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In reply to the discussion: Schumer and Jeffries Refuse to Back Growing Democratic Calls to Defund ICE [View all]
bigtree
(93,455 posts)...this is specious.
Republicans are in control of that.
I get that Truthout thinks it's more important right now to confront Democrats who they know well don't have the ability to advance a funding bill to the floor of the House, much less in committee, as the minority party.
That goes for the Senate, as well. This gotcha game is something I'd more expect from republicans looking to deflect from their own responsibilities, rather than anyone seriously looking to address the actual source of the money that's being used.
Democratic leaders don't make decisions like defunding an agency on their own, or by fiat. Those important decisions are made by consensus of the legislators in the party that are expected to organize the votes for important bills and initiatives. Moreover, it's the committees which advance those legislative ambitions, with Dems in the minority right now.
It's specious, for instance, to think Democrats wouldn't address ICE funding in a budget they advanced themselves with a Democratic majority. NO Democrat voted for the funding ICE is advantaging right now.
But that doesn't get you anywhere near addressing the money that's being used right now, and Truthout knows this, so let's break this down.
They want the Dem leaders to call for another federal budget resolution? In what universe is that going to happen? They maybe want a defunding appropriations bill... let's say we call it a 'rescission' of funds? Rescission power is completely in the hands of the majority.
So what is Truthout demanding? They want Democrats to make a feckless and toothless call for something Democrats not only have no power to do, but have no votes to effect.
Whatever you think of defunding, you have to realize that hanging the party out in the public with a toothless proposal that is little more than a target for the opposition is pathetic politics which is good for little more than the clicks and reposts this article received.
Jeffries yesterday:
family conversation throughout the week
in the caucus meeting and in the whip
meeting about the path forward related
to these most recent developments.
We are unified behind the fact that under
the leadership of Primila Gyipol,
there's going to be a hearing that House
Democrats will hold this Friday in Minneapolis
as part of the effort to hold the Department of Homeland
Security accountable for its outofc
control behavior.
Now, it's important to understand
that a lot of the funding for ICE that
is currently being unleashed on the
American people, American citizens
in such extreme ways right now was
provided not through the traditional
appropriations process, but a connection
with the one big ugly bill that every single
Democrat and every single House Senate
Democrat opposed, every single one of us,
and that Donald Trump and Republicans
jammed down the throats of the American
people.
And so the funding dynamic that we have
to navigate as it relates to ICE's out of control
behavior is different in nature
than what may have otherwise been the
case because a lot of the funding that
ICE is currently utilizing comes from
their one big ugly bill.
And that's something that we'll collectively, you
know, be working on as our discussions
continue.
watch:
...if I didn't consider the source, I'd think this nonsense was bait from the republican opposition.
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