You've got to sort of hand it to John Boehner. The man can casually slough off a couple of DREAMers before his morning eggs and toast, while promising yet again to get something done on immigration reform. But only a few hours later he can say House Republicans have no intention of taking up the Senate plan which has passed there, and it would pass in the House too if it ever came up for a vote. Boehner just swatted that idea away like an annoying mosquito.
Esther Yu-Hsi Lee over at Think Progress has the details.
via Think Progress
On Wednesday morning, two teenagers from the pro-reform group Fair Immigration Reform Movement Youth In Action, approached House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) at a diner to tell him that their families had been separated by the broken immigration system. Carmen Lima, 13, and Jennifer Martinez, 16, asked Boehner to advance immigration reform and he responded that although he was committed to moving the bill, it would not “be an easy path forward.”
CARMEN: You’re a father right?… So how would you feel if you had to tell your kids at the age of ten that you were never coming home?
BOEHNER: That wouldn’t be good.
CARMEN: That’s what happened to me. I thought I was never going to see my dad again because [inaudible]. And I cried so hard when my mom told me that, at the age of ten.
BOEHNER: Well, I’m trying to find some way to get this thing done. It’s, uh, you know, not easy—not gonna be an easy path forward. But I’ve made it clear since the day after the election that I’m going to get this done.
CARMEN: So we can count on your vote for immigration reform?
BOEHNER: I will try to find a way to move the bill forward. Thanks.
And of that GOP "Leadership" [sic] press conference this morning?
Mere hours later during a press conference, Boehner said, “We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill … I want us to deal with this issue, but I want to deal with it in a commonsense step by step way as we develop the principles, we’ll figure out how we’ll move ahead.”
Yep, they'll move ahead when they a develop a consensus set of principles for moving ahead. When pressed by a reporter on just when that'll be John Boehner could not say exactly. How's about just being honest for a change and saying "never", right Boehner?
