Associated Press
President Obama greets supporters after speaking on immigration policy in El Paso last year.
In the wake of their 2012 election defeats, Republicans have an important choice to make when it comes to immigration.
Will GOP policymakers continue to refuse to work constructively -- in part because of their far-right vision and in part because they don't want to hand President Obama a major victory -- regardless of the electoral consequences, or will they come to their senses?
Yesterday, for the first time in a long while, there was reason for optimism.
Sean Hannity said Thursday he has "evolved" on immigration and now supports a "pathway to citizenship."
Hannity told his radio listeners Thursday afternoon that the United States needs to "get rid of the immigration issue altogether."
Just a couple of hours later, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told ABC, "This issue has been around far too long. A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I'm confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all." (The choice of words here was critical: Boehner not only endorsed acting on the issue, he called for a "comprehensive" approach.)
And about two hours after the Speaker's comments, none other than Rupert Murdoch said it's time for Washington to approve "sweeping, generous immigration reform," making "law-abiding Hispanics welcome."
This is not to say passage will be easy -- Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), one of Congress' leading anti-immigrant members, is already throwing a fit -- but Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue seem very encouraged, and with GOP leaders like Boehner and Hannity on board, the prospects for comprehensive reform haven't been this good in years.
"The best thing about Republicans losing is that it will likely force them to cut an immigration deal," former Bush aide Mark McKinnon said yesterday.
Postscript: I should add one key caveat. When Hannity said he's "evolved" on the issue, he also said he wants to see officials "control the border first." This is often used as an excuse to kill good legislation.
Remember, as far as President Obama was concerned, he took unprecedented steps on border security in the hopes that it would persuade Republicans to work with him on a reform plan. GOP leaders ignored the administration's efforts and refused to cooperate.
But if Republicans say they won't act until the border is 100% secure, nothing will ever happen. This Arizona Republic piece that ran a couple of years ago continues to resonate, offering a serious, sober look at the political dispute when politicians say they want to "secure the border first," and then talk about immigration reform."
Anyone with a minimal knowledge or understanding about the nearly 2,000-mile swath of land between Mexico and the United States realizes that requiring a secure border establishes an impossible standard. [...]
Tom Barry, director of the Transborder Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., said the demand for a completely secure border is a ploy by those opposed to immigration reform to prevent new policies.
"No matter how much enforcement you have, there will always be people coming through," he said. "Since that is true, opponents to immigration reform will always be able to say the border is still not secure ... and therefore we cannot pass immigration reform."
Something to keep in mind.
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Now that the GOP has lost its number #1 priority, making the President a one term office holder, the fever has indeed broken.
Of course the priests of ideology will scream but the rising approval of the centrist GOP will stifle them.
No guarantees, just a ray of hope.
If they try and do some actual work on this it may end up splitting their base. Like taking off a bandage this is gonna hurt and if they want to remain relevant it needs to.
The Dem leadership needs to press this hard, press the GOP coalition to the breaking point. They need to shear off enough of the GOP realists, and this is precisely the issue to do it with.
The huge question here is whether a House revolt is possible as in 1910. Is it conceivable that Pelosi could forge a Unity Coalition Caucus with enough moderate GOP republicans to rule the House? Barney made some noise about coalitions with moderate republicans, but what I don't understand is whether a House revolt that I am describing is even conceivable.
The perks for the GOP would be pretty appetizing- the Unity caucus could hand out plumb chairmanships to the moderate GOP members who decided to join. The handwriting is on the wall that they have no path to such leadership with the dominance of the Nuts in the GOP.
Anyone intimate with the machinations on the Hill know how realistic this scenario is nowdays? (Revolt against Speaker Cannon, 1910) Of course, the revolt would not happen this way, but on the opening days of the House when the normally routine formation of the caucuses and the Speaker of the House is elected for the 113th (next) US Congress.
agree with dragoon. Perhaps splitting the base is the best outcome republicans can hope for. They absolutely must purge themselves of the extremists if they are to survive. And without the establishment backing the tea partiers/birthers/deniers/etc will eventually wither and die.
It's quite a conundrum for Republicans. If they work with President Obama and Democrats to get things done on immigration reform, they will help to strengthen Obama's legacy. But if they continue with their obstruction, the political consequences for their party will be felt for generations to come.
