News/Commentary

Sen. Rick Scott accuses McConnell of ‘undermining’ Republicans with border deal

January 31, 2024 | | Print Article

Sen. Rick Scott has penned a whole column slamming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for undermining GOP voters.

Published in The Hill on Tuesday, the column argues that McConnell’s attempts to push through a weak, Democrat-backed border bill that’s tied to Ukraine spending is proof that he has “completely lost touch with our voters and the real world.”

Instead of working with Democrats on a weak border bill, Scott argues, McConnell should take a hint from former President Donald Trump, who has said the only solution he’ll accept is the Republicans’ H.R. 2 bill.

Unlike the current bill being bandied about, H.R. 2 would actually resolve the border crisis by purging the workforce of illegal alien migrants, tightening asylum eligibility requirements, building additional border fortifications, and much, much more.

All this raises the question: Why is McConnell siding with Democrats on the border instead of his fellow Republicans?

Scott believes he knows the “simple” answer: “Trump and House and Senate conservatives represent the views and beliefs of Republican voters. Mitch McConnell and the Washington establishment don’t. They have undermined Republican voters for years, and the voters have said enough.”

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According to Scott, McConnell and crew “represent a Republican Party that exists only in Washington, where it’s dominated by political and economic insiders.”

“In this world, yesterday’s insider Republicans cut secret deals with yesterday’s insider Democrats behind closed doors, then spring them on hard working Americans like they just did us a great favor, when they actually kicked us in the teeth,” he explains in his column.

Indeed, it’s no coincidence that the process around the weak border deal eerily mirrors the process seen when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed Obamacare through Congress without letting anybody see what was inside the bill.

“We haven’t seen any text and the little that McConnell has told us is that this is a massive check for Ukraine, and no border security until we get a Republican president,” Scott writes. “Most Republicans and even some Democrats are for accountability in Ukraine spending and real border security. Neither are in this bill, according to McConnell.”

What Republican voters want, Scott continues, is a genuinely secure border, not one that over eight million illegal alien migrants — including “hundreds of terrorists” — have already crossed.

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“Nobody wins by letting Biden’s border disaster continue,” his column continues.

That’s not the message being broadcast by Democrats. They claim their weak border bill would solve the crisis and that the only reason Republicans oppose it is because former President Donald Trump wants to be able to use the ongoing border crisis in his election battle against President Joe Biden.

But according to Scott, this is bull.

“The Democrats, and some Republicans who claim that President Trump or anyone else wants the border crisis to continue because it’s good politics[,] are trying to find an offramp for their failure instead of recognizing that it is the voters who have rejected their efforts to codify Biden’s border policies in law,” he explains. “The only place their lies are entertained is in Washington, where commonsense doesn’t exist.”

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“Securing the border requires forcing Biden to enforce the law. Nothing we have seen over the past three years suggests he will do that. That’s why McConnell’s plan to give Biden and Democrats a win that they can campaign on and claim they’re working to solve the border crisis is a joke,” he continues.

Scott concludes his column by reminding readers just how bad the weak border deal happens to be.

The Democrat-friendly deal would, among other things, increase green cards by 50,000 per year, award work permits to the grown children of H-1B holders, and grant immediate work permits to every illegal alien migrant released into the U.S. interior.

It’d also allow 5,000 illegal alien migrants to cross into the U.S. every day. That comes out to 1.8 million illegal alien migrants over a year.

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“Why would we put that into law as acceptable?” Scott asks in his column. “We’ve also been told that there are no metrics tying Ukraine aid or anything else that Biden and the Democrats care deeply about to securing the border.”

“If you want someone to blame for a failure to get something done to secure the border, or provide lethal aid to Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan, blame Washington’s Senate Republican leader, who is totally disconnected with our voters and who would rather pass anything for Ukraine than actually secure our border,” he concludes.

Vivek Saxena
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