The risk of another government shutdown before the midterm election is too great to use the upcoming continuing resolution as leverage against President Obama’s executive action on immigration, according to Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar.
“It would be nice to be able to use the purse strings. The problem with that is you saw what happened in October of last year,” he said, estimating that Republicans lost the Virginia governors race due to the shutdown in 2013.
“You are going to deal with [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and the President of the United States, they want a disruptive aspect coming into this election cycle and I think one of the things we are going to have to do is at least make the pitch but I really don’t think we are going to be able to put meat behind it in the CR due to what transpires from that,” he said.
Gosar added that he is in favor of immigration reform — in a piecemeal fashion that is focused on border security and reforming guest worker programs — but reiterated that there is no chance the House will act on it this year and that the Senate-passed immigration bill is “a horrendous amnesty bill.”
“From that stand point I would challenge this, I would try to go to court in regards this,” he said, advocating using the courts and the media to push back against an executive amnesty.
“It is not that I wouldn’t make the pitch on the CR but I know it would be strictly only messaging because we wouldn’t be able to put any teeth into it because of the election cycle and then when the election cycle comes down then I think there is plenty of opportunity,” he added.
Gosar went on to note that he does has concerns about the slow pace of litigation and highlighted his pitch to get House Leadership to impeach Attorney General Eric Holder and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen as a way to put Obama on defense during the October recess before the November elections.
“My advice is that this is temporary, this is not legal, and that there are consequences to elections and so the first thing that I want to see done when we take back the Senate and the House in the 114th Congress is go back after the illegal actions of the president,” he said, adding that includes any possible executive amnesty.
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