Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is stepping up his advocacy for budget curbs that would block the president from awarding work permits to millions of illegal immigrants.
“Number one, we ought to stop it at all costs and not allow the president to do it, at all costs,” Priebus said during an interview with Breitbart News.
“Secondly, we [should] not allow the president to use executive amnesty to bring us to the negotiation table, because I think it’s inappropriate, and it’s wrong, and it’s illegal,” he said.
On Nov. 5, the day after he lost the midterm election, President Barack Obama threatened to use his power over agency operations to aid illegals, unless Congress passes a new law that would aid illegals.
Priebus also pushed for a short-term budget deal that would allow the new GOP majority in Congress to draft a new 2015 budget early next year.
That’s a critical issue, because it is the only way for the GOP to bar Obama from using taxpayers’ money to print work permits and residency cards for millions of illegals.
Until the new majority is sworn in, GOP leaders should pass a short-term “continuing resolution … [instead of] cutting major policy deals in a lame duck with people that have just been voted out of office,” Priebus said.
Democrats want the GOP to approve by mid-December the existing draft 12-month budget deal that does not curb Obama’s planned amnesty.
So far, GOP Hill leaders have not said whether they will accept the Democrats demand, or instead use their new majority power next year to write a better 2015 budget.
Priebus also endorsed the push by Sen. Jeff Sessions for a new budget, complete with curbs on immigration-related spending.
“I’m fine with what Sen. Sessions did,” Priebus said.
Priebus’ hard line matches his Nov. 7 depiction of Obama’s proposed rollback of immigration-law enforcement.
Obama’s threat to reduce enforcement if the GOP doesn’t increase immigration is a “nuclear threat” to the constitutional government, and a “barrel of kerosene on the fire,” Priebus said.
On Nov. 11, Priebus described the proposed non-enforcement as “an illegal, false choice.”
“My point would be on this executive amnesty, that number one we ought to stop it at all costs and not allow the president to do it at all costs, either legislatively or through the courts, but secondly, we not allow the president to use executive amnesty to bring us to the negotiation table, because I think it’s inappropriate, and it’s wrong, and it’s illegal,” he said.
“Leadership in the House and the Senate need to develop an agenda that’s achievable, that is true to the principles of this party, that can be done fairly quickly, so that people who people who voted for this Republican majority can be validated that they did the right thing and that there are some good positive things happening in Washington,” he told Breitbart.
“I think John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are very committed to that,” he added.
Boehner and McConnell have zig-zagged since 2012 between the incompatible pro-amnesty demands of business donors, and the anti-amnesty demands of GOP supporters and swing voters.
The spending curbs are also backed by Karl Rove, a business-funded GOP strategist who supported amnesty in 2013, but is now focused on winning the 2016 election.