John Boehner claims he has no intention of pushing a bill that violates GOP ‘principles’
House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he doesn’t “intend” to push a bill that violates Republican Party “principles.” This comes as 70 House Republicans appear poised to challenge Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in an affort to force additional debate on an immigration bill.
“My goal is always to bring bills to the floor that have a strong Republican majority,” Boehner said. “Immigration reform — it’s a very difficult issue, but I don’t intend to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor that violates what I and what members of my party — what our principles are.”
The 70 members are petitioning for a special Republican conference meeting on the bill, a “highly unusual” move to go head-to-head with the speaker, according to Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Steve King (Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (Texas), who are serving as spokespersons for the group.
Boehner’s comments were in specific response to a question about the Hastert rule — a procedure that, if followed, prevents bills from being brought to the floor unless they have a majority of support from the majority party. The group of Republicans fighting immigration legislation want the rule honored in order to more fully discuss and vet the measures.
In an interview with World Net Daily this week, Bachmann predicted that if the immigration bill becomes law, “the whole political system will change.”
“This is President Obama’s number one political agenda item because he knows we will never again have a Republican president, ever, if amnesty goes into effect. We will perpetually have a progressive, liberal president, probably a Democrat, and we will probably see the House of Representatives go into Democrat hands and the Senate will stay in Democrat hands,” Bachmann said.
She also said that if it passes, the bill will create a permanent progressive class.
“That’s what’s at risk right now. It may sound melodramatic, I don’t mean it that way, but this is that big and that important,” Bachmann said.
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