If there is going to be a House Unity Caucus, then it is going to be one that has agreed objectives on more than immigration. This would require Boehner, Pelosi, Reid and McConnell to get on board with this idea. I think Boehner could agree to this idea, but I am not so sure about McConnell. He double crossed Reid on the filibuster problem and Dems should not forgo any procedural changes in the Senate with a joint caucus. I see no reason for Reid to trust McConnell again and these changes must occur with or without a Unity Caucus. The issues will include the budget, the deficit, the national debt, entitlement reforms and taxes. These issues might be insurmountable in the Senate because the Republicans up for reelection in 2014 are going to be reluctant to join a Unity Caucus because of the primary challenges.
The good news is that there are two months to make this real, an unorthodox leader like Pelosi to pull it off behind the scenes, who knows the moderates that are bendable, where the unity positions can be forged, and what compromises the democrats can stomach. Because think about how tough this would be to do- the GOP members to solicit would be highly sensitive to the "turncoat" label. She would need to line up nationally recognized moderates like Bloomberg, Christie, and pundits like Steele and Schmidt. They would need to see real movement towards positions in a Unity plank that Dems don't want to move on, and they would want to see GOP moderate representatives in the House given some of the key committee chairmanships.
The GOP moderates would want to see a plausible course for how they are the vanguard leaders of the return to sanity for the Grand Old Party, and they will not be labelled as the Hack Compromiser Benedict Arnolds of 2012.
Lots of risks on both sides of the aisle to do something responsible to avoid a repeat of the fiasco that was the 112th Congress in response to the most significant economic crisis since the Depression.
It's the right thing that we expect leaders to do. It would mean Pelosi would not be speaker and would have to lay low, but she never wanted it to be about her. That's the kind of person she is.
Anyway, the plank would have to be comprehensive covering the common ground on key national challenges that can be agreed on. Fiscal Cliff, Energy policy / climate change, restoring the US economic engine to health.
There are bright lines on the immigration issue for GOP right wingers will never compromise on- those who pander to the Archie Bunkers. The moderates know that the future is to move on the demographics question. That is why Immigration is the best wedge issue to cleave the Nuts from the moderate members of GOP in the house.
John
Most of the people who would be up for that kind of a thing are either gone or have the sword of the tea party Damocles hanging over their head. Which leaves us with the entire legislative process being effectively hijacked by about 15-20 people.
If the Democrats are serious about genuinely getting serious legislation done in the short term, then they are going to have to do some of the serious "politics" of give and take. Not only will they have to first find the people they can move but then they will have to actually protect them.
They will have to cut deals about which or even if they are running opponents in those districts, and throwing some money, and projects their way to make them look good back home so they don't get replaced and all that the while keeping the house leadership off their backs. That's a very tall order, not just from a political sense but from an ideological one as well.
The ironic thing is that in the long term it might be "purple" America that rescues the republican party from itself. If the demographics shift enough to disperse some of the power of the tea party it might allow the moderate Republicans to return and then you could have enough people to eventually work with but until that happens I just don't think there are enough genuine moderates or even old school Republicans left.
Sean Hannity said Thursday he has "
evolved"gotten his ass whipped and his head handed to him on immigration and now supports a "pathway to citizenship."Republicans are like mules. You have to hit them over the head with a Louisville Slugger so they know you're there. (Actually they're more like cockroaches - you think you stomped the last one and... they're baaaaak!)
Listening Bonehead's blather this morning tells me they still have their heads planted firmly up their collective ass.
Hannity needs to be waterboarded. For charity. You know, like he promised. Over three years ago.
Got Enraged and Engaged:
Mooched the Vote 2012!
;-)
@Dragoon
Getting Dems to move on the issues is not going to be the problem. It is getting Republicans to move on the issues that is going to be the problem because they are going to face primary challenges. Even if the mainstream Republicans promise to protect their members, there are people like the Koch Bros. that are going to treat any Republican in a Unity Caucus as a traitor to the conservative cause. The Koch Bros. and other far right groups have the money to create the primary challenges. Dems are not going to have that problem because the outliers are going to have funding problems since there are no sugar daddies to fund primary challenges.
Dragoon, I don't think Boehner controls his caucus. Power in the house is decentralized, and there are as you note, a lot of Nuts in his caucus. Even though West and Walsh are gone, there are more than enough to force a repetition of the 112th fiasco. And the markets know it.
