On Homeland Security funding, Republicans govern without logic

[applegrove]

On Homeland Security funding, Republicans govern without logic

The Editorial Board, the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/on-homeland-security-funding-republicans-govern-without-logic/2015/02/23/1a9667cc-bb9c-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html?tid=rssfeed

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WHATEVER ITS merits or shortcomings, a federal judge’s decision last week blocking the Obama administration’s immigration policy offered congressional Republicans an escape path from the corner into which they had painted themselves by imperiling funding for the Department of Homeland Security and its 240,000 employees. Thus far they have not shown the wisdom to accept this gift.

It’s hard to grasp the logic that would impel GOP lawmakers to suspend funding for the gigantic department when the move that inspired their threat in the first place — President Obama’s executive action shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation — has been put on hold. Why not treat the policy issue as moot, which it is for the time being, and keep funds flowing?

The answer, it seems, is that the fervor of Republican partisanship, especially in the House, is immune to logic beyond an insistence on victory at any cost — the cost in this case being the imminent shutdown of a critical chunk of the federal government.

Under a plan devised by House Republicans incensed by Mr. Obama’s immigration stance, funding for DHS will expire Friday unless Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate accept poison-pill amendments killing off the policy . There’s zero chance of that happening; still less that Mr. Obama would sign such a bill.


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