Ben Shapiro: Republicans Secretly Want Obama’s Amnesty

Ben Shapiro explains why establishment Republicans aren’t using the power of the purse to stop Barack Obama’s executive amnesty: They don’t want to stop it. See the video and transcript below. 

TRANSCRIPT:

There is the only one way to explain the new proposal by Speaker of the House John Boehner and other top Republicans for stopping President Obama’s executive amnesty: they don’t want to stop it at all.

Here’s the story.

Republicans have two options: the smart option and the stupid option.

The smart option would be for Republicans to pass a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government through January. That would allow Republicans to come into office and take power in the Senate. Then Republicans could do what Congresses have done for centuries: avoid passing omnibus spending bills, which tie all spending together and lead to shutdowns, and instead fund the government through separate appropriations bills, one per department. That de-links funding for the Defense Department, for example, from funding for Obama’s executive amnesty. Obama would have a tough time vetoing a standalone Defense funding bill that has nothing to do with executive amnesty.

Then there’s the stupid option.

Republicans could push forward an omnibus spending bill that would completely fund the government through next September, but fund the Department of Homeland Security – and Obama’s amnesty –through next March. That would effectively allow 60 days of funding for Obama’s program to give work permits to illegal immigrants.

Now, Obama probably won’t accept the deal, and will shut down the government over the failure to fully fund his executive amnesty. Speaker Boehner will then cave, and fund the entire program. We know this because that’s exactly what he did regarding Obamacare two years ago, during the infamous government shutdown.

But let’s say Obama signs the bill. There’s no guarantee Speaker Boehner will fight over DHS funding in March, either. In fact, certain Republican congresspeople have already indicated he won’t.

Naturally, Boehner is pursuing the stupid option. Why? Not because he’s stupid, but because he likes Obama’s executive amnesty. President Obama’s executive amnesty allows him to sign off on the establishment Republican soft-on-immigration policy while simultaneously complaining about Dictator Obama. He can win points with the base by bashing President Obama, and at the same time, greenlight Obama’s immigration policy – which Republican establishment types from the Wall Street Journal to Jeb Bush to the Chamber of Commerce have been pushing relentlessly as “comprehensive immigration reform.” Obama has given them cover. All they have to do now is whine about Obama being a Big Bad Tyrant, then fund his tyranny. They can pop the cork in the back offices secretly while hypocritically blasting Obama for seizing their power in public.

They’re playing conservatives for suckers.

  • Daniel

    Boehner/McConnell are ensuring the destruction of the GOP which will be superseded by a Nationalist party.
    Don’t think so?
    Check out UKIP in Britain and the National Front in France.

    • rodger the dodger

      The Republicans are just as big a part of the problem as the Democrats. You need another party, not the Republicans.

      In the UK, this same situation has led to the rise of UKIP, as the Conservatives and Labour are simply two sides of the same rotten coin.

      Either represents business as usual…

    • kevinstroup

      We really are traveling the path that Britain took. They have two socialist parties. Socialist lite is the Tories, and hardcore socialism is Labor. The Republicans and Democrats are doing the same respective thing. What is the last time the Republicans shrank the size of peacetime government? That is correct, they NEVER have.

    • johmill

      The problem is that there isn’t enough time left to establish and grow a new party to strength. The country has, at best, only the 2016 election cycle to turn around or it will be too late to save the country. No new party can start and grow to strength in that time. The only hope is to take over the GOP and turn it back to its conservative founding principles. The only way for that to happen is for the grassroots to stand up like they did in 1980 in support of Reagan and demand change to conservative candidates. The demands in 1980 forced the establishment to nominate Reagan, even though they hated him.

  • Bamaguje

    RINO Boehner should be dethroned as speaker.

    • wildjew

      I have been saying that for a couple of years or more but I am met by silence by conservatives.

      • JacksonPearson

        Self Explanatory….:

    • Raymond_in_DC

      Republicans had the opportunity just after the Mid-term blowout to elect someone else as Speaker. They chose to stick with Boehner.

      • johmill

        Yes, and they did so because Boehner changed the rules so that anyone who does not vote with the majority will be punished by losing their committee appointments, etc. He knew that the majority of Republicans would support him because the majority of those in Congress are not conservative, they are establishment Republicans who fully support Boehner’s ideas. The conservatives didn’t stand a chance. After the midterm wins, the establishment GOP had bigger celebrations over defeating conservatives than they did over their wins over Democrats.

