Mark the date: Speaker Boehner gets it right on DHS funding

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Hot Air:

We all knew that a fight was coming when the question of funding the Department of Homeland Security came up. The President wants to use that agency for his executive amnesty orders and the majority of the elected legislative representatives of the people did not want such actions to be funded. And not to toot my own horn here, but I made a prediction back on February 4th that the House leadership was going to need to point out some obvious, if painful facts if they hoped to combat the media spin on this. The President’s allies would claim that the GOP was “shutting down DHS” even though the facts were clearly the opposite, and they would hold forth the sad prospect of TSA, border patrol and Coast Guard personnel going without paychecks as the reason. The proper response, I reasoned, was to say the following:

Wages for border patrol and customs agents? Paid for.

 

Wages for immigration officers and Coast Guard employees? Got it covered.

 

TSA screeners? There may be a lot of gritting of teeth over that one, but it’s paid for as well.

 

It’s all there, President Obama, with the money ready to flow and the paychecks waiting to be covered. All it requires is your party to put it through to your desk and for you to sign it.

 

I’ll confess that I don’t always have the utmost faith in the party leadership when it comes time to hit the sideline pass on fourth down, but it did my old heart good to see John Boehner come out today and answer the question correctly.

________

 

Did John Boehner pull a fast one on the Democrats?

 

 

[Valin]

@WestVirginaRebel

 

Is the Senate Minority All-Powerful?

John Hinderaker

February 15, 2015

 

With regard to the funding of the Department of Homeland Security and President Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty orders, we have entered Alice In Wonderland territory. The Republican House has passed an appropriations bill that funds DHS, minus the implementation of Obama’s illegal orders. Senate Republicans have introduced the House bill three times, but each time it has been filibustered by the Democrat minority. If the Democrats continue to filibuster, there is a risk that DHS could run out of money after February 27, and important national security functions could be compromised.

 

(Snip)

 

 

http://youtu.be/tUoqdfsYQag

 

But this is how the interview has been reported: “Boehner ‘certainly’ prepared to let DHS funding run out.” Here is another one: “Speaker Boehner is ready to let Homeland Security funding lapse.” Similar headlines were published just about everywhere. Republicans are preparing to shut down the Department of Homeland Security! But this is bordering on the insane: Boehner’s Republican House has voted to fund DHS. If funding runs out, it will be because Democrats, the Senate minority, filibustered all DHS funding. Why isn’t Harry Reid on the Sunday morning shows, being asked to explain why the Democratic Party is blocking funding of DHS’s national security functions? I know, that’s a silly question. Harry Reid is a Democrat, so he doesn’t have to answer any questions.

 

(Snip)

 

I have scoured the Constitution and haven’t found any provision that invests the Senate minority with such dominion over spending. Nor do I remember that when the Republicans were in the Senate minority, from 2007 through 2012, any of these reporters and pundits told us that the GOP minority was in charge of spending, and the Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and the Democratic president, were obliged to fall in line behind the GOP Senate minority. Can we have a consistent set of rules here?

 

(Snip)