Romney’s Immigration Exaggeration

The Republican line on the President's mini-Dream Act move last week is that he doesn't really care about immigrants because he promised to have done comprehensive reform in his first year. I heard it on This Week and I heard Mitt Romney say as much in an interview with Bob Schieffer on Sunday that pissed me off. FactCheck.org covers Romney’s Immigration Exaggeration.

"The president supported and lobbied for the DREAM Act when the Democrats controlled a majority of votes in both houses of Congress. The House passed the legislation Dec. 8, 2010, 216 to 198, with 208 Democrats and eight Republicans voting for it. He congratulated the House for passing the bill, urged the Senate to pass it and promised to sign it. The bill failed, however, to receive enough support in the Senate to end debate and advance to a final vote."

In other words the president tried and the Republican's filibustered it. So to argue he didn't try is a lie. For a lot of issues the Republicans are using this argument, that the President didn't succeed so he doesn't deserve election. But for many issues the President tried and the Republican's filibustered and that was that. They argue that he should have compromised but he did, over and over and they kept moving the goal posts. It's the GOP that isn't compromising. They argue that Obama rammed down healthcare, ignoring the year long debate and attempts at compromise with any Republicans who just kept making demands and pushing things off and ultimately voting against. It's despicable and a spurious argument and they need to be called on it. I wish journalists would do so.