    • Lanna

      I don’t think he fathoms what is happening to the country and the destructive change. Hes just trying to work a deal with both sides, and that isn’t going to produce real reform.

  • JDsHandsomeSon

    It would be nice to know what the GOP believes will be the way to defeat the impact of a law that will allow millions of their opposition into this country. If only to satisfy our curiosity we would very much like to know what GOP officeholders think will save their jobs when democrat party constituents flood their districts in an era when each one of these politicians must raise and spend millions of dollars to eek out one percentage point over his rival every election. The genius GOP campaign “experts” hire legions of statisticians and spinmeisters for strategies to win by a margin of one percent and are paid incredible sums of money for that ability. So when they opt for a law that will, overnight, increase the votes of democrats, what campaign model do these fools have that shows them prevailing in future elections? We expect GOP to sellout their supporters and the nation, but we are perplexed when they eagerly embrace a notion that will cost them their own jobs. This blows our collective mind.

    • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

      I think the answer is this: while continued immigration or an amnesty (or both) with destroy the GOP as anything resembling an opposition party, they will still be able to continue on as what Boehner and his Establishment buddies already are: a dissident faction of the Democratic Party. In other words, they will either run as RINOs or openly join the Democrats in one-party rule.

      Boehner, for instance, could conceivably still win re-election in Ohio’s 8th district, although he would lose his Speakership when the Dems take over. Other Repubs would simply switch parties. So the Republican Party could continue, but Conservatism would be dead. This is essentially the stiutation we have in CA today.

      • JDsHandsomeSon

        Your theory is consistent with the behavior of the GOP for many years, that is a collection of timid little men enjoying not being in the majority and having the responsibility to actually have to solve issues or accomplish anything. They enjoy an office, with its creature comforts, able to respond to constituent letters with regrets of not having the votes to change things, so that they exist as kind of like foreign ambassadors that fill slots on a T.O. with titles and periodic awards for this or that but not contributing much to anyone, or anything, the proverbial appendages to a boar hog.

  • Tradecraft46

    Amnesty when actually working will spell the end of the Democratic Party.

    • MukeNecca

      Even allowing for millions of new voters?

    • Lanna

      Redistribution of other people’s wealth and amenities to illegals giving them special privileages, and buys votes…you have it backwards.

  • johmill

    I really like Ben Shapiro’s work, but this one surprises me because it’s such old news. Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to what’s going on in recent years knows that the establishment GOP want amnesty and will cave to Obama. Because of their control of the GOP, and the fact that Americans aren’t concerned enough to get involved in their government, hold politicians accountable, and replace them with solid conservatives in the primaries, the future is very dark. Americans overall pay little attention to what is happening in their government and wait until 60 days before an election to start thinking about it. By then it’s too late. This past election cycle should have had major involvement of citizens in the primaries to get rid of the incumbents, but they didn’t and ended up with only a choice between incumbent Republicans, which were mostly establishment and not conservative or their other choice were Democrats. No wonder we now have an incoming Congress that will be worthless.

  • wildjew

    Here is something I would like Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz and others on my side to consider. Laura Ingraham’s talk radio program just came on here in my area. Immigration (illegal immigration) is Ingraham’s primary focus. It is her issue just as Israel and the global jihad is my primary focus. Ingraham began with the statement, “The Republican betrayal has begun….”

    But I felt and still feel betrayed by my party (the Republican party) when only days after devout Muslims attacked America in New York and Washington, (my president) President George W. Bush publicly unveiled his vision for a Palestinian Muslim-enemy state in Israel’s heartland and then codified it in our party platform August 2004. I felt betrayed when Bush did this and I felt betrayed again after John McCain and Mitt Romney fought to uphold Bush’s vision against conservative opposition.

    I did not hear one conservative or Republicans leader (not Rush Limbaugh, not Sean Hannity, not Laura Ingraham, not writers on Frontpagemag, etc.) take Bush, McCain, Romney and the Republican party leadership to task for that ignominious betrayal which remains official Republican party policy to this day; the destruction of Israel at the hands of Islam. I think conservative pundit, author, investigative journalist Paul Sperry was THE only one who said what Bush did was treasonous.

  • Judy Miller

    So what do we do? What options do conservatives have…and I don’t want to hear “join the soft on crime, pro drug libertarian party.”

    • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

      Good question. I think these are our options:

      1. Flood these lame-duck Repubs with so many calls and emails that they back down. Follow up by waging war against the Establishment GOP until Conservatives have effective control of the Party, which means the the state Party Chairmen and through them, the RNC.

      2. Form a Conservative Party and absolutely refuse to support any more Republicans. This option is fraught with difficulty because in the short term it concedes most elections to Democrats, which is the only way to destroy the GOP (without offices, it would go the way of the Whigs). We would then have to reassemble those former GOP elements compatible with Conservatism under the banner of our new Conservative Party, which would make us strong enough to start defeating the Democrats again.

      I still feel the second option is more difficult than the first.

      • cajunwarthog

        Both options will FAIL.

  • Douglas Mayfield

    There are so-called ‘conservatives’ who are not conservatives at all. They are cowardly semi-socialists who, deep down, approve of much of what the dealers in socialist poison, the Democrats, are inflicting on this country. Boehner is one of them.

    To see this clearly, all one has to do is to look at how the Tea Parties are treated by the leadership of the Republican party.

    When it comes to freedom and inviolate individual rights, and their crucial corollary, strictly limited government, Boehner is just as much of a traitor as the Democrats.

    • trickyblain

      How exactly is advocating for those who want to employ people who will work for the least amount “semi-socialist”? Seems like they are advocating for capitalism in its purest form.

      • http://geoffreybritain.wordpress.com/ Geoffrey_Britain

        Just look at Boehner’s Omnibus bill which increases spending across the board and exceeds what Obama asked for to confirm the semi-socialist label. Nor are open borders ‘capitalism in its purest form’ because like a parasite, open borders destroys the host.

      • Douglas Mayfield

        I disagree that ‘capitalism in its purest form’ implies employing ‘people who will work for the least amount’.

        Capitalism implies freedom and individual rights in economics. What people get paid depends on their knowledge and experience in relation to the demands of the job. If the job requires someone who is highly skillful, someone with scarce skills, then hiring those who will work for the least amount will be a huge mistake.

      • reader

        Employing cheap labor is only one part of the equation. The problem is that they intend using welfare state, i.e., subsidize the continuous inflow of the said cheap labor on the back of the middle class. That’s why Milton Friedman had said that you can’t have unlimited immigration and welfare state at the same time.

      • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

        Capitalism does not include destroying your country with immigration. It allows for the free market to determine wages within the country’s borders, but it does not dissolve those borders. That is a mistake often made by Libertarians.

      • TienBing

        Capitalism merely refers to the ownership of property. What you own is your capitol. In a free economy ownership is private. Capitalism has no inherent connection to slavery or illegal immigration which creates a malleable underclass dependent on the state; both of which are more compatible with socialism which is modern feudalism.

  • http://geoffreybritain.wordpress.com/ Geoffrey_Britain

    Commenter Judy Miller asks, “So what do we do? What options do conservatives have…”

    And therein lies the problem. Absent outside catastrophic events that galvanize the low-info public, winning state and national elections requires very large amounts of money and the big donors are NOT interested in constitutional principles or small government. They’re interested in the continuance of the fiscal status quo and retaining their political leverage.

    Boehner and the GOP leadership support amnesty because their big donors want it. And they want it because low wage workers means more money in their wallets.

    Until enough people, a majority of Americans awaken to what is actually going on, little can be done to change the current paradigm. While the schools and mass media conspire to keep the people in the dark.

    “Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be
    refuted through rational arguments. They must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe…”
    Ludwig von Mises

  • Bob Sten

    Ben is absolutely right. Republicans are stabbing voters in the back.

    Reagan began by nailing something like five million nails in the coffin for the republican party when he supported amnesty for mexican border hoppers.

    Then clinton put in a few million more nails in the republican coffin when he granted amnesty to mexican border hoppers.

    Warning – honest talk alert >>>> Mexican border hoppers are takers. They take more than they contribute. Financially, they are a net loss for the nation. They support big government (dummocrats) because they are needy and take. They make very little on average, and use lots of services (education for their hordes of kids, health care, the prisons in the southwest are filled with mexicans, etc.)

    Republicans are for small government and personal responsibility (for the most part). Border hopping takers don’t want small government, they want free bread and circuses. It doesn’t matter if republicans support amnesty, they won’t get mexican votes. If this amnesty goes through, the republican party is finished in this country. Mark my words.

