Republicans Plan to Take Action Against the President and his Executive Immigration Action

President Obama has faced an array of legal challenges from the Republican Party this year, especially on his delayed release of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare. Their reasoning was that the President released this act without the further provisions of Congress, which the Republican party felt was against the citizens rights held in the Constitution. However, the latest allegations call for a lawsuit to be placed on the President because of his intentions to protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. "The president's plan will allow undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, also known as green card holder,s to register with the federal government and , if approved, receive a three-year protection from any deportation" (Jackson). 

On one hand, the immigrants are ecstatic about this announcement because they would finally be able to become citizens of the United States which they have worked so long and so hard to become. But on the other hand, Republicans and other citizens are infuriated that the President will allow illegal immigrants to just have the ability to basically just become legal American citizens. 

The Republican Party is so enraged that a multitude of governors, and potential 2016 presidential candidates, are planning on filing a lawsuit against the President. The North Carolina Governor Pat McCoy stated that he was open to suing the President for the action he will release on Thursday because the President does not have the ability to just make a new law and enforce it without consultation from the other branches of the government as well as the states. McCoy said that the President needs to recognize that he needs to confront the state's about this issue before releasing his statement due to how affected all states will be by this incredible influx of human beings. Three other governors agree with McCoy on this topic: Texas Governor Rick Perry, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. These three other men feel the same about the President's announcement this Thursday, and how the President is working only unilaterally on this issue. Walker stated, "I think the Republicans in Washington need to take the president to court. They need to force this issue. I think it's bigger than the subject matter of immigration" (Levine). 

In my opinion, I believe that the President is completely out of line on this subject. I do believe that immigrants should be allowed into the country, but only if they have waited the specified amount of time and acquired the certain resources they needed. Allowing about 5 million immigrants to just be allowed into the country is unnecessary. Also, if the President has not consulted any other sources about his decision, I believe that he is only working by himself and what he thinks is right. When in all actuality it is the President's job to do what is best for the people, and what is best for the safety. I believe that the President should take this issue up with Congress and come to a conclusion of what the best alternative is, because allowing 5 million people to just become citizens is not acceptable in any manner. Do you believe the President is acting with all of the citizens best interest in mind? Should 5 million undocumented immigrants be allowed to become legal? Is what the President doing unconstitutional?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/immigration-executive-action_n_6189026.html
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/20/politics/mcrory-considers-immigration-lawsuit/index.html?hpt=po_c2
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/rick-perry-says-texas-may-sue-obama-over-immigration-action-n252046
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/07/30/3465876/gop-lawsuit-obamacare/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/20/obama-immigration-josh-earnest/19316835/
http://www.newsweek.com/republicans-obama-lawsuit-democrats-john-boehner-obama-impeachment-obamacare-262246

Inhofe: Global Warming is a Hoax

With the Republican takeover of Congress in the midterms, new individuals will be chosen and approved for committee leaders and other governmental offices. One such office is the leader of the Environmental and Public Works Committee. The GOP choice? Senator James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who not only denounces global warming, but also one compared the EPA to the Gestapo.

In general, Inhofe believes that global warming is a hoax developed by liberals searching for a way to tighten restrictions on the actions of businesses. He even wrote a book in 2012 titled The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future in which he describes himself as the lonely crusader against an environmental-liberal conspiracy. Repeatedly he has called for limitations to be placed on the EPA, even calling for congressional action to limit EPA regulations on clean water. He believes that the EPA requirements exceeds the agency’s authority and tramples on the rights of the states. To top it all off, Inhofe also believes that the increase in carbon emissions (one of the root causes of global warming) can be beneficial to mankind, claiming in a 2003 paper that there is a substantial amount of scientific information that carbon emissions help plant life and animal environments. In the same paper he also equated U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to a “Soviet-style trial.”

