Republicans are making this so easy for Democrats.
Republicans are holding the hot ball when it comes to now six legislative days left before the DHS is left totally unfunded due to their attempt to hold national security hostage. By the way, it’s not as if all is well in the interim. The Secret Service can’t implement the changes recommended to them so that they can properly protect the First Family until the DHS is funded for the next year. Law enforcement can’t do their jobs. Border security is taking a beating.
So Republicans have started really amping up the rhetoric, accusing Democrats of murder once again (this is their go-to little boy crying wolf crazy cue). The DSCC pointed out a few choice quotes in a press release:
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Instead of addressing their embarrassing lack of strategy and the fact that Senate Democrats have been ready to pass a clean DHS funding bill for weeks, Senators like Mark Kirk are turning to ugly partisan rhetoric:
“If they’re cynically trying to restart the government-shutdown battle, they should be blamed directly. … It’s a very dangerous game. If we have a successful terrorist attack—all the dead Americans from that should be laid at the feet of the Democratic caucus,” Kirk said.
And to Politico:
Kirk continued: “The Republicans – if there is a successful attack during a DHS shutdown - we should build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office and say, ‘You are responsible for these dead Americans.‘”
Ooops, that has lost its punch because Republicans already did this during the healthcare debate, when they somehow equated getting access to healthcare with death.
It’s kind of easy to mock. And mock it Democrats are.
“Mark Kirk is clearly terrified of losing his seat in 2016 but instead of responsibly governing and stopping a potential shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, he would rather pontificate about building prop coffins to stick outside Democratic offices,” said Justin Barasky, Communications Director at the DSCC. “Republicans like Mark Kirk are showing that they’d rather turn national security into a political football than work on solutions so it’s no surprise that voters are rejecting this approach and the Republican Senators behind it.”
This isn’t just a partisan rebuke of Republicans. This is a widespread rebuke. Recall that the Department of Homeland Security, facing defunding, urged the President not to sign the Republican poison pill bill, rebuking Republicans for their attempts to turn the agency into a “political volleyball.”
All of this drama and angst is because Republicans don’t want President Obama’s executive actions on immigration to hold. They would rather ignore the problem and deport millions of people, in spite of the fact that this will cost billions of dollars.
Not only is the President’s immigration policy “widely popular with voters” according to a new PPP survey. But the same poll finds that voters are not impressed with Republicans using the DHS as hostage, and guess who is at the top of the list? Mr. Coffin Hysteria himself, Mark Kirk (IL) along with Rob Portman (OH), Pat Toomey (PA).
When you hear Republicans screaming that Democrats are going to kill everyone, you know that a) Chances are good that there is a good and popular or soon to be policy about to be enacted and b) Republicans have no solution for the problem addressed by said policy and c) Republicans are against said policy because it harms the Koch brothers or goes against the inherent racism and sexism of their base, aka, their get out the vote tools.
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