Sure, there aren't many moderates left, but all Nancy needs is 20 out of Boehner's 230 to "do the right thing" for the country, and arguably, to restore sanity to their party.
The 20 mainstream Republicans will hold the keys to power in the House and can force the Tea Party to moderate or be left behind. These 20 members need to be secure from any primary challenges which might entail Dems in those districts not putting up a Dem challenger and voting Republican. But they will need assurance that there are enough Republican Senators who can do the same.
Shorter version of GOP on immigration reform:
"We have to do something to get that Latino vote...anything or we will suffer in the elections"
Since when did the republicans ever care about legislating for the good of the people? Bottom line is always "gaining power". All else is secondary.
bj- That's the point. To get the Bush 40% of the Latino vote, GOP House members need to be able to have some votes on immigration reform where they can show they can be trusted not to go along with the radical right views in the GOP.
They are looking for that pass, and the Dems should not hand it to them on the cheap.
Obama is eager to make bipartisan deals, but need to play better poker with the GOP.
John is correct. The Dems should not give the Republicans a pass that allows some of them to vote against the immigration bill. If Dems do give a pass, then there has to be large price that Republicans will have to pay. Quid pro quo. A jobs bill for the infrastructure would be a nice plum.
John
I don't think Boehner is in actual "Control" either but I do think he could scare the living crap out of anyone who did decide to cooperate, and I am not just talking about on immigration but on anything at all. Like I said I think the political reality is that on a lot of things that are major and important but not "Critical" the Dems are going to have to punt. Like Mike was saying there is a lot of quid pro quo and I am not sure we want to bargain with terrorists on a lot of it.
The best suggestion that I have heard was one you made somewhere else. Get the campaign field offices to call people and have them lean on their Congressional districts. Hell organize street protests, anything just basically put the screws to these people loudly and publicly and see if they squeal.
Boehner is not in control of his caucus and his problem is that he is too timid to take on the Tea Party. But the fact that some of the TP lost the elections is going to weigh on the minds of TP members whose districts are not safe. That will occur when the Congress reconvenes. What Boehner needs to do is bring in the financial supporters to bring pressure on some of the Tea Party. Campaign money or the lack thereof is a great motivator. This would allow Boehner to peel off some of the TP members and make that caucus smaller and less influential. Obama can work the public opinion aspect while Boehner and the contributors work behind the scenes on the TP.
This is Republicans beginning to do damage control. The politicians see the demographic writing on the wall and know that they need to try and patch things up with the Latino voters. The biggest problem they have isn't going to be solved by coming to terms with legislation it's going to be coming to terms with the bigotry of their base and that is going to continue to hurt them for a long long time.
Hannity's support is more important than the support of GOP elected officials.
It's sad, but true. But, if that makes immigration reform a reality, its a good thing.
I have to say, it will be interesting to see if something strategic decisions change for the GOP now that Obama has been reelected. I mean, their entire first term strategy was to deny Obama a second term, but now that he's got it what's left? Stop him from accomplishing anymore so he doesn't look good for the history books or look after their own skins? They can't deny Obama a third term!
The problem for the Republicans is always going to be actually doing something, rather than just talking about it. I'll believe them when I actually see real progress.
"Bingo!", heard it before!
Funny thing, that.
A while back I liked tlking about plans, what I was going to do to the house, car, all those normal Guy things.
Then one day I suffered an epiphany. All that talking and planning was Masturbatory Bull "Stuff".
So I set out to do it, had to research structural, electrical, plumbing and fuel gas codes. Had to purchase or rent the equipment to do the work. Had to build or modify everything for the car. It was time consuming, expensive, and is allot of work.
But it's getting done.
Even picked up a gardening hobby on the way.
And I'm no longer a Masturbatory Bung Hole.
So the Republican needs to get the clue, talking is fun and makes one feel good but it's nothing like actually doing.
.
Saying what you think people want to hear and making actual changes towards those goals are two totally different things, and this election cycle proved that out.
Democrats passed immigration reform, laws protecting women, healthcare, etc.
And voters for whom those things mattered voted for Mr. Obama.
I'll believe the Republicans only when I actually see them working towards these goals and not screaming and fighting against them.
The side-show of Right Wing infighting has yet to get rolling, but the storm is a'brewing...