Not surprisingly, Inhofe and the US as well as international science community don’t tend to get along very well. For instance, Inhofe has often claimed that hundreds of scientists disagree with the idea that global warming is the result of human activity. Unfortunately, the statistics do not back him up as 97% of international scientists working in fields related to the environmental study agree that human activity is the driving force behind current global warming trends. In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that such a statistic “doesn’t mean anything.” Likewise, Inhofe also holds that the rising temperature is simply one of the Earth’s 30-year cycles. The scientific community, however, disagrees. The 2012 Start of the Climate report by the American Meteorological Society (compiled by 384 scientists from 52 countries) emphasized that warming trends are happening much more rapidly than any natural warming process. The current state of the climate is not simply part of a “cycle.”

What is most concerning is that currently Inhofe is set to take charge of a committee that oversees public policy. While this may cause uproar among environmentalists, it will also create a headache for the GOP. A Democratic aide even called Inhofe’s potential promotion a “silver lining” to the Democrat’s losses as Democrats could potentially use Inhofe as the face of GOP scientific ignorance and know-nothingness. “Leave it to today’s GOP to put someone who doesn’t believe in basic science at the helm of the committee that oversees environmental protection,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin said in an email Monday.“It’s unfortunate that Republicans continue to put more stock in their rigid ideology than science and what’s best for the country.”

I believe that Inhofe’s selection for this position is an enormous misstep by the the Republican party. In recent years, the GOP has become a symbol of individuals who are out of touch and ignorant of recent scientific revolutions, often being criticized as out-of-date. With individuals like Inhofe in chanre it will only solidify this stereotype. Moreover, the decisions Inhofe may make in this position could be extremely detrimental to our nation’s environmental policy. From my perspective, a politician who does not have some form of scientific background or refuses to cooperate and work with the scientific community should not be left in charge of our countries environmental policy. What do you think? Do you believe that Inhofe has any qualifications for the position? What effect do you think it will have on the American people’s perception of the Republican party?

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inhofe-an-epa-foe-likely-to-lead-senate-environment-committee/2014/11/05/d0b4221e-64f4-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html

http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/271462/speedreads-senator-who-denies-climate-change-in-line-to-lead-environmental-panel

http://time.com/3558611/jim-inhofe-global-warming-climate-change-2014/

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jim-inhofe-112757.html#ixzz3Je4ua6Dm

The Post-Midterm Roundup

     As of yesterday, Wednesday November 19th, only one Senate seat and five House seats remain undecided as Thanksgiving approaches.  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already released the 2015 schedule for the 114th Congress, and congressional members are preparing for the voracious attacks Obama will endure when the Republicans retain control of the House and regain control in the Senate.

     Democrats have a hit the lowest point since Obama entered office; much has fallen, including: the number of seats they have in Congress, the number of governors, a party approval rating that’s fallen behind Republicans for the first time in recent history, enthusiasm, energy.  For the next two years, the White House needs to focus on getting the party into a better shape, and Obama’s the best person to do so.  The GOP, however, does not want this to happen.  Instead, they have warned Obama not to make rash decisions that could affect the next two years.  As Indiana Governor Mike Pence says, “The American people sent a deafening message to Washington, D.C., that they want a change on Capitol Hill.”

     With only a little over a month left before the 115th Congress enters office, Obama needs to be wary of the actions he takes.  While the Senate has been busy trying to get as much as it can done while it still holds power (like defeating Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s Keystone XL Pipeline), they will not get far.  The GOP has pledged to reintroduce all of these topics once sessions begin again, hoping their majority will allow them to have veto-proof passage of many of the bills.

     However, despite the progress, or lack thereof, that has occurred since the midterms, the controversy surrounding the election has been close enough.  There were many upsets during election night, including but not limited to: the margins some Democrats lost by, the fact Republicans clearly won the Senate on Tuesday night, the Virginia and North Carolina Senator race, the result of many House races (including New York Representative Michael Grimm), and the number of incumbents who’s re-election or loss was an upset.

     Many have attributed these to the strict Voter ID laws that have been recently enforced, including the stopping of 22,000 people in Kansas because they lacked proof of citizenship and over 600,000 people in a tight Texas race where a Representative lost by only 2000 votes.  Democrats claim Republicans did this as another attempt to ensure their reelection and bid for the 2016 presidential election.  As Wendy Weiser, director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice, challenged, the GOP won many of their tight raves by what she called the “margin of disenfranchisement.”  With this thought, many bitter Democrats are ready to battle to the end in 2016 to stop Republican takeover of the government.

