Hard-line conservatives in the Republican Party have refused to agree to a plan to avoid a budget battle over the immigration order announced by President Obama, increasing the possibility of a spending fight in Congress that could drag on until the deadline for another shutdown of the US government on the 11th of this month.
John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, hopes to be able to pass a spending bill that would keep the US government up and running until the September of next year, postponing the fight over Obama’s executive action on immigration reform until early in 2015 when the Republican party expands its control over the House and seizes power in the Senate.
Lawmakers in the Tea Party are adamantly opposed to giving the president’s immigration order any level of funding whatsoever, however, in a deadlock that could once again force the speaker to seek support from the Democrats to have the spending proposal passed and prevent the second government shutdown in a year. Boehner has relied on Democratic support during previous conflicts to pass similar bills. “Congress should stand up and use the power of the purse,” Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz says, arguing that Obama’s decision to free nearly five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation was nothing more than amnesty ‒ a sentiment shared by around 20 of the 50 Republican members of the House. “We will not allocate taxpayer’s money to lawless and illegal amnesties,” he added.