WASHINGTON — The congresswoman and former presidential candidate could not be more clear, nor the situation she sees more urgent.
“The Republic is at stake” if “amnesty” is included in any immigration bill that becomes law, Rep. Michele Bachmann told WND last month.
Now, she says, the situation has actually gotten worse.
Bachmann and her House colleagues, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, have a new warning: Their own congressional leaders have joined the opposition and the only one who can stop amnesty now is you, the voter.
Amnesty is the term conservatives use to describe a path to legalization for illegal immigrants in legislation such as the bill passed in the Senate last month.
Bachmann says that bill is essentially the same as the one introduced by senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and defeated in 2007 after a huge backlash by the conservative grassroots.
She says the 2007 bill caused her phone lines “to melt,” provoking more outrage than even Obamacare.
This time? The phones are silent.
Bachmann thinks that’s because people simply aren’t aware that the same thing is happening again.
Bachmann, Gohmert and King rallied their colleagues to put enough pressure on House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to force him to agree to apply the “Hastert rule” to legislation coming out of a conference committee to reconcile House and Senate versions of any bill.
Sticking to the Hastert rule is a way of preventing the House from approving legislation without the approval of the majority of the Republicans.
Last month, Bachmann told WND she feared an amnesty bill coming out of such a conference would be a “Trojan Horse” because “it won’t be (most) Republicans that pass it.”
“It’ll be Nancy Pelosi leading all the House Democrats to vote for it, and just enough Republicans will vote for the bill and you’ll have amnesty.”
Now, she sees GOP party leaders unreservedly throwing their support behind amnesty.
Bachmann also warns that amnesty supporters include members of “the House of Representatives you would never think in a million years could possibly support this foolish decision, but they do.”
“Don’t assume, just because your member of the House of representatives is a Republican or a conservative, they’re going to vote against a bill that has legalization,” Bachmann warns.
She is pleading with all conservative voters to call their members of Congress in the House to demand they do not vote for amnesty.
She urges readers to call the House of Representatives switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Speaker of the House John Boehner can be reached at (202) 225-6205 or (800) 582-1001.
He is also on Twitter and can be reached by email. Boehner’s fax number is (202) 225-5117.
WND spoke with Bachmann, Gohmert and King to find out why they believe amnesty could mean more than the end of the Republican party, but could actually mean the end of the Republic itself.
GOP LEADERSHIP SOLD ON AMNESTY
WND asked Bachmann whether she was encouraged or discouraged by last week’s meeting of GOP House members on immigration.
“It was very mixed, it was very divided, but it was very clear the leadership is completely sold on passing an amnesty bill. So, I’m very nervous about where we’re going because the 900-pound gorilla in the room is legalization,” she reflected.
She then gravely warned, “That is the only thing the president wants.”
Bachmann says they discussed four or five separate bills as opposed to one comprehensive immigration reform package, but some incorporated legalization within them.
LEGALIZATION IS EVERYTHING
“The only game in town is legalization, for President Obama and for Senate Democrats. They want that legalization status,” Bachmann declared.
She thinks the Democrats would actually accept all five Republican bills and say “Hey, great! Have any bill you want” because they could care less about what else is in the bill, all they want is legalization.
Bachmann says the reason for this is very clear: It’s all about gaining more political power. Complete power, in fact.
“Once President Obama gets legalization, then he’s got literally tens of millions of individuals he could potentially put on his voting roles to cement in place his policies for progressivism,” the congresswoman warned.
“I think people really need to be aware, the president will go for amnesty, the Senate will give us amnesty, the only brake we have is in the House of Representatives,” adding WND readers should be “very, very concerned” because resistance in the House is not very strong right now.
“And legalization is everything, it is the game changer. It changes our nation structurally forever, if this goes through.”
As Bachmann detailed to WND last month, “This is President Obama’s number one political agenda item because he knows we will never again have a Republican president, ever, if amnesty goes into effect. We will perpetually have a progressive, liberal president, probably a Democrat, and we will probably see the House of Representatives go into Democrat hands and the Senate will stay in Democrat hands.”
The lawmaker said that would create a permanent progressive class, and the country would never return to its constitutional foundations.
“That’s what’s at risk right now. It may sound melodramatic, I don’t mean it that way, but this is that big and that important.”
King is also worried the GOP is digging its own grave.
He says conservatives are on a “suicide watch over the Republican party.”
King disagrees with Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who believe the GOP needs to support amnesty in order to win Hispanic votes.
