The border security bill is dead. And now the search is on within the GOP for whom to blame for the fiasco. The hilarious part is watching the people who were behind the travesty try to escape blame. One of the early efforts comes from Senator John Barrasso, Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman and McConnell ally.
“For three years President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats fought against every attempt to protect Americans from the crisis at our Southern Border. The results of their open-border policies have been predictable and deadly. In those three years, there have been 8.8 million illegal border crossings. Joe Biden’s surrender to cartels, drug dealers, and criminals has made every American less safe.
“Senator Lankford worked relentlessly to change the course of this crisis. He fought for us to close the border and for a return to policies that stop the flood of illegal immigration. Joe Biden and Senate Democrats failed him and failed the country.
“The proposed legislation does not meet most Americans’ standard of securing our border now. It doesn’t force the Biden administration to end its abuse of current law. It leaves in place a number of the Democrat-created incentives that are fueling the crisis.
“President Biden and Senator Schumer will never accept the significant changes required for American safety and border security. Joe Biden will never enforce any new law and refuses to use the tools he already has today to end this crisis. I cannot vote for this bill. Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.”
A fair reading of this document is that Senator Jim Lankford did his damnedest to push through an immigration bill. I mean, he fought his little ol' heart out, but Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer just failed him. And that forced Lankford to go on television twice and lie to the American people about what was in the bill.
BACKGROUND:
Part of this is correct. Biden and Schumer were never going to accept any meaningful changes to immigration law because they see the border crisis as a net plus. The very fact that so many high-profile Democrat social media accounts have gone utterly batsh** over this Elon Musk tweet shows they know what the game is.
The long-term goal of the so-called “Border Security” bill is enabling illegals to vote!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2024
It will do the total opposite of securing the border. https://t.co/InPW11ONJH
This, of course, calls into question why a deal was cut to begin with.
The Border Security Bill's Purpose was to Sandbag Trump
Donald Trump leads Joe Biden by around 30 points in the public's confidence to deal with the border crisis. Passing a border security bill with a strong bipartisan flavor under Biden effectively took that issue off the table for the election. My gut feeling is that this one issue drives Trump's advantage over Biden in current polling.
The Border Security Bill was Written by Schumer and McConnell
There are two key bits of information that indicate Schumer and McConnell managed this bill. First, Schumer was nearly orgasmic with delight when the bill was rolled out. I don't have the video, but I'd bet Schumer's eyes were completely rolled back in their sockets. Second, Mike Lee specifically called out McConnell and Schumer for managing the bill to force its passage in a crisis mode.
READ:
The Judas Goats
I think McConnell is smart enough to know that he's not surfing on a tidal wave of trust with his caucus. I'd be shocked if anyone trusted the guy. To push this bill through the Senate, the negotiators had to have some appearance of propriety. According to most sources, Jim Lankford is well-liked by his colleagues. Kyrsten Sinema has strong relations on both sides of the aisle...and hooker boots, but that's a different story. I have no idea what Chris Murphy brought to the table besides being an insufferable t**t. Perhaps he was there to assure Democrats and GOP border squishes that there was nothing in the bill that would upset the Chamber of Commerce.
READ: Chamber of Commerce Supports Bill Letting 1.8 Million Illegals Per Year Into the United States
The Blow Up
Word began leaking out a couple of weeks ago that the border security bill simply codified illegal immigration into national policy.
READ: The Details of Biden's Border Security Bill Show It Won't Work - and That's Probably the Plan
Things really hit the fan shortly after the text of the bill was released
READ: The 'Border Security' Deal Is Utter Trash, but There's One Provision That Is Just Infuriating
McConnell quickly decided that this dumpster fire could not pass and it was not a hill worth dying on. So last evening, he told the GOP conference they could vote no on the bill.
READ: Mitch McConnell Urges GOP Senators to Vote Against the Border Security Bill
The Rats Head to the Lifeboats
The Senate GOP now has a blazing sack of very damp cow dung on its front porch. Lankford can't be made the fall guy because the very reason he was enlisted to be the frontman on this bill is the reason he can't be blamed. His colleagues like him, and since Thad Cochran left the Senate, they are all lucid enough to know that McConnell was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
McConnell isn't going to take the blame because that isn't how he rolls, and it's questionable how tight his control is on his caucus. He and Biden are both 81, and neither is at the top of their game. McConnell escapes scrutiny because he can. But his colleagues know that he's losing it rapidly. This sort of puts McConnell in the role of Akela in Kipling's "The Jungle Book." You lead the pack until you miss a kill, then the pack turns on you and looks for a new leader. McConnell has missed a lot of kills in the last three years, this being the most publicly spectacular of them.
Blame Biden
And that's how we get to the end of Barrasso's statement.
Joe Biden will never enforce any new law and refuses to use the tools he already has today to end this crisis. I cannot vote for this bill. Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.
There is a lot of question-begging going on. Like how can a man who literally can't find his way off stage manipulate Lankford? If he's capable of that, what does it say about Lankford? If Biden refuses to use the tools he has to control the border, why give him more tools not to use? Especially when the law doesn't require a border emergency to be declared at all.
The biggest problem with shifting blame is that the border bill was in Biden's interests, not the GOP's or the country's. So, it is difficult to create a narrative blaming Biden for a bill that would help his presidential campaign without explaining how the GOP got bamboozled and lied about what was in the bill to try to gain support.
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