Playing Not To Lose in DC – Recipe for Disaster

Playing Not To Lose in DC – Recipe for Disaster

 

Speaker Boehner has generated another uproar with his comments that the House never will engage in the conference committee process with the Senate over S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate in June.   Some say it means the death of immigration reform this year; others say it’s the end for another year, or even longer.    After some reflection, others have recognized that he only has repeated what he has been saying for a good while: it’s going to be piece by piece.

 

Nothing wrong with that at all.   What is disturbing is that the various House bills have been sitting in committee for months, and no one is doing anything at all to make them move.

 

Boehner and his colleagues told us that Obamacare, the shutdown and the debt ceiling have taken up everyone’s time completely.   Not buying that – plenty of House members to work on other issues, just like Congress has done in other times.  Now he says “we’re trying to nail down our principles.”   Not buying that either.

 

Here is what is going on:  the Republicans do not want to give Obama anything that he can claim as another win.  Ever.  

 

In athletic jargon, The Republicans are playing not to lose.   And what does that get a football or basketball team?  A loss.   If you play to win, you have a decent or better chance to win; if you play not to lose, you get tight, make mistakes, and your chances of losing go way up.  

 

Wake up!   The Obamacare rollout fiasco has given the Republicans tremendous leverage is they want to use it.   They want the separate path to citizenship to go away? Demand it and it’s their  win!   If they throw away this opportunity to drive the immigration reform agenda, they will be playing not to lose, and will be giving the momentum back to the Democrats.   This is a golden opportunity for the Republicans to step forward and do something that is true to their long-standing ideals:  pass  legislation that will help small businesses.   Those businesses depend on essential, undocumented labor much more than large companies.  Small businesses create more jobs than the Fortune 500 companies ever will.   Small businesses can make smart, nimble decisions that will keep them on the cutting edge of what the markets demand, and that is their strength.     Their unfair disadvantage is the way the immigration system is stacked against them.

 

All the talk about “finding our principles” is nothing more than a stall technique; the Republicans know what their principles are, they just are terrified to act on them, because they fear another loss to Obama.  Sometimes people, even politicians, have to show some courage, instead of acting on fear.

 

How about it?

 

Gerard M. Chapman

Chapman Law Firm

P. O. Box 1477

Greensboro, NC 27402

403-A North Elm Street

Greensboro, NC 27401

Phone: (336) 334-0034

Fax: (336) 334-0036

E-mail: gerrychapman@chapman-immig.com

Website: www.chapman-immig.com