Republicans are nearing a showdown with President Barack Obama — and gearing up to define his "radical policies," says Rep. Tim Huelskamp.
"There's a real showdown ahead. It might come in the next week, it might come in January but it's definitely on its way," Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican, said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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"At the end of the day his policies were rejected and Republicans now have to move forward and pass bills that reject and roll back his radical policies."
Huelskamp, a member of the House Veteran Affairs Committee and the House Tea Party Caucus, said he is pushing for the defunding of the president's impending amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
"Congress should have done this back in June of 2012, the last time he did an amnesty via executive order which created this massive humanitarian crisis at the border this summer," Huelskamp said.
"But the leadership and the House and certainly [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and the Senate wouldn't do anything about it.
"When we have a new Senate … in January, then we'll have a chance to take away the money for implementing an executive amnesty."
Huelskamp said it would be Obama who is shutting the government down — not Republicans — if push came to shove in defunding government programs to stop the president's immigration plan.
"It's usually the president that shuts the government down. That's the truth of the matter. A year ago, the House sent bill after bill after bill to Harry Reid in the Senate and Harry Reid said no to keeping the government open," he said.
"I'm confident the House will send it over again, but far too many Republicans don't leave town often enough to get out that message."
Huelskamp said it is very possible Obama will refuse to sign a bill okaying the Keystone XL pipeline project.
"But then he has to explain again to 10,000 Americans why they don't have a job," he said.
"Here's the shocking thing … he says, 'You know what, I just lost an election but I'm going to continue my radical environmental policies along with my radical immigration policies, along with my radical take-your-pick policies.'
"The biggest losers in this, and [its] hard for me to give advice to the other party, but Democrats are going to regret him ever being president, certainly when they go through another two years of him being more and more radical and more of a lame duck president — whether it's on environmental policies or healthcare policies, he's shown his true colors."