#nc-03: Jones, Syria and THE REST OF THE STORY
We’ve heard all kinds of coverage of this Syria refugee bill pushed through the Congress in response to the Paris terror attacks. We heard about 47 Democrats joining the Republican majority, while TWO Republicans voted NO. Who were the two? Steve King of Iowa and Walter Jones of North Carolina.
Wait a minute. Those two are hardcore anti-amnesty warriors. They’re usually pretty good on immigration issues. What gives?
Jones’s primary opponents jumped on the drive-by coverage QUICK:
Have Jones and King gone over to The Dark Side ???? According to Glenn Beck’s The Blaze — one of the few media outlets who bothered to dig deeper — the answer is NO:
Only two House Republicans voted against the bill to strengthen the vetting process for Syrian refuges whom President Barack Obama wants to bring into the country. The “no” votes came, at least in part, because the bill failed to create safe zones within Syria.
Republican Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Walter Jones of North Carolina opposed the measure that passed the House with a veto-proof 289-137, including 47 Democrats, and now heads to the Senate.
“I voted against the American SAFE Act because it fails to restore Congress’ Article 1 authority over admissions of migrants to the United States,” King said in a statement provided to TheBlaze.
“How can we trust this Obama Administration who will not utter the words ‘radical Islamic jihad’ to accurately screen Syrian and Iraqi refugees as required in this bill?” King continued. “For that reason, I submitted an amendment to Rules, which was ultimately not adopted, that would create international safe zones for refugees in their homeland. The safety and security of the American people is paramount. I respect the House trying to find a solution, but I do not believe this was the right or strong enough one.”
The White House has promised to veto the measure.
Jones said the bill was not acceptable because it contained language to fund the president’s plan for importation of refugees.
“Defunding President Obama’s refugee program is the only way to ensure there is an actual halt to a refugee influx until we can determine without question that we are not giving terrorists a free pass into the United States,” Jones said in a statement.
“Congress can defund the program in the appropriations bill, which will come to the floor in early December,” Jones continued. “To ensure our safety, Congress must seize that opportunity and use its constitutional power of the purse. Short of that, even if today’s bill were to pass the Congress and be signed into law, the president would still retain the power to let in whoever, and however many, refugees he pleases. And given the president’s unwavering support for open borders, unchecked illegal immigration, and mass importation of foreign refugees, we know he can’t be trusted with that authority.”
Walter Jones and Steve King are two of the strongest border hawks in Congress.
This bill was criticized by other Republicans as too weak in a number of regards, but it looks like King and Jones were the only ones to put their votes where their mouths are.. The problem is that with am open borders fanatic like Paul Ryan as Speaker, it will be hard to get a decent bill to the House floor on this subject. Paul Ryan was the chief Republican leader in the House for the terrible Gang of 8 amnesty bill, which should tell you all you need to know about him. But when it comes to Muslim immigration, it gets even worse as Conservative Review has pointed out in this article:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/11/paul-ryans-breathtaking-ignorance-of-religious-liberty-and-immigration
The conservative news sites are reporting this was a ” SHOW VOTE” for the Establishment Rhino’s. The Speaker allowed no amendments on this bill, this bill does not defund Obama’s resettlement program! This is a Dog and Pony show bill by the Establishment to help the Establistment R’s who have tough primaries around the country, like Renee Ellmers.
Of course the RHINO’s come after Jones and Steve King!
People need to read the bill and now the truth not the RHINO Establishment crap, this was a show vote.
Defund Obama’s program Mr. Speaker, not just hit pause, if you are really serious about protecting this country!
It looks like Ted Cruz has introduced a MUCH better bill in the Senate on blocking the Muslim migrants:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/19/sen-ted-cruz-why-terrorist-refugee-infiltration-pr/
Paul Ryan is extremely liberal on immigration matters, even worse than Rubio or McCain, so his House bill is full of loopholes.
Here is more on Paul Ryan’s deceptive gambit on Middle Eastern ”refugees” from Red State:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/stridentconservative/2015/11/20/paul-ryan-moves-america-closer-another-911/
Among other things, Ryan has broken his promise on ”regular order” in the House when he refused to allow amendments to the bill he favored, which was a favorite trick of both John Boehner and Harry Reid. Paul Ryan is nothing but a warmed over John Boehner.
