OPINION:
President Donald Trump just released his White House’s immigration priorities — and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi aren’t happy.
Good. They shouldn’t be. That means the White House is doing something right.
Trump’s plan calls for a border wall, reduces the anchor baby syndrome, imposes E-verify mandates, hires more (anti-amnesty) immigration officials, and other things.
But here’s what the two Dem leaders cried about the plan in their joint statement: “We told the president at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the Dream Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise. The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations.”
Wah.
Wah, wah and more wah.
Let’s hope Republicans in the House and Senate don’t try and take these disgruntled Dems’ complaints and try to — you know, “work with them” to fashion a cooperative agreement. That’s more often than not Republican code for cave.
Let’s leave the Dems where they belong — in the dark pit of the minority party, struggling for relevancy and legislative steam.
“The [president] is going back on his agreement with Schumer and Pelosi,” tweeted Matt House, the communications director for Schumer, of the White House immigration plan. “Period. Full stop.”
Awesome. Glad to hear it. Put it on a bumper sticker. Sell it to the #MAGA crowd.
This so-called deal that Trump forged with the Democratic leaders was actually a chat the three had at the White House a few weeks ago — a discussion that came on the heels of Republicans thwarting plan after Trump-pressed plan, to the point where the president finally said: What the heck, I’ll reach out to Dems.
Schumer and Pelosi quickly spun this meeting as if they had won a private promise from Trump that bypassed Congress and guaranteed a huge amnesty concession. Apparently — not.
“The morning after dinner with @potus, Schumer and Pelosi, Mulvaney said we had ’the makings of a deal,’ ” House also tweeted. “What changed? Right wing freaked out.”
Oh, Mr. House. Freak-out is such a strong descriptor.
How about — Democrats Were Put In Their Place?
After all, just because Trump met with Democratic leaders and discussed border matters with Democratic leaders didn’t mean that he had jumped to the Democratic Party and had agreed to do Democrat will, always and forever. Rather, it meant Trump was tired of being stonewalled by RINOs in the House and Senate, and decided to send a strategic message of how his White House would operate, if Republicans didn’t get on board with the conservative platforms.
It’s Schumer and Pelosi who mistook this meeting for something politically significant — something akin to a policy etched in stone. That’s their missteps.
Now that they’ve got to try and save face by acting as if Trump were betraying their political agreement is called Just Due. Now that they’re angry at Trump and characterizing the White House immigration plan as a deal-breaker is called a Good Deal. It means, for conservatives, the plan’s headed in the right direction.
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