WSJ Editorial Board Comes Out Hard in Favor of Border Bill: ‘Will Republicans Now Abandon What They Claimed to Want?’
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
After Republicans in the House of Representatives declared the bipartisan bill drafted by the Senate “dead on arrival,” a prominent voice on the right is telling them to change their minds and vote for the bill.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board published an op-ed on Tuesday not just urging Republicans to vote for the bill but giving them all the reasons why they should. In short, the bill — aside from a few bipartisan compromises — contains nearly everything they have been asking for. WSJ wrote: “Will Republicans now abandon what they claimed to want?”
But the piece also provides a reality check for the Republicans who are openly sabotaging the bill because former President Donald Trump doesn’t want President Joe Biden to campaign on a bipartisan victory on one of the biggest issues concerning American voters:
Do Republicans want to better secure the U.S. border, or do they want to keep what has become an open sore festering for another year as an election issue? That’s the choice presented to Congress this week with the rollout of the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill, and we’ll soon learn what the GOP really wants.
That was just the beginning of the political argument. The piece goes into the actual details of the bill, something Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has been begging his GOP colleagues to do before bowing to Trump and rejecting the bill for nakedly political reasons. But the WSJ also said if they think they’re going to get something better under Trump, they’re mistaken:
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who negotiated for the GOP, deserves thanks for digging into the policy nuances and writing a bill that Mr. Trump never came close to getting when he was President.
But the political shaming continued:
Yet the signs are that many Republicans in Congress may heed Mr. Trump’s current orders and reject this policy victory. They will point to this or that detail to justify opposition, all of which are minor in the context of these consequential reforms. House Republicans could also work to improve the bill, but it appears they may not even allow a vote.
If Republicans reject this bill, they will hand Democrats an argument that the GOP wants border chaos that they can exploit as a campaign issue. The chaos will continue for at least another year. Republicans may think they can write a better law if Mr. Trump wins in November, but don’t count on it. Democrats will again demand much more in return. If Republicans pass up this rare chance at border reform, they may not get a better one.
Read the full article — and find out what’s actually in the border bill — at The Wall Street Journal.