He agress with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who says he earned 40 percent of the Hispanic vote by sticking to conservative principles rather than pandering.
“It’s unbelieveable to me that people would take that kind of bait and let the hook get set as deep as it’s been set,” said King.
He warned fellow conservatives, “Those folks who have always advocated for amnesty and open borders, and I am talking especially about people on the Republican side of the aisle, they’re reeling this in.”
“They were reeling in the four members of the Gang of Eight on that idea, ‘Well we have to grant amnesty, otherwise, we’re never going to win a presidential election again.’”
ADVICE FROM THE ENEMY
King says it’s one thing for Republican to disagree, but it’s another to take advice from the enemy.
“Barack Obama came to our conference this year in February to make the pitch that we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including amnesty (of course, he doesn’t use that word), and if we don’t do that, he said, ‘You’ll never win another national election,’” said King in disbelief.
“And, he said, ‘I’m trying to help you.’ Now, what Republican would hire community-organizer Barack Obama to be their political consultant?” added the congressman, incredulously.
Yet, says King, it looks to him as though much of the establishment class within the Republican party is actually accepting the political consulting advice of President Obama.
“Why would he say to us, ‘Do this’ if he believed it would be good for Republicans? That’s the last thing we’d hear out of him.”
WND asked Gohmert if Republicans will pay for it at the polls if they don’t pass immigration reform.
He said the GOP could pay a price, “If we don’t make our message clear, if we don’t express our hearts and why we are doing what we are doing to preserve a country that Hispanics will want to come to,” as well as Asians and Africans.
“We could possibly pay at the polls in the short term. But, just as you’ve had more and more African-Americans realizing, ‘Wow, we have one party that’s pandered to us, doled out government benefits, kept us from reaching our God-given potential … and you have another, this Republican Party, in the case of Hispanics, that says we want you to learn English because we don’t want you to be a ditch-digger just because you can’t communicate — we know you are smart enough to be president of your company and to be president of this country, if you’re born here.’”
Gohmert painted a vision of an America with equal opportunity for all, telling newcomers, “We want you to reach your God-given potential. We want to educate you and bring out the best. We don’t want to keep you in schools that are failing you and failing America. We want the schools to be better and we want you to reach your potential.”
He continued, “If we don’t communicate that message we could pay for it in the short term. But, in the long term, I think you will see people start waking up and going, ‘Wow, these Republicans really like me and we share so much, generally speaking.’”
WE SHARE A FAITH
Gohmert sees many Hispanics as natural conservatives, observing, “We share a faith in God, a devotion to family and a hard-work ethic. Things that made America great.”
“We have more and more Hispanics starting to realize that, and some of them I’ve served with. Just incredibly wonderful people. And I expect in the future you will see more and more of that.
GOP WILL GET THE BLAME
Bachmann doesn’t mince words.
“Contrary to popular opinion, Republicans won’t get patted on the back or get new votes because of passing amnesty — they’re going to get blamed.”
She predicts Republicans would lose the House in 2014, and things would just get worse once amnesty is in place.
“Because, I think the president, even by executive order, could again wave his magic wand before 2014 and he’d say, ‘Now, all of the new legal Americans are going to have voting rights.’”
“Why do I say that? He did in 2012. Do you remember? Anyone who was here as a Latino under age 30, he said, ‘You get to vote.’
“What?!? He decides you get to vote? If he did it in 2012, take it to the bank, he’ll do it in 2014.”
ONE PARTY RULE
Bachmann says after that, the Democrats will control the White House, the Senate and the House, ushering in one-party rule.
“At that point, they will change election law. And it will be almost impossible to ever see a Republican majority again.
“Do we get how important this is? I’m not crying wolf here. This is the most important vote that we’re going to take in the next two years.”
That’s why she says it is so important to call the House switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to tell Congress not to pass amnesty.
“WND readers need to understand there are conservative Republicans, self-styled conservative Republicans, that are for amnesty,” she said. “People in the House of Representatives you would never think in a million years could possibly support this foolish decision, but they do.”
She says not to assume members of Congress will vote against legalization just because they are conservative. Bachmann was too diplomatic to mention it, but even such high-profile conservatives as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., are supporting legalization.
And once the president gets an inch, she says, he will take a mile.
“Even if it’s a guest worker bill, even if it’s a germ of a bill that gives legalization status, that’s what President Obama will take, and he’ll run a mile and we’ll have full-on perpetual amnesty with no hope of deportation, ever. We will have lost control of the border,” Bachmann predicted.
