Mo Brooks: 'Democrats Crave a Federal Government Shutdown'

It would not be wise to risk a government shutdown over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration when the GOP is so close to taking the Senate and can confront Obama later as a unified legislature, according to Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks.

“There may be a very, very tiny minority of Republicans who are willing to risk a federal government shutdown over the immigration issue. I am not one of those,” Brooks, a Tea Party Republican and immigration hawk, said in an interview with Breitbart News.

Brooks explained that the only reason to risk a government shutdown by using the continuing resolution to fund the government as leverage against Obama’s executive actions on immigration would be “if there is a reasonable prospect” for success.

“But the Democrats have made it quite clear that they crave a government shutdown because they are desperate for an issue that they believe will change this November’s likely election results,” he explained. “And so we would be playing right into the Democrats’ hands, and after everything was said and done, we would have nothing to show for it on immigration because the Senate and White House would not agree with our continuing resolution, and the Democrats, instead of losing the Senate, might keep the Senate. So it’s bad strategy.”

The Alabama Republican stressed that House Republicans will have more power with a friendlier Senate.

“I am more than happy to consider any lawful remedy that the House of Representatives has, and [our cause] is strengthened enormously if we have the Unites States Senate that will at least take the time to vote on legislation addressing Barack Obama’s lawlessness. Right now we don’t have a Senate that is willing to vote,” Brooks said.

“As long as the Senate is opposite us, as long as the Senate supports open borders, as long as the Senate is willing to see a collapse of American sovereignty, we can’t address satisfactorily Barack Obama’s desire to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens,” he said.

In the short term, Brooks said that the House should include Obama’s executive actions on immigration in its Obamacare lawsuit should Obama move forward with them.

“Unilateral presidential amnesty is a clear violation of federal immigration law, and if the President is going to violate America’s immigration laws, then I would hope the Republican response would be to add this issue to the Obamacare lawsuit,” Brooks said.

Iowa Republican Steve King has left the door open for potentially using the continuing resolution as leverage against Obama’s executive amnesty. Unprompted, Brooks praised King’s efforts but said they would not work.

“I very much appreciate Congressman Steve King and his perseverance on this immigration issue, and if it had a prayer of success, I would join him,” King said. “But it has no prayer of success because it can’t get through the Senate and the White House. And the Democrats crave a federal government shutdown.”

“If there was a plausible path that works, I’m for it. But in this instance, the effort and a short-term gain will in all probability result in a long-term loss that would prevent us from being able to stop the President – because we would not win the Senate this November, and right now we are on a path to win the Senate,” he said, recalling how Republican poll numbers declined during the government shutdown last summer and expressing concern that a repeat could even result in Republicans losing the House come November.