Democrats in Congress decided to use the “nuclear option” to pass their COVID relief plan. Leverage their slim majorities in the House and Senate, they chose to ignore Republicans’ request to negotiate. Not much of a “unity” move there, huh Dems?
But that doesn’t mean Republicans didn’t have any tricks up their sleeve. Because Democrats were using budget reconciliation to force their agenda, it gave Republicans a chance to put forward a blizzard of amendments, called a “vote-a-rama.” This would force Democrats in the Senate to vote on issues they would have otherwise liked to avoid. Not great for Democrats in swing states, who might jeopardize their jobs if they voted for a radical agenda.
One of the measures was on whether the country should hand out relief checks to undocumented immigrants. Joe Biden was all fine for shelling out tax dollars to people who are in the country illegally. Republicans were able to put forward a measure to nix that idea, forcing Democrats to decide if they wanted to neglect suffering Americans to help illegals.
All Republican senators voted to block checks to illegals. And they had support from some unlikely allies.
A handful of swing state Senate Democrats joined Senate Republicans on Thursday to add a budget amendment that will help ensure that stimulus checks, funded by American taxpayers, are not given to illegal aliens living in the United States…
All 50 Senate Republicans supported the amendment, as well as eight swing state Senate Democrats. Those Democrats include Sens. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
“The Biden administration shouldn’t reward illegal immigrants for breaking our laws by giving them checks,” Cotton said in a statement. “Instead of courting foreigners with U.S. taxpayer funds, President Biden should use that money to aid American schools, businesses, and families.” [Source: Breitbart]
This vote proved critical for Joe Biden’s administration, as it reveals there are not enough Democrats in the Senate to back his agenda. It’s clear Joe wants to push a pro-illegal, open borders immigration plan. But with a 50-50 split in the Senate, he needs every last Democrat to back him. This time around, eight Democrats rejected Biden’s attempt to give checks to non-citizens.
What will they do in the future, as Biden pushes for more benefits to illegals? We know that Biden wants to end Trump’s “remain-in-Mexico” asylum policy. Biden also wants to increase the number of refugees that come to American by over 100,000 a year. He vowed to give undocumented migrants free health care, skipping over suffering Americans.
Can these eight Democrats, which include West Virginia moderate Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Krysten Sinema, be counted on to oppose Biden’s most radical agenda? It’s hard to say. This time around, they made a calculated move to avoid looking back in front of their states. Voting to use tax dollars in this way would not go over well with many Americans.
But some other parts of Biden’s plan, like killing the border wall, might be supported by these Democrats. It comes down to how the party leaders can coerce them. Democrats are determined to blow open our borders, come hell or high water.
It might take the combined effort of every last Republican senator to stave off their radical agenda.