Posted on 05/25/2013 12:33:03 AM PDT by presidio9
In a post below, I noted that during his appearance tonight on Sean Hannity’s program, Marco Rubio failed to defend his immigration bill, even though the format of the show was highly favorable to the Senator from Florida. Here is what happened.
Hannity asked a central question that has become even more pressing in view of recent Obama administration scandals, particularly the one involving the IRS. That question, in essence, is: given that current immigration law isn’t being enforced, and given what we know generally about how government operates, how can we have any real confidence that the border security provisions of Schumer-Rubio will be carried out effectively?
Rubio did not respond by arguing that his bill will ensure border security. Instead he responded by saying, more than once, that if it we can’t write a law that ensures border security, it won’t pass — and shouldn’t.
There are obvious problems with this shocking answer. First, it isn’t necessarily true. Second, it’s an admission that Rubio is advancing a bill he can’t say will be effective, and thus an admission that he has abdicated his responsibility as a legislator.
We cannot depend on Congress to reject immigration reform legislation that won’t bring about effective border enforcement. Why not? Because Democrats are committed to amnesty with or without border security, and thus will vote virtually unanimously for immigration reform legislation that doesn’t secure the border.
This means that such legislation can be enacted even if only about 10 percent of Republicans in the Senate and the House support it. Does anyone believe that congressional Republicans are 90 percent fool-proof on immigration reform (or anything else)? I don’t.
Second, and more fundamentally, how can Rubio write and sponsor legislation on such an important issue when he (1) cannot say that the legislation will be effective (indeed, he basically said it won’t be effective under a liberal Democratic administration such as the one we have now) and (2) concedes if it isn’t effective it shouldn’t pass? Rubio acts as if the legislation is someone else’s thought experiment, not his own handicraft.
President Obama is famous for detaching himself from the policies carried out by those who work for him. But I doubt even Obama would detach himself from legislation that he wrote.
Since Rubio seems agnostic about the enforcement provisions of his own bill, maybe he should vote “present.”
Rubio knows, as we all do, that the bill’s enforcement provisions could have been significantly stricter in a number of respects. He even said on Hannity’s program that Congress should look at ways of better ensuring that enforcement occurs.
So why didn’t Rubio include such provisions in the bill that he drafted? He knows that the Democrats can’t attain their holy grail of amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegals without Rubio’s participation.
It is simply unconscionable that Rubio agreed to sponsor legislation the efficacy of which he cannot vouch for, on the theory that other, more responsible legislators will make sure the legislation won’t pass if it’s deficient. His stance is only marginally more responsible than Nancy Pelosi’s view that we should pass Obamacare so we can find out what’s in it.
Frankly, I don’t believe Rubio won many converts for his bill tonight. If anything, he may have lost some backing.
Unfortunately, though, Rubio continues to dominate the Fox airwaves, thereby crowding out strong expressions of anti-amnesty sentiment. Absent those strong expressions in large media outlets like Fox, Schumer-Rubio’s chances of passage are good, notwithstanding Rubio’s supposed confidence that Congress would never pass a bad immigration bill.
Thank you for a voice of reason. I am often dismayed by over the top rhetoric on this board. It IS possible to make a point and make it forcefully without hyperbole.
Build a fence, and then build military barracks every few miles. Staff it with soldiers coming home from Iraq. This would be a great way to train soldiers and patrol the border. Sort of like a long thin military base.
Everytime I hear his immigration ad I want to barf over its fawning over lawbreakers. Its as if the 1986 amnesty never happened.
And I want to lol at the claim illegals won’t get welfare.
It won’t work with Rush’s listeners....Add that to the fact that he doesn’t say a word about them, which tells me he doesn’t like them but can’t say anything.
Build a fence, and then build military barracks every few miles. Staff it with soldiers coming home from Iraq. This would be a great way to train soldiers and patrol the border. Sort of like a long thin military base.
AMEN
Rubio sold out quickly to the establishment when he arrived in DC. He is now their willing tool. It remains to be seen if he is a pawn to be sacrificed in the chess game of the elites or if they truly have bigger plans for him.