Funny thing about Immigration ...
I see stories how Romney supporters want to become immigrants, go to Australia and Canada.
First, Leave.
Second, you realize these places already have what your complaining about this country becoming?
I don't know, are the Right Wingers profoundly stupid or do they suffer a Mental Defect?
.
You mean like the little Georgia "peach" who said "I'm moving to Australia because their president is a Christian and supports what he says"....?
She got 1,500 re-tweets from Australians pointing out that they don't have a president, they have a prime minister; she's a woman who lives out of marriage with her boyfriend, a hairdresser; and she's an atheist. Little Miss Bimbo has since canceled her twitter account.
Republicans will have a hard time going anywhere where the first language in English, since they won't be able to bring their guns, and they'll have to get their health care through "socialized medicine." And there's no home-schooling in those countries.
Is this, partly, what the President meant when he told Medvedev he could be more flexible after the election? I wonder...
I fear they just want to recruit the more nearly white to solidify the old white base.
Boehner has been interesting to watch, post-election. I think he will do more to garner Dem votes, at the expense of the TPer's, dividing the Right. He doesn't seem like a culture warrior, just some poor schmuck who got caught in the middle.
He's got a legacy to think about too, y'know.
I take it you didn't watch his press conference this morning, in which he was the old Bonehead we've come to laugh at.
Immigration reform has to have TWO parts, or it won't accomplish anything.
1. It has to provide for a "path to citizenship" that gives people already here a good chance of becoming citizens. Otherwise, they will remain in the shadows rather than take the risk that they won't qualify and will be deported.
2. It has to DRAMATICALLY increase the number of immigrants from our south that we allow into this country each year. If the wait for legal immigration is too long, people will resume crossing the border illegally.
My fear is that Obama will try too hard to be "bipartisan" and move so far to the right, as he did with healthcare reform and Wall Street reform, that the final result will be a bandaid that leaves the REAL problems in place.
In short, republicans have come to the realization that it is no longer in their political interest to demonize and marginalize Hispanics. Elections have consequences.
If the right wants to, they can simply alter their definition of "secure border." Of course there will always be some people (especially smugglers, as opposed to economic refugees) who cross.
But we can say that net illegal immigration is now effectively zero. That's been true for a while, and it is due to the combination of more enforcement AND the weaker US economy. So people can say "Now that we have secured the border, we can move on immigration reform." IF they want to compromise. And if they want to do better among Latinos, they should want to compromise.
IF spun correctly, some will agree on the basis of fairness. And others will believe (perhaps rightly) that it is a clever ploy to get more Latino votes.
Regardless, it will have a good effect on both cooperation and civility in national politics, not to mention a good effect on the economy. If it means the GOP has a better shot at 2016, so be it--they would have to have a more moderate candidate to take advantage of the shift.
Interesting that one of the few Bush II era policies that was not a complete failure was abandoned by the GOP and now its reinstatement is viewed as some sort of compromise or moderation by the party.
I'm always astounded at the GOP ignorance of historical precident: Hadrian's Wall, Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall, DMZ and on and on...no border, no matter how well defended, has ever been 100% secure. And with the anti-intellectualism on the right, I don't suppose there's any hope of bringing facts into the debate. Refusing to discuss immigration reform until the border is secure is either ignorance or deliberate obfuscation.
At this point, I think we've seen enough from the Rape-Public-CONs to know that these are NOT mutually exclusive possibilities.
Got Enraged and Engaged:
Mooched the Vote 2012!
;-)
i like all the comments so far. John Messerly that is a good idea. I wonder if Pelosi can pull it off. What bothers me is that some of these people were brought here as children. I think that there must be a way to help them achieve citizenship.
I think President Obama stepping in when immigration tried to deport that young lady in Florida who was the class valedictorian.
That young lady will make us glad that President Obama did that.
We really need a more in depth segment on this connecting the dots between NAFTA, what US grain prices have done to corn farmers in Mexico, the flight of Mexican labor from the farms to slums near the factories, and the 60K mexican deaths per year impact of the economy of illicit drugs that is the unintended consequence of US government's war on drugs.
Imagine that you were a Mexican with a family suffering these conditions largely created by the US. What would you do?