    It’s not finished because they don’t support illegal immigration. It’s finished because their small government policies are the antithesis of what these border hopping takers want.

    These stupid business-people that push for amnesty because they want “cheap” labor are being incredibly stupid and short sighted. Border hoppers from mexico will eventually vote for higher taxes on businesses to fund their free healthcare, after school programs for their kids, free college for their kids, they want everything for gratis (free). Who will pay for it eventually? Businesses and the wealthy. So, the temporary “cheap labor” will eventually become a voting block that votes for higher taxes on businesses. Very short sighted for business owners. Just another reason american businesses lose….they focus on the short term and ignore the long term.

    • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

      Basically, you’ve covered it all. Now if only we could get Republican “leadership” to understand.

      • Bob Sten

        Thanks Nahalkides. They better wake up before it’s too late.

  • redheart

    It’s not a secret. They all really work for the Chamber of Commerce. No secret there.

  • Erudite Mavin

    the Rand Paul Libertarians are the pushers for amnesty

    Libertarians for Amnesty include Rand Paul and his crowd including

    The Kochs, for example, are not just the founders of AFP: they are the founders of the most prominent right-of-center pro-amnesty think tank, CATO Institute. Through CATO, they subsidize the work of Alex Nowrasteh and others who argue that “unauthorized immigrants” do not strain the welfare system, social safety nets,

    or the job market. By speaking from the right, CATO plays a vital role in legitimating the bipartisan nature of the elitists’ push for ever-increasing immigration and amnesty.

    Within the beltway, the Kochs are not shy about using their money to support mass amnesty and open borders, not only by subsidizing CATO but also the open borders, pro-amnesty, libertarian magazine Reason. So why do they refuse to be consistent with AFP or at least make their real opinion clear to the hundreds of thousands of Tea Party activists who have volunteered with or donated money to AFP?

    ??

    Koch Sponsors Pro-Amnesty BuzzFeed Event

    Lee Stranahan 10 May 2013

    An event touting itself as an evening of immigration reform discussion with a “diversity of opinion” turns out to be slanted heavily towards “comprehensive immigration reform.” The BuzzFeed Brews Special Edition: Immigration Summit, sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute, will take place Tuesday, May 14th from 6 PM – 8 PM Eastern Time. The Charles Koch Institute is an educational offshoot of the Charles Koch Foundation.

    It’s an unusual pairing: BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith will be the moderator; Charles Koch, founder of the libertarian CATO Institute, is one of the people most reviled by the left.

    The goal of the event is described as follows:

    [W]e believe one of the best ways to turn conversations into solutions is through the challenge of assumptions and exchange of ideas. Our event on immigration aims to do just that by bringing together a diversity of opinions for a thoughtful dialogue.

    Here’s the lineup:

    Clarissa Martinez, Director of Immigration & National Campaigns at National Council of La Raza: NCLR has been funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, describes itself as “the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States,” and has been a major supporter of the current immigration reform bill. La Raza and Ms. Martinez were directly involved in a controversial memo that granted de facto amnesty by changing ICE policy in 2012. Ironically, La Raza joined with the NAACP and other institutional left to protest in front of the Koch Industries offices months ago

  • joe kulak

    It’s an open secret.

  • AndrewInterrupted

    There is an angle that Ben missed. Listening to some of the people “on the hill”, there is a fair amount of nuance and fine print to navigate. For example, if they opted for the “government shutdown”–translated: if the gov’t were to operate at 85%–that would have given ‘Dear Leader’ the legal right to fund DHS employees as “essential personnel”. Which would have been the same as funding them.
    .

  • Dave Francis

    ALL 50
    STATES HAS BECOME A BORDER STATES, BECAUSE OF OBAMA’S INTENTIONAL FAILURE TO
    CONTROL OUR POROUS BORDER.

    The American people have been betrayed by the Republicans when the
    American people had placed unrivaled trust and loyalty, given to them an all
    out win against the Liberal-Democratic zealots in the midterm. Representatives
    passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill on Thursday evening that would fully fund
    Pres. Obama’s executive amnesty. The vote came after a 6-hour recess while
    Leaders from both parties tried to gather enough support to pass the measure
    and prevent a government shutdown.