It looks now as though the plan is to destroy him using the immigration fight. The Dems don’t want the immigration bill to pass with bipartisan support. They’ve loaded it up with social benefits for the illegals on the road to amnesty while at the same time they’ve watered down enforcement to where it is meaningless, while leaving the gates wide open to more third world low skill future welfare recipients. The Republicans in the Senate will pass anything to curry favor with the Hispanic lobby. The Dems want the bill to fail in the House so they can blame the GOP.
If it fails in the House, Rubio will be set up to be labeled a poor leader, not ready for prime time, and another Tea Party failure. There will likely be a racial twist to the press narrative as well. The editorial pages of the NY Times and Washington Post will opine about the GOP being the party of conservative white males. Rubio’s great failure will be held up as another example the GOP will not embrace minorities.
Rubio sold out to get his five minutes of time in the limelight. He should enjoy it now because his new friends in the press and GOP establishment will toss him to the side like a dirty dishrag when he has served his purpose. If the establishment elites had long term plans for him he would be groomed in the same way as Obama. Lots of fluff public appearances but no bruising political fights on controversial issues to potentially damage him with his party’s key voting blocs. Note that Rubio’s support of amnesty means he is directly opposing the Tea Party voters who got him elected to the Senate in the first place!
That show was pure propaganda. Shame on FNC and shame on Hannity. It reminded me of Obama’s healthcare townhalls. A total joke.
Where was Hannity playing clips of Schumer and Durbin saying the most vile things about Republicans and then turning to Rubio and putting him on the spot.
Where was the other point of view, from U.S. senators who are opposed?
Rubio kept on saying we need to know who is here now. Ánd he didn’t want the 11 million to balloon to 13 million while we secured the border blah blah. Simple solution. Write the law so illegal arrival date (ie 2009) determines eligibility.
Bottomline. Any bill that Chuck U Schumer is excited about is bad for conservatives. Period.
She seemed to give Rubio a mental undressing while he answered her question. Rather revealing dress. Window dressing for the show perched front and center in the "leg chair." A friend of Hannity's. ??? I'd appreciate it if you can retrieve her name and occupation. Thanks in advance.
Since we don’t enforce existing immigration law or secure our borders, we have created, (their words), defacto amnesty. How do we fix our, (ignored), broken immigration law. We write 800 page plan.
Let’s say I have a car that is perfectly fine but has an empty gas tank. I need the car to commute to work. But I refuse to buy gasoline so that the car can be driven. To fix the broken car I buy an RV and a 30 ft boat to tow behind it. The RV with the boat have a combined length of 80 ft. But it have no gasoline and it is much too large to negotiate the parking lot at work. So I also buy an electric car with a 40 mile range. Since it is 50 miles to work I park the car in the garage at home and ponder a solution. After 6 months unpaid leave at work, due to my inability to get there, I borrow a bicycle and a gas can then go buy gas for the original car. I drive to work and I am told I no longer have a job. I go back home just as the repo man is taking the RV, Boat, and electric car. A deputy sherriff is there ready to serve me an eviction and foreclosure notice on my home.
So to address the issue, I live in my car parked at the Walmart parking lot with an empty tank again. I begin writing a 1600 page plan.
I miss America.
Rubio has blown it. He has no political smarts nor any political future right and should retreat into the background for several years if he wants to be taken seriously again in the future.
Rubio’s not the only one.
Screw Rubio.
For 2016, it is Rand or Cruz for me.
This is not the first amnesty, and it won’t be the last.
Unless we stop illegals from crossing the border we will have an amnesty every ten years or so until we decide to call our country mexico.
Nope, let's use whatever method they used to get here to get them out.
A simple but effective solution is the following:
seal the border, no jobs for illegal immigrants, no taxpayer assistance.
Most will return back to their native country and those who stay will live out their natural lives. With the border sealed and illegal immigration stopped the problem will be completely solved over a forty year period. The illegal immigration problem is solved without amnesty and little cost to taxpayers.
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE Third World law-breakers---illegals' pressure groups---are being urged to contact YOUR reps. More below.
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REFERENCE Menendez is revving up the illegal vote: He used latino TV (not US media) to pressure Senators: “We need more votes..... That means that the (latino) community in your state, in every state, should be contacting your state’s two US Senators saying that they want comprehensive immigration reform, that they are going to judge their political future based on this vote.”
Immigration may be Rubio’s Waterloo!
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