That's right. You'd do anything possible to sneak your family across the border where your children would have a future free of that economic and physical terror. Even if you loved Mexico and hated the US/ Anglo culture and the corrupt system that was annihilating everything good in the country of their birth.
Tea party is going to revolt over Hannity's new found wisdom, if it is not happening already. I. reform is not going to be that easy unless R party severe it self from the T party nuts.
IS THIS PRESIDENT GOING TO FORCE ANOTHER AMNESTY ON AMERICANS, WHEN THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION SAY IT WILL COST US $2.4 TRILLION DOLLARS?
1986: THE LATE TED KENNEDY AMNESTY PROMISE.
In the campaign for the 1986 amnesty law, known as the Immigration Control and Reform Act (ICRA) Ted Kennedy predicted that the law would grant citizenship to no more than 1.3 million people; his calculation was way wrong, with an additional 3 million or more? “We will secure the borders henceforth. I promise we will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this,” he stated. What happened was the laws were circumvented by both political jerks, either by not enforcing interior prosecutions on employers, cutting funds for enforcement or doing nothing at all.
THE CORRUPTION IN BOTH PARTIES SAW TO IT, THAT PROMISES WERE NOT KEPT.
But by 2007, the number of people in the country illegally had jumped to more than 12 million. It is now 2012 and they keep on coming; stealing our jobs, lowering wages for previous generations of the low income labor, because the unconcerned businesses keep hiring. Such diseases as tuberculosis are now raging once again and many other sicknesses that were eventually wiped out in the U.S. Stealing American children’s Social Security numbers, affecting their future lives. Parents find that their child’s future has been compromised with vehicles, houses brought on fraudulent credit and offering with substantial answers but years of outrageous aggravation with the Social Security Administration, police, courts and financial institutions? Even our service men and women are not safe from this disgusting situation as while fighting in foreign medieval lands, and then to discover that on returning home some illegal alien has stolen their ID.
LIES-- LIES and more LIES, rhetoric, propaganda shoved down the throats of America citizens and legal immigrants by the Liberal newspaper journalists and editorial staff even more lies as this wave of returning to Washington Socialist hypocrites determined on another amnesty. It’s Another Path to citizenship to thieves, predators, murderers and other criminal elements that have entered the United States who should be prosecuted and deported. Just may be if one of these political hacks, public servants who have remained unconcerned about the 20 million or more that have settled illegally in this country, would scream out loud had their own daughter molested, or their spouse attacked in a home invasion robbery or themselves were assaulted and maimed, they would make it their civil duty to deport them all. Wouldn’t it be interesting if one of majority Senator Harry Reid’s son’s as Rory was abducted for ransom, his wife Landra maimed by a drunken driver illegal alien or his only daughter Lana was kidnapped or this mild mannered bespectacled Liberal hypocrite ended up in a ditch in Searchlight, Nevada himself. He certainly then would alter h is lobotomized mind about encouraging more itinerant persons into our country and certainly would pass harsher laws. This man seems to never have thought about the daily carnage in the streets or on the highways, or the terrible toll on families, left to pick up the pieces after a drunken illegal alien has slaughtered a daughter, son or grandmother?
If any of these Socialist rebels to the American way of life was confronted by the spreading intoxicated illegal migrant or immigrant driving a car, perhaps they would reconsider allowing this refuge from the gutter into an already overpopulated land. These brain dead idiots of both parties could at least have alleviated some of this propagating problem that is getting worse daily, by passing THE LEGAL WORKFORCE BILL or the BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ACT, which would completely demoralize the poverty that keeps coming here with their pregnancies undetected and a giant burden extracted from taxes to pay for it all. Until these two strict laws are passed the hordes of illegal aliens are going to keep turning up on our door step. People who think that once they reside here have the same rights as citizens? We now have 4 more years of an open socialist agenda, with communist trimmings, but those in Congress may be back in their comfortable incumbent seats, and ready press passage of a reward for criminal invaders, but they haven’t won the war? Millions of Americans are out of work, while millions of immigrants have their jobs. It’s cheaper of course to hire anybody adding huge profits to in unscrupulous rogue employers.