    The
    American people in the midterm elections overwhelmingly voted in a Republican
    House and Senate, trusting them to honor there oath of allegiance to the
    Constitution and to follow the Rule of Law. Senator Rand Paul has
    joined with anti-amnesty, anti-illegal alien leaders Jeff Sessions R-AL and Ted
    Cruz R-TX, Mike Lee R-UT, Steve king R-IA who are opposed to the spending bill
    that includes funding for Obama’s unconstitutional attempt to award amnesty to
    5 million illegal aliens, said Senator Paul on a radio broadcast, “I’ll
    vote no to any kind of 1600-page bill that I’m given at the last minute that we
    don’t have time to read. It’s an abomination, nobody should support a Congress
    that stuffs all the spending into one bill, nobody reads it, there are no
    reforms, no amendments, and it really is probably why Congress has about a 10%
    approval rate because this is not doing our job,”

    Sen. Mike Lee voiced his disapproval of the bill, as well as
    Sen. Jeff Sessions and Sen. Cruz when each gave an outstanding speech about
    combating the special interests and protecting the middle class American people
    and the 92 million jobless and trying to exist on unemployment or part time
    work. Sen. Cruz said he is going to hold the House Republicans to their
    word, that in the 113 session of
    Congress they will attack to restrain Obama’s blanket amnesty.

    House Speaker John Boehner sent the following tweet moments
    after the bill passed, pledging to fight Obama’s amnesty in the next Congress.
    However, without the leverage of a full spending bill there’s little GOP
    Leaders can do to force Obama to sign a bill defunding his amnesty? Now Obama
    can process the paperwork for his unconstitutional amnesty. Giving Obama
    millions more dollars to grant an education, health care and settlement dollars
    for illegal aliens, with the skills necessary for them to reside in America and
    compete for jobs with American workers and their children.

    EACH OF
    THE 50 STATE IS GOING TO BE CARRYING A HEAVY TAX LOAD, TO FINANCIALLY SUPPORT
    ILLEGAL ALIENS, SPECIFICALLY THE BORDER STATES.

    As
    little as my citizen vote is in 2016 as an Independent, I will not vote for any
    President who will NOT rescind Obama’s Executive Orders immigration amnesty.

    The
    main stream Republicans (RINO’s) have stayed in the background about the
    illegal immigrant invaders, but although the TEA PARTY are blatantly against
    Obama’s amnesty the career politicians in the GOP are quite happy to accept 5
    million of illegal aliens to ransack the American welfare system with cheap
    labor to favor their wealthy donors, mega corporations, Wall St, Bankers, agricultural
    plantations and top of the list, the US Chamber of Commerce. NumbersUSA will grade the vote as a
    vote for amnesty. And then for the Liberal-Democrats millions of future votes.

    Was
    this a carefully crafted deception from the beginning from the GOP?

    The people need to keep bombarding Washington
    at contact phone Numbers and
    Mailing Addresses of Members of Congress at: http://www.contactingthecongress.org.
    The TEA PARTY members are urged to pick-up the phone (the toll
    free number is 1- 866-220-0044) and join other conservatives
    who are committed to jam the phone lines on Capitol Hill (also melt the phone
    lines in the Senate) with this simple message: If you funded amnesty, you own
    it? Now you have sold out to this President, we will be ready with a sharp
    scalpel to remove all corrupt politicians from office in 2016 who voted for his
    anti-American agenda.

    NumbersUSA will grade the vote as a vote for amnesty.

  • cajunwarthog

    Its never been a secret….

  • cajunwarthog

    Your “crystal ball” is working just fine.

  • Lanna

    Republicans and businesses want to hire cheap labor and illegals, so its to their advantage, they are the ones pushing for it.

  • Tradecraft46

    It only works if we put up with it. What would happen if we decided just to run the off?

  • juan323

    Obama is a failure as a leader and Boehner is just selling him the rope to hung us all with. His needing to resort to executive orders to legislate epitomizes his JV status as a leader of the United States of America. If nothing else, the GOP should have demanded border security, more truck/ship inspections, 9-11 report recommendations (remember those?), etc.

  • USARetired

    Only the ignorant republicans want amnesty for the illegals! I wonder how many of them know it will include Obama, as he is also an illegal immigrant, and has orchestrated this entire fiasco for the selfish purpose of gaining amnesty for himself!