Subject: Re: More Republicans Voted for Russia
bighairymike: 1) they produced such a stinky bill...2) If they genuinely cared about border security they would have pressed for engagement and dialogue. Instead, it was one and done.

Dope1: It’s interesting all the libs are celebrating sending loads of US money overseas without a dime for the border, then pretending to take the patriotic position.

First, it was a bipartisan immigration bill, hammered out by a democrat, an independent, and a pretty conservative republican, Lankford, whom Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had delegated to negotiate the bill combining Ukraine aid and border security. McConnell had been closely involved in the negotiations.

Lankford spent four months negotiating the bipartisan immigration bill that met many of the GOP’s demands, including more narrow standards that migrants need to reach to qualify for asylum, new powers for the president to pause asylum processing if migrant crossings reach a rolling weekly average of more than 5,000, and which put an end to the humanitarian parole known as "catch and release."

Second, in less than four days republicans in both the House and Senate yielded to objections by Trump, their presumed presidential candidate at the time, who objected to what might be perceived as a "win" for president Biden.

Talk about "pretending to take the patriotic position".

Third, House Speaker Johnson stated publicly that he would not allow the Senate bill to reach the House floor for a vote, no matter what. He killed it dead.

Fourth, an issue that republicans call a "national emergency" every single day is, at the same time, an issue that republicans insist can wait 12 months before being addressed again by, they hope, their party's republican president.

Democrats were willing in principle to support a bill that focused entirely on border security without provisions to legalize the status of any migrants who had entered the country illegally, not even the “Dreamers” brought to the United States by their parents while they were infants and children and who knew no other country.

That kind of support will never happen again.

There's nothing "patriotic" about turning down improvements to immigration because your side didn't get exactly what it wanted in the bill. Getting everything your side wants while the other side gets nothing is not the end result of any normal adult negotiation and killing an opportunity to further negotiate an issue with a flat out "We won't even consider this" when it can be used as a campaign cudgel by your side is anything but "patriotic".

You guys are so deep in the cult you've lost complete touch with reality.