GOP Clueless on How to Fund DHS

At the end of the month you'll hear about a political fight that threatens to shutdown the Department of Homeland Security. I don't know why their budget whatever is up now as opposed to the regular federal fiscal year, but whatever. Martin Longman explains what's going on (it's about immigration) in one clear paragraph, GOP Clueless on How to Fund DHS:

"The root of the problem is pretty simple to understand. The Republicans want to take away the Executive Branch’s ability to set its own deportation policies and they want to insert that language in the DHS appropriations bill. The Democrats will never allow that, and the president would veto the bill if they did. So, the Republicans will either cave in on the issue or the department will run out of money. The House Republicans want the Senate Republicans to cave and the Senate Republicans want the House Republicans to cave."

For further clarity he adds: "There’s an effort to place the blame for this impasse on the Senate Democrats, but the Republicans are firmly in control of both chambers of Congress and have the responsibility to fund the government. And they know it."

Ed Kilgore talks about how this might lead to Bipartisan Filibuster Reform. "But that is indeed the latest demand of House conservatives who want Senate Republicans to do whatever is necessary to get a DHS appropriations bill with no funding for Obama’s executive actions on immigration onto Barack Obama’s desk. Indeed, House firebrands are actually criticizing Ted Cruz for being insufficiently militant in the current circumstances." He goes on to say that both sides only want filibusters when they're the minority and neither is willing to get rid of it outright.

Nancy LeTourneau says McConnell Is Blowing It…Big Time. "McConnell’s initial strategy was to paint President Obama as the new obstructionist by forcing him to veto legislation that would otherwise undo his agenda. But that is getting all gummed up by either the Democrats in the Senate standing strong or the lunatic caucus in his party making compromise impossible. The Majority Leader finds himself between a rock and a hard place and can’t seem to get much of anything to the President’s desk. So instead of being able to label President Obama as the obstructionist, McConnell is now having to resort to using that one on the Democrats in Congress."

She goes on to say that while low-information voters don't know any of the details, they know Obama is President and after the November election the Republicans control all of Congress. One is getting stuff done, the other isn't. She also points out, Even the Wall Street Journal Says Republican Congress is Failing

Meanwhile the world faces real issues which we are ignoring. NASA now says NASA Study Warns of Megadroughts in West Due to Climate Change "California is in its fourth year of drought, which has left its water reserves dry and cost its economy billions of dollars. Imagine these conditions across southern and central U.S. for another 30 years. There's an 80 percent chance that 30-year droughts will be the new normal for the region after 2050, if we continue to burn through fossil fuels at the current rate."