     Personally, I think that the Republicans got lucky in a lot of their races, especially in the ones where the won; I do not think they intentionally sabotaged the Democrats (although one couldn't put it past them).  In respect to the 115th Congress, I think that they will hold true to their promise to pass Republican measures and their threatening of Obama if he tries to bypass Congress by issuing executive orders.  I think New Jersey Governor Chris Christie summed the country up nicely: the talk of a potential government shutdown is “hysteria” as “people [are] looking to make news.”

Questions:

What do you think of Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s claim :“The American people sent a deafening message to Washington, D.C., that they want a change on Capitol Hill.”  Do you think he has fairly represented the American sentiment?

Although I agree with Christie’s statement, others may not.  Do you think the chance of the government shutting down is only talk as people want to have a headline?  Why?

What do you think will happen in the 115th Congress?  Will they be successful in getting GOP bills through or will they fail and be a continuation of the lame-duck season that occurs for the duration of the 114th Congress?

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/voter-id-laws-midterm-elections.html?ref=politics

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/upshot/why-voter-id-laws-dont-swing-many-elections.html?ref=politics&abt=0002&abg=1

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/223144-top-10-midterm-elections-surprises

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/mike-pence-immigration-budget-113030.html?hp=b2_l2

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/barack-obama-democrats-113016.html?ml=po

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/2015-congress-114th-schedule-113021.html

http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/senate/?ml=na#.VG1992TF_pA

http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/house/#.VG1-RmTF_pA

(picture) http://www.politico.com/wuerker/2014/11/november-2014/002089-029796.html

Keystone Pipeline Defeated by a Single Vote

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, the Senate’s Democrats successfully blocked new legislation that would have allowed for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline is an oil pipe that would have connected “Canada’s oil sands to the Texas coast.”   The debate surrounding the construction of this pipeline has been one of the most polemical debates during Obama’s presidency; since 2005 the GOP has thrown its full support behind the pipeline, while most of the Democratic Party has opposed its construction. Surprisingly on Tuesday, the Democrats were finally able to strike down the legislation by a single vote, even though a fellow Democrat, Mary Landrieu led the metaphorical crusade for the construction of the pipeline.

            The defeat of the Keystone XL in Congress symbolizes a great victory for the liberal environmentalists. Through the defeat of the pipeline, the liberals are able to draw even more attention to the issue of climate change and environmental sustainability. However, this victory for the liberal left seems to be short lived, as the new Republican dominated Senate intends to reintroduce the bill in January.  In fact, the Republican Party is working harder than ever to build up a coalition that will back the Keystone XL bill and will override the president’s veto.

            Many believe that the issue of the Keystone XL Pipeline must be laid to rest, and speculate the Democrats opposition to the bill is “unsustainable.” Furthermore, polls have shown that a majority of the American people support the pipeline, “despite warnings of the environmentalists [that] it would swell carbon emissions and threaten fragile ecosystems in its route.” Moreover, it is the belief of the Republican Party and many oil executives that the bill will eventually be passed, as the pipeline will provide Americans with many desperately needed jobs and will increase energy resources.

             Currently, it appears as if the president may actually sign off on the bill in January, when it is reintroduced. While the White House has officially claimed that it will wait for the Nebraska court to make a final decision on the construction of a pipeline being built through that state, it seems even more likely that the president will approve this bill as to use it as bargaining chip with Congress. In other words, in exchange for the president’s approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, the Republicans may be expected to approve one of Obama’s plans.

            So what do you think about the Keystone Pipeline? Should it be built even if its construction will adversely impact the environment? Do you believe that the Republicans will be able to amass a veto-proof majority, or do you think that the Republicans will have to attach the pipeline bill to a pay roll tax cut bill, as the party has done in the past? How do you think that reintroduction of the Keystone Pipeline bill will impact American politics?

Sources
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline.html?ref=politics&_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/19/politics/keystone-obama/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/keystone-xl-poll_n_6186606.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-18/senate-votes-against-keystone-xl-pipeline-after-six-year-fight.html