President Obama’s plan to deal with the issue of immigration reform via executive action is set to cause “total war” between the major political parties in the United States, according to David Weigel of Bloomberg, with Republicans determined to stop the president.
Obama insists that executive action is necessary in light of the total failure by Congress to take on the issue; however, Alabama Republican senator Jeff Sessions is one of many in the opposing party who says the president “must be stopped” and that the power Congress holds over government funding should be utilized to stop the president implementing his plans. Some conservative commentators, such as Erik Erickson from Red State, have gone even further, suggesting that all funds for White House operations are cut, and others have mentioned impeachment.Peter Weber from This Week believes that the Republicans are bluffing, as taking extreme measures to stop Obama fulfilling his promises would put the nail in the coffin of any chance of the party winning over the Latino demographic by showing blatant disregard for immigrants. “Obama has every incentive to show Latinos who has their back, and that means making Republicans carry out their pledge to try and block his small-bore executive actions.”
Michael Gerson of the Washington Post says that immigration reform should have been addressed back in 2007 by the Republicans under President Bush and that the party’s laxity is no excuse for Obama steamrolling the legislative process.