AMNESTY IS NOT DEAD
King shares Bachmann’s concern that whatever immigration bill the House approves will become a vehicle for amnesty.
“I’m still worried that if we send something over to the Senate, it might be an E-verify bill, guest-worker bill, it could be a Dream Act bill … They could attach something on the Senate side, send it back, build the political pressure, and then, if our Speaker says ‘Well, the political pressure is so great, that we have to take this up or we’re going to lose seats in the upcoming election,’ that’s how we could get to a scenario where we end up with amnesty sent to the president,” he explained.
King says, “Really, there’s no reason for the House to pass anything.”
“Why are we going through this exercise if amnesty is not going to get to the president’s desk? Because, he’s not going to sign anything that doesn’t have it.”
King warns, “The exercise just leaves us vulnerable. We’re dancing with the wrong side of the aisle here and no good can come from it.”
IMPENDING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
“We should tell our constituents our president is violating his own oath of office. This is an impending constitutional crisis,” predicts King.
“No amount of legislation is going to make the president do what he doesn’t want to do, which is enforce laws he doesn’t like.
“So, passing more laws that he doesn’t like is only going to exacerbate the problem. Plus, he’s not going to sign it and Harry Reid’s not going to take it up.
“No good can come from this. We should tell our constituents, ‘This is the president’s problem, he has created it and we are not going to conform with the president’s unconstitutional whims.’”
SPANK THE PRESIDENT
WND asked Bachmann if she is similarly concerned the president will do what he wants no matter what Congress does on immigration.
“Well, of course he’s going to, unless we pinch his ears back,” she observed.
She noted his penchant to rule by executive order is working for him but not the American people.
“He has a perpetual magic wand and nobody’s given him a spanking yet and taken it out of his hand,” she added maternally.
Bachmann says Congress has the power to discipline a misbehaving president, “And the way we spank the president is we do it through the checkbook.”
She says the House of Representatives has the most power in Washington because, “We have the power of the purse.”
“We’re the ones who say, ‘No, you can’t have the money.’ What’s wrong with us? What is wrong with us that we would give the president ten cents to fund Obamacare?”
IMMIGRATION BILL UNCONSTITUTIONAL
King confronted the president when the Obama administration recently decided not to enforce the employer mandate requirement in the health care law until after the 2014 elections.
“If President Obama wants to make changes to Obamacare, he must come to Congress,” King told CNS, adding, “We are a nation governed by laws written by Congress, not memos and blog posts written by bureaucrats.” King said.
Gohemert, who is a lawyer, says the Senate immigration bill has something in common with Obamacare, observing, “There is no question it’s unconstitutional.”
He says that’s because both Senate bills included funding, but only the House can do that.
“It is unconstitutional and, actually, Obamacare is unconstitutional. I was hoping in the original case that went to the Supreme Court someone would raise the origination clause, that anything that raises revenue must originate in the House.”
“And that point was not raised. It should have been raised,” he added wistfully.
THE END OF AMERICA
All three lawmakers agree amnesty will cause many serious problems, including higher unemployment, lower wages, greater national debt.
But they see something even more serious on the horizon, something that could change everything.
They fear amnesty could lead to one-party rule and the end of America as we know it.
Bachmann paints a scenario after amnesty passes in which “you’ll see the president, just like Superman, open his shirt and there will be a big ‘S’ on it, and President Obama will become the super civil rights advocate for all the people that have new legalization status.”
She says President Obama and his “minions” will then declare, “I’m the one who’s going to give you voting rights.”
So, even if a legalization bill passes that does not include voting rights, Bachmann says the president will simply declare, “We’re America and you’re legalized and you don’t have voting status? I’m here to give you civil rights. You deserve the right to vote.”
She says that will put Republicans in an impossible position, asking what are they going to do, tell people “No, we’re not going to allow you to vote?”
She predicts the president will then say, “[T]he Republicans don’t want you to have access to the benefits you deserve, Obamacare, 80 different means-tested welfare programs, Social Security, Medicare … you deserve that, too. I’m going to be your champion to make sure you get all of these public assistance benefits.’”
“And what’s our platform going to be?” Bachmann wonders. “No, you can’t have them? We will immediately be on defense and we will be forever on defense because the president has one plan. It is open borders with ongoing, rolling amnesty and no meaningful form of deportation anywhere.”
Bachmann adds one last warning: “That’s what WND viewers need to know we’re up against. This is very serious. It is a structural change in America and it will mean there will be no meaningful way to elect again a constitutional conservative for president. It’s not gonna happen.”
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