Although the Liberal press thinks the TEA PARTY has faded away and repeats publicizing their lies. The truth is our numbers are still growing and a third party of 41 million ordinarily Americans who are true moderate conservatives will displace the worst incumbents in the Republican Party. The House and Senate have allowed this invasion to happen and all it does is add hundreds of billions to the federal and state deficits. Whatever ever happened to “The Rule of Law” when outlaw cities can become Sanctuaries for illegal aliens, which can hardly afford to support their own share of homeless, sick and infirm? Now that the Democrats have won a second term, does that mean they are inspired to cover every illegal alien with the “Affordable Care Act “ObamaCare”, It’s already known he and his Health and Human Services agency have lowered the restrictions, so even more fresh illegal aliens can apply for food stamps? The TEA PARTY has already identified numerous companies that will have no choice but to lay off large numbers of workers, because of the stringent regulations regarding the hefty price of providing health care. America has become the host for every blood leech that can slip past our borders or arrive here on any flight and remain, because the morons in Washington don’t track them as most industrialized nations and even Mexico?
Obama can't run in 2016.
Electoral triumphs can be used as evidence of compromise which has no down side anymore.
This congress will behave differently.
They won't touch illegal employers though, even though that is the most efficient way to prevent amnesty/path to citizenship from being a band aid.
Once we make all illegals citizens. More illegals will come for the next wave. The xenophobes are absolutely right on that score. (Hey, even a monkey throwing darts hits the bullseye once in a while.)
Make legal immigration much simpler, increase the quotas and bring the hammer down on anyone employing immigrants without a green card.
Problem is, Republican campaign contributors LOVE having people they can force into 14 hour days with no overtime and they can sic ICE on if they even whisper"union."
Expect lots of talk about building walls across the Mexican border, but not a peep about sting operations.
This year was a great triumph for democracy. In spite of Republican attempts to block the vote, The American people, for the most part, that is women, gays, people of color, ...and progressive men...saw the moves as an attack on our civil rights. The reaction was not only the re-election of a Black man, but also the coalescing of these groups into an ascending majority.
The political organizing was second to none. It should remain in place for the months that lay ahead. It actually should be improved upon. From my perspective while immigration reform is very important, the civil rights of all citizens need to be addressed first.
A voter´s rights bill should be immediately introduced by Democrats making voting a responsibility in a democracy, similar to jury duty. That right must be afforded to every citizen of The United States whether they live in a state or are residents of an American territory, however named. This bill will eliminate the remaining stumbling blocks to a country governed of the people, by the people and for the people. The bill should proclaim a legal holiday called ¨election day¨. The bill should call for two weeks of early voting for all national offices with the establishment of sufficient voting booths and places so that voting is the easiest ten minute process.
With respect to immigration, we should simply have open immigration , for any person in the world that is a University graduate, or who has technical skills, or anyone else who can bring into the United States $50,000.00 or more, and who has no illegal antecedents in their home country. The border security personnel should concentrate on illegal activities such as human trafficking and trafficking of hard drugs into the United States and guns into Mexico. With the depressed trends in manufacturing, the economic refugees will more than likely have more opportunity for jobs in Mexico than in The United States. The people that will be able to work, seasonal agricultural workers, should be recruited by their employer under United States laws and conditions in their respective countries. The employer will pay the premiums for Obamacare. Any undocumented refugee who has documentation of working in the United States for 5 years or more, without committing any crime or using welfare, has a right to apply for a path to citizenship.
With respect to passing humanistic legislation of any kind, The Democratic party should allow the Bush tax cuts to expire and beginning in 2013 work with The Republican party on a comprehensive omnibus of a bill that gets rid of loop holes in the tax code that benefit the super wealthy and restores the tax cuts to the middle class. The Bill should permit spending for our infrastructure to create more jobs while cutting Defense spending. The Department of defense should be streamed lined and innovated to use our modern technology in revamping the weaponry that is obsolete and developing more effective systems for combating terrorism here and abroad.
The political organization should be used to popularize and put pressure on congress to pass needed reform and measures to establish renovations in our infrastructures. One bill that may receive votes from The Right, due to Sandy, is a project for the prevention of flooding due to climate change.
The president in the meantime can through executive orders undo The Bush directive to to exempt from bankruptcy guaranteed student loans so that The insolvent, debt ridden students who have recently graduated and have no way of paying their debts can get a fresh start.
The president through executive orders can permit Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases to allow cram downs of houses that are under water still, so that The Banks responsible for these toxic debts, are forced to reduce that contractual value of the mortgages to reflect the actual value of the property.