There are three reasons why Jones’ explanation is nothing more than empty rhetoric:
1. Right now, only Obama’s State Dept has control over the vetting process. No one else has any say. This bill forces the head of the DHS and the FBI to personally sign off on each and every single refugee. If all three organizations don’t agree the person has been properly vetted, the person doesn’t get in. To facilitate this is damn near impossible and would effectively stop the program. Source: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-considers-cutting-state-department-funding-for-refugee-resettlement/
2. If Jones wants to defund it, why in the hell would you wait until December to do anything? Jones voted to keep the program as it is until then, under Obama’s State Dept control, who can bring in as many refugees as they want and say they’re “vetted” without any oversight whatsoever. Yeah, because that’s a good idea.
3. If this bill was so bad, why did he co-sponsor an identical bill the day before? https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3999/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22american+safe+act%22%5D%7D&resultIndex=2
Pathetic political self-preservation at its finest.
And you think Obama’s appointees would not sign off on anything he wanted them to? You haven’t followed the Obama regime very closely, it would seem.
What was really wrong on the way this bill was handled is the Speaker Ryan, aka the new Boehner, used the hardball John Boehner / Harry Reid tactic against conservatives by refusing to allow amendments to the bill. Conservatives and immigration hawks wanted to toughen the bill with amendments and Ryan refused to let them do it. Ryan promised that he would allow ”regular order” which means allowing amendments, but he made himself out to be a liar when he did not do so on this bill.
Steve King (R-Iowa) the biggest immigration hawk in the House voted against this bill, too, because it was too weak. All the immigration sellouts like Renee Ellmers, Robert Pittenger, and yes, open borders man Paul Ryan, voted for it.
All the immigration sellouts? The members of the House Freedom Caucus are now immigration sellouts. Amusing line to take. Saying Paul Ryan is open borders is like calling Trump a conservative. Your statements are nothing more than inflamed rhetoric and devoid of any real substance, but no worries! I’m going to give you a chance to redeem yourself:
In my original post, I mentioned Jones co-sponsored the exact same bill the day before. Why did he vote against this one but co-sponsored the other?
I did NOT say that everyone who voted for the bill was an immigration sellout. I said that all the immigration sellouts in the House GOP caucus voted for the bill. Can’t you comprehend the English language? Many Republicans probably figured that voting against this ”show vote” bill would be flipped on them politically like you are trying to do to Jones. Some Democrats probably noted that this bill really did not do much to break Obama’s stride and voted for it to cover their tracks.
You are either a Paul Ryan cheerleader or you are clueless about Paul Ryan and immigration. Paul Ryan has worked with Mark Zuckerburg to try to promote the Gang of 8 amnesty bill, and even made radio ads with his voice personally promoting the awful Gang of 8 amnesty bill. The team trying to whip the vote in the House to pass the Gang of 8 amnesty bill was Democrat Luis Guiteirez and RINO Paul Ryan. You can read about Ryan’s cluelessness on Muslims and immigration in the Red State article that someone linked in a prior post in this thread.
There’s nothing that would prevent Congress from requiring certification now, which would effectively stop the Syrian refugee program, and defunding it as well. Obama is threatening a veto because he knows that it will stop the Syrian refugee program. They cannot possibly certify that the vetting is adequate.
By Jones own admission, Congress could not defund it until the continuing resolution expires in December. Wouldn’t Obama just bring in as many Syrian refugees as possible between now and then if Jones got his way?
As I read it, the bill that passed has a veto-proof majority in the House. That includes a lot of conservative Democrats. If it had similar support in the Senate, it could withstand Obama’s veto. In other words, it just might work.
Defunding is fine, but this bill would at least provide an insurance policy until next month when Republicans can try to defund it. It is almost certain to lack enough support among Democrats to withstand a veto.
Jones is proposing that we not pursue a strategy that will actually work for one that in all likelihood will fail. Even if his strategy will work, I see no reason to not pursue both on parallel tracks.
If Jones has his way, it is almost certain that Syrian refugees will continue to flood into the country with little to no vetting.
Remember that he’s been in Washington for 20 years. It seems like he wants the issue in his primary more than he wants to solve the problem.
Requiring Obama administration officials to certify to something and expecting them to do anything other than what Obama wants is lunacy. It was like expecting an honest investigation by the Justice Department of the Lois Lerner scandal. Obama appointees are going to do what they are told. from on high.
The only true solution lies in the statements made by Walter Jones and Steve King. This process must be defunded by an attachment to the Omnibus spending bill. The rest of this stuff is just to provide cover for the cowards in the GOP.
Glad you are ok with allowing Obama to do whatever he wants until the spending can be addressed next month.
If this bill was so bad, then why did Jones co-sponsor the exact same bill the day before?
Perhaps he believed Paul Ryan’s false promise of ”regular order” which would have allowed it to be amended to toughen it up. Ryan instead rammed this weak bill through under the John Boehner / Harry Reid procedure of blocking amendments.
Lets look at where the players come from on immigration:
1) Paul Ryan is one of the most wide open supporters of open borders in the GOP caucus. Ryan was the chief House GOP supporter of the Gang of 8 amnesty bill from the Senate and was working hard with Democrat Guiteirez to try to pass it in the House.
2) Steve King (R-Iowa) has been the chief opponent of amnesty and open borders in the House since Tom Tancredo left to run for higher office.
3) Walter Jones is the only NC Congressman with an ”A” rating from the major anti-amnesty group Numbers USA.
4) Taylor Griffin has had almost a third of his campaign money originate with controversial New York bundler Paul Singer, whose two major political interests are supporting homosexual ”rights” and supporting amnesty for illegal aliens.
On immigration issues, King and Jones are highly trustworthy and Ryan and Griffin are NOT.
Show me a quote from Paul Ryan saying “I support open borders” and I’ll believe you. Otherwise, it’s just repeated false rhetoric from the Mark Levin Show (who was for Ryan before he was against him). Jones didn’t vote against this bill because of immigration; he voted against this to make an issue out of it in the primary that he is going to lose.
I wish I had a recording of the ad that Paul Ryan made in his own voice for radical billionaire Mark Zuckerburg’s pro-amnesty group supporting the Gang of 8 amnesty bill. That said it all, as did the fact that Ryan was the GOP member of the two man team trying to push that awful pro-amnesty legislation through the House. Thank God they failed.
This article from RedState, written by a staffer of a GOP Texas Congressman, may give you a clue:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/artharman/2015/10/21/speaker-ryan-abolish-u-s-borders/
Within the last few days, Ryan was on the air again claiming that the House would never pass any bill to deport 11 million people and attacking Trump on that subject. The amnesty hound Paul Ryan was playing a game of deception with the voters since all Trump or Cruz would have to do is enforce existing law which Obama is ignoring. He would not need any new bills passed. Paul Ryan was Grubering the voters on immigration, deliberately misleading them to try to damage Trump.
These comments are definitely a troll plant from the anti-Jones group. Quite sad actually. If one was to actually spend the time to read about what Jones stood for, there would be no question about what he is tying to do to make this country strong again.
Troll posts like Praetorian make us laugh. Just the name Praetorian itself is symbolic of trust fund children with silver -spoons in their mouth who think their are entitled to positions, rather than earn them.
I wonder who that could be…? Smells -and sounds like another supporter of the Establishment candidates running against Jones.
This bill on Muslim immigration reminds me of the Corker bill on the Iran Treaty. Our sellout Obama enabling GOP ”leadership” beat their chest that it was legislation to stop Obama, but what it really did was surrender the real Constitutional powers that could have genuinely stopped Obama and instead put up a smokescreen that allowed Obama to have his way. One of those who is supposed to ”certify” these Muslim migrant ”refugees” is already loudly proclaiming that they will have no trouble doing so. No wonder a lot of Democrats voted for each bill. They knew that they were as phony as three dollar bills and would not really stop Obama.
Far from casting a ”political” vote, Jones did as he usually does and voted on principle, along with Anti-amnesty leader Steve King. The easiest political thing to have done would have been to go along with the leadership’s herd, as quite a few conservatives did. That would have shielded Jones from the lies and distortions of his establishment opponents that were oh so predictable. Instead he stood up against a rotten leadership that offered a weak bill with no opportunity to amend it.
The bill might have been okay to have a starting point if ”regular order” was in place to allow amendments, but arrogant and autocratic Paul Ryan did not allow that. Assuming amendments were possible, there was no reason not to cosponsor it, but once the amendment process was denied, the fix was in, and the bill, as it stood, was simply insufficient. Paul Ryan has been exposed as a dictatorial ”leader” and a liar by failing to allow regular order on this bill as he had promised when he was running for Speaker.
Paul Ryan was the GOP member of the duo that was leading the charge trying to pass the terrible Gang of 8 Senate amnesty bill in the House. And he tried very hard to do that. Anyone who fails to recognize him as the top pro-amnesty GOP person in the House has their head in the sand.