” he said.

His use of the word “comprehensive” set off alarm bells within the GOP, since that is the term immigrant-rights advocates use for legislation that would legalize most of the 11 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S., as well as rewrite the legal immigration system.

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House: No Ethics Charges for Rep. Maxine Waters

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California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters won’t be charged with ethics violations following allegations she steered a $12 million federal bailout to a bank where her husband owns stock.

House Ethics Committee members said Friday at a hearing their investigation found no violation by Waters, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.

However, the committee said Waters’ chief of staff, Mikael Moore, did take actions in Congress in an attempt to help the bank and violated House standards of conduct. Moore likely will receive a letter admonishing him for his conduct but will not face more severe punishment, such as a reprimand, by the full House.

Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, acting chairman of the panel, announced the tentative findings at the hearing but noted the committee had not issued a final report.

Goodlatte said the committee was convinced that when Waters asked for a meeting at the Treasury Department to discuss financial help for minority banks, she believed she did so on behalf of all minority banks — not just OneUnited, where her husband owns stock. Goodlatte said the committee agreed with Waters’ assertion.

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Why Is John Boehner Letting House Republicans Be Mitch McConnell’s Toy?

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Here is what is going to happen unless House Republicans stage an immediate revolt against their own House leadership.

Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are going to win. They have managed to cut the legs out from under John Boehner and the House Republicans. In fact, the House Republicans have taken on all the appearances of Mitch McConnell’s basement gimp.

I’m not sure why we need them any more if the McConnell-Reid-Pelosi Pontius Pilate Act passes.

See, John Boehner ceded authority to Mitch McConnell. Instead of embracing the conservative “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan or even pushing forward with Paul Ryan’s plan as an alternative, Boehner let McConnell move forward and cut Boehner’s legs out from under him. It was a willing sacrifice on Boehner’s part because he’d rather be legless than fight.

Now here is what Boehner and McConnell have agreed to do.

 Read More at Red State by Erick Erickson, Red State