Following President Barack Obama’s address to the nation Thursday night, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions remarked that Obama’s plan is a “breathtaking overreach of monumental proportions.” Sessions also opined that the president’s plan will create a “tidal wave of new illegality” in the future.
Sen. Jeff Sessions: “Make no mistake, this is five million people being given amnesty that Congress rejected, that the American people have rejected, that will pull down the wages of working Americans, will make jobs harder for them to find, will create a system in the future that will invite more people to come unlawfully and really include, as one officer said, a tidal wave of new illegality in the future. It’s a dramatic unlawful act that will do great damage to America.”
Sean Hannity: “You said it’s endangering our entire constitutional order. Can you explain?”
Sessions: “Well it certainly is. It’s so basic. We learned that in school. The president — I used to serve in the executive branch of the United States government and enforce the laws, is compelled to enforce the laws of the United Utates. Congress makes the laws. What the president did in this order is said I am not enforcing the laws that you have passed and indeed I’m going further. I’m going to give work permits, Social Security numbers to millions of people who Congress said cannot work in America. It’s really a breathtaking overreach of monumental proportions.”
Hannity: “Yeah. I agree. as a matter of fact your colleague Senator Ted Cruz he referred to Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 69, a monarchy said decrees dictates and rules through fiat power which is what the president’s attempting. do you agree with that?”
Sessions: “Yes, the president himself said I’m not an emperor. I can’t do this a few months ago, and now he’s done it. So he’s acknowledged he did not have the power to do this. “
Hannity: “What is the best strategy — because I understand there are competing ideas among Republicans. How do you best deal with the president that, by his own words said this is unlawful and unconstitutional? What do you think is the best way to fight back?”
Sessions: “My best judgment is the Congress has great powers, the greatest power is the power of the purse. We need to fund this government and not shut it down but actually fund it. But we do not have to fund actions by the executive branch that Congress rejects, does not think is worthy of funding or indeed violates the very expressed will of congress….We should cut off funding for that may take a series of months to work this through, maybe to next year when the Republicans have the majority in the senate. But we need to start right now and call on our Democratic colleagues to stand up to this overreach and defend the average working American. Somebody needs to defend them for a change instead of business groups and activist groups.”