Even before all the votes from Tuesday's mid-term elections had been counted, Pres. Obama and GOP Leaders began trading jabs over the President's planned executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
On Wednesday afternoon, Pres. Obama announced during his post-election press conference that he'll move forward with an executive action that would grant amnesty and work permits to an estimated 5-6 million illegal aliens despite a mid-term election that saw a national rebuke of his immigration policies.
New polling of actual voters released just yesterday found that 74% of voters, including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, prefer that the President work with Congress instead of acting on his own. Still, Pres. Obama plans on pressing forward.
"Before the end of the year, we're gonna take whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system, that will allow us to surge additional resources to the border where I think the vast majority of Americans have the deepest concern."What I'm not going to do is just wait. I think it's fair to say that I've shown a lot of patience..."
-- Pres. Obama
The President's press conference came shortly after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met with the media for the first time after his Party regained control of the Senate. The GOP flipped at least 5 seats where the Democratic incumbent had voted in favor of the Gang of Eight's amnesty bill, while their challengers ran against both amnesty and Pres. Obama's executive actions on immigration. And two more could flip before everything is said and done.
McConnell said the President would be making a "mistake" if he took executive action and said moving forward would be like "waving a red flag in front of a bull."
On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner also called on Pres. Obama not to move forward with his action.
"When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. And he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path."
-- Rep. John Boehner
Neither McConnell nor Boehner, however, said what steps they would take to stop the President's executive actions. As Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pointed out during an interview on Fox News last night, the most obvious step forward would be to defund any executive action through Congress' power of the purse. The House took this action in August, but when Sens. Sessions and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted a similar move in the Senate in September, it was blocked by Democrats.
"I would warn my Democratic colleagues, look at what happened this past election. You need to understand the American people want something done."
-- Sen. Sessions
But recent news reports indicate that both chambers of Congress are working towards an omnibus spending bill to pass during the lame-duck session that would fully fund the government through the end of the 2015 fiscal year. Such an action would handcuff Republicans' ability to block any action by Pres. Obama.
Visit your Action Board for a list of actions you can take to help stop Pres. Obama's executive amnesty.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI is the Director of Content & Activism for NumbersUSA
