Washington, Nov 21: Speaker John.A. Boehner said that President Obama was damaging the presidency by using his executive authority to prevent the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Boehner said that the House would act to counter the president, but he declined to be specific.
“With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek,” Mr. Boehner told reporters. “And as I told him yesterday, he’s damaging the presidency itself.”
Mr. Obama, in his address to the nation Thursday night, all but dared congressional Republicans to act — either by passing their own immigration legislation to trump his executive action or by challenging him in a way that could be politically disastrous for the Republican brand.
Mr. Obama’s decision to act unilaterally on immigration — allowing up to five million undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and work legally without threat of deportation — came after months of congressional gridlock, in which a broad immigration overhaul that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support died in the Republican-controlled House.
“Pass a bill,” Mr. Obama bluntly told Republicans.
But the president’s executive action — and call for congressional action — thrust Republicans into a political challenge of their own. In the lead-up to his announcement and in the hours after, Republicans struggled to balance fighting what they view as an abuse of presidential power while still offering a carefully moderated response that does not damage the party’s standing with Latino voters, the nation’s fastest-growing minority, or imperil its governing agenda next year, when it controls both chambers.
So Republicans focused their fury on the president, making clear their anger and frustration at what they call “executive amnesty.” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, warned against the president’s “brazen power grab.”
(Source: The New York Times)
