After the House originally passed the bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while also repealing the president's recent executive orders and his deferred action program for DREAMers which was implemented in 2012, Speaker John Boehner said the House "did its work" and he passed the buck on to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"God bless him and good luck" Boehner said.
Following several failed attempts to pass the House bill in the Senate, McConnell shot back and said "it's clear we can't go forward in the Senate." The next move is "up to the House" he said.
Speaker Boehner followed suit today in this turn-based game of Whose Fault is it Anyway and said it's time for the Senate to "do their work."
"The House did its job. We won the fight to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president's unconstitutional actions. Now, it's time for the Senate to do their work. You know, in the gift shop out here they got these little booklets on how a bill becomes a law," he quipped.
Boehner also said that Democrats need to "get off their ass and do something" which is even more amusing to me because Republicans control both chambers of Congress now. It's up to them to govern.
It should come as a surprise to no one that Republicans are incapable of governing.
While Democrats controlled the Senate, the House had no choice but to pass bills that could also pass the Senate, but now that Republicans are in control of both chambers Boehner sees no need to water down legislation. By refusing to be pragmatic Boehner isn't sticking it to Democrats or the president, however, he's sticking it to his own party.
This could all end tomorrow if congressional Republicans agreed to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security and then vote on a separate bill containing their pet issues. They have no other choice because even if the Senate were to pass the current iteration of the House bill which would repeal the president's executive orders, the president himself wouldn't sign it.
Many on the left and right grumbled at the compromises that were made to fund the rest of the federal government near the end of the previous session of Congress, but if those compromise had not been made we may be looking at a total government shutdown at the end of this month rather than just a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
If recent events are any indication, and I assume that they are, we may face another total government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year when the "Cromnibus" expires.