Homeowner Vicky Bell’s Tennessee home was allowed to burn to the ground. Vicki lived just outside of the city of South Fulton, where residents were supposed to pay $75 fee. Do these firefighters “love thy neighbor?”
Story from 2011.
More:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989-firefighters-let-home-burn-over-75-fee-again
According to TPM, government shutdown wars are back with a vengeance.
House Republicans started up a possible new standoff on Wednesday with passage of legislation that overturns President Barack Obama’s executive actions on deportation relief for millions of undocumented immigrants.
The bill passed 236-191, with 10 Republicans voting against it and 2 Democrats supporting it.
The legislation passed on Wednesday is tied to the funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which expires on Feb. 28. According to TPM, the department will partially shut down if a bill isn’t enacted by then.
However, PoliticusUSA states that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have toned down conservative expectations over the idea of a possible DHS shutdown.
According to the AP, Texas freshman Senator Ted Cruz upset several GOP colleagues with an attempt to force a vote on President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
The move changed lawmakers’ weekend plans and gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) an opening to move forward on long-stalled Obama nominees.
One of Cruz’ Republican colleagues called the tactics a painful echo of last year’s 16-day partial government shutdown. Another senator said it was a strategy without an end game.
Saturday, when Cruz got his vote on Obama’s immigration executive actions, he lost 74-22, because even Republicans who agree with him on immigration repudiated his effort. Soon afterwards, Congress cleared the spending bill.
“You should have an end goal in sight if you’re going to do these types of things and I don’t see an end goal other than irritating a lot of people,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. – referring to last year’s shutdown showdown over Obama’s health care law by Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah – said it was a movie he had seen before and “wouldn’t have paid money to see it again.”
Added Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.: “I fail to see what conservative ends were achieved.”
Democrats opted not to criticize Cruz publicly, in an indication they thought that he was only hurting Republicans.
Cruz was unapologetic and said the sole purpose of his efforts was to secure a Senate vote to “stop President Obama’s amnesty” — his description of the president’s plan for work visas for an estimated 5 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
“Both Democrats and Republicans will have the opportunity to show America whether they stand with a president who is defying the will of the voters or with the millions of Americans who want a safe and legal immigration system,” Cruz said in a speech to a crowded Senate chamber moments before the vote.
In a Facebook post, Cruz had blamed outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid, arguing that Saturday’s round-the-clock votes on nominations was to prevent the vote he sought.
Republicans said Cruz’s move had the reverse effect of his campaign on immigration, ensuring a vote on the nominee for Customs and Immigration Enforcement who would carry out Obama’s executive actions.
Cruz, a Canadian-born Cuban-American with an Ivy League resume, created headlines in his first few months in the Senate with a fierce challenge to Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary.
Last fall, it was Cruz and Lee who roiled the GOP and Washington with their push to starve Obama’s health overhaul of money, a drive that led to the partial shutdown.
Democrats weren’t surprised that the conservative duo struck again.
“They’re all about headlines. They’re trying to get attention for themselves. They’ve succeeded in doing that,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Some claim that Cruz sent a shot across the bow at incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, suggesting the two should not be entirely trusted to keep their promise to challenge Obama’s immigration policy when the all-Republican Congress takes over in January.
“We will learn soon enough if those statements are genuine and sincere,” Cruz said Friday night.
Rush Limbaugh criticized Fox News recently for its “abject panic” over the possibility of another government shutdown.
Apparently, Rush thinks a shutdown would be a good thing.
And he generally mocked Fox for preferring to give the losing Democrats whatever they want just so Republicans don’t do this one thing.
Secular Talk video.
House Republicans seem convinced that executive action on immigration (or anything else) must be illegal. According to the New Republic, both Presidents Reagan and Bush took executive action on immigration (as Obama wants to). The Atlantic’s David Frum wrote about Reagan’s executive actions on immigration. “Reagan and Bush acted in conjunction with Congress and in furtherance of a congressional purpose,” Frum writes. “Nobody wanted to deport the still-illegal husband of a newly legalized wife.
“Reagan’s (relatively small) and Bush’s (rather larger) executive actions tidied up these anomalies.”
In other words, it would be unfair if Reagan and Bush deported children and spouses of newly-legalized immigrants. In fact, Bush’s executive action was called the “family fairness” program.
It begs the question, “Why can’t President Obama do what Reagan and Bush did?”
David Pakman video.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a bloc of Republican lawmakers is seeking to use must-pass spending legislation in the final weeks of the year to place limits on President Barack Obama’s ability to loosen immigration rules.
This could threaten to split the party in Congress.
AZCentral reports that President Obama’s plans to reveal a 10-part immigration reform plan via executive order as early as next week may trump a move by Republicans shut down the government in order to stop him.
However, some Republicans are pushing for Congress to make a move before Mr. Obama does. More than 50 House lawmakers have signed a letter saying that language barring the president from acting alone should be attached to legislation needed to keep the government operating after Dec. 11, when its current funding expires.
Other Republicans, including GOP leaders, are wary of forcing a budget showdown with the president over the issue, saying voters are eager for politicians to work together.
So is a new shutdown looming?
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who is poised to become Senate majority leader in January, has said flatly that there will be no government shutdown like the one in 2013 that was politically harmful to his party.
The result is that barely a week after their broad election victories, party leaders will have to decide whether to override conservatives’ demands in favor of a more pragmatic approach.
At issue is whether some of the 11 million people who are in the U.S. illegally should be allowed to live and work openly, and whether Mr. Obama has the authority to allow that without legislation.
It is unclear why the President wouldn’t have the authority, as executive orders are part of the authority legally provided to every president.
Immigration advocates say there is legal precedent and a humanitarian imperative for Mr. Obama to act.
Republicans say he is in danger of exceeding his authority.
GOP leaders made clear in the days after the election that they wanted to set their own agenda when they control of both chambers next year without any lingering fights about spending for the current fiscal year.
The leaders also want to look for other ways to push back against the president’s moves on immigration, said a senior Senate GOP aide. Over the past year, there has been open and defiant talk of impeachment by members of the Republican party.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) said it would be unrealistic to expect the president would sign a spending bill that included immigration language.
“I don’t want a shutdown,” he said. “You should not take a hostage that you can’t shoot.”
Some Republicans argue that if they cannot move a spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year with the immigration language attached, they should pass a short-term funding measure and revisit the matter early next year.
Mr. Obama’s legal rationale is likely to be that it would be impossible to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants, so those with deep ties to the U.S. should be allowed to live and work openly in the country.
OK, Fine. 