President Barack Obama's immigration order to allow nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants "to come out of the shadows and get right with the law" is little more than an attempt to score "cheap political points," New York Republican Rep. Peter King says.
Speaking on Newsmax TV Thursday night after the president announced his far-reaching plan that bypassed Congress, King charged the action "goes beyond his constitutional powers."
"This is a prerogative left to Congress," King said of the plan. "[P]olitically and in the best sense of the word, it does poison the well."
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King noted Republicans "scored massive victories" in the midterm elections, becoming the majority in both chambers, and if Obama was serious about immigration reform, "he would have waited until January" when the Congress convenes with its newest lawmakers.
"He could have said, 'I'm going to issue an executive order on July 1 if we can't work out a deal'," King said. "At that stage if we couldn't work it out, he wants to do it, we can take whatever action we want to then."
But to bypass Congress "after an election which he lost" just shows "it's basically just trying to score some cheap political points here," King charged.
King also warned against Republicans pulling in the reins on spending to thwart the president.
"If we bring that action, which ends up being every 30 days or 60 days, we come close to shutting the government down … and we're not going to be able to present a coherent Republican agenda," King said.
King said threatening to not fund the government is a risky and distracting proposition.
"What I was looking forward to, prior to the president doing this, or saying he was going to do this, is in January you would have the House and the Senate both under the Republican control," he said. "We could lay out a Republican agenda, we can go forward, focus the country on that."
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