House repugicans emerged from a Tuesday morning conference meeting predicting a proposal to arm Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will pass — but only if Democrats provide significant support.House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (r-Calif.) said he wasn’t sure his amendment granting President Obama’s request for congressional authority would be backed by a majority of repugicans, many of whom expressed deep reservations about the plan.And Tom Cole (r-Okla.), a member close to Speaker John Boehner (r-Ohio), predicted that Democrats would have to supply a significant number of votes to approve the amendment, since many members on both sides are likely to oppose it.“It’s going to take a bipartisan coalition to pass it, and I think it’ll be bipartisan opposition,” Cole said.
The repugicans demand that the president do something
about ISIS. They have criticized the president for not doing enough, but
when push comes to shove, they can’t muster enough votes to give the
president the authorization that he needs to arm the Syrian rebels.
Democrats are skeptical of getting into another war. Those who oppose
the measure are doing so from a consistent position.
The repugican opposition is based on petty partisan
election year politics. House repugicans have decided that they aren’t
going to help President Obama on anything, including national security.
It is unimaginable, but repugicans are creating the perception that
they are rooting for Obama to fail on national security.
This measure should be a no brainer even in an
election year. The repugicans can’t spend weeks on television criticizing
President Obama for his strategy against ISIS, and then refuse to do
their part. If the authorization fails, it will illustrate the hypocrisy
behind the repugican strategy of obstruction and gridlock.
If ISIS is a threat to America, don’t expect House repugicans to do anything about it.
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