Speaker of the House Mike Johnson currently holds several conflicting positions on addressing the U.S. southern border, not to mention sending funds to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan – which he has insisted be linked together. He’s now created an even more confusing quagmire exacerbated by a joint statement released Monday afternoon by his House Republican leadership team.

In their latest shot across the bow to the U.S. Senate, Speaker Johnson and his leadership team declared the just-released Senate immigration and border security funding bill, which includes critical aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, “DEAD on arrival.”

“House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration,” reads the statement from House GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer. “Because President Biden has refused to utilize his broad executive authority to end the border catastrophe that he has created, the House led nine months ago with the passage of the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2). That bill contains the necessary components to actually stem the flow of illegals and end the present crisis. The Senate must take it up immediately.”

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“America’s sovereignty is at stake,” the House leadership statement adds. “Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.”

After spending months promoting HR2, the House bill immigration experts and House Judiciary Committee Democrats have called “draconian,” Speaker Johnson recently declared President Joe Biden had to “close” the border and needed absolutely no help from Congress to do so, just merely sign executive orders. President Biden says that’s false.

Over the past few days it has been the stated position of Speaker Johnson that no legislation is needed to secure the border, the House’s HR2 is needed to secure the border, and the Senate bill is “DOA.” Additionally, on critical funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, Johnson says he will bring to the House floor a stand-alone bill solely for funding for Israel, after insisting a U.S. border bill be tied to funding for those three countries. Over the weekend CNN called that an “about face.”

Meanwhile, there’s little to no chance the Senate will even consider HR2.

The right-leaning news outlet The Hill has said HR2 is “a sweeping bill that would drastically restrict the asylum process while establishing a vast new surveillance system to forcibly freeze regional migration and crack down on the existing undocumented population.”

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Calling for a “balanced, bipartisan approach,” House Judiciary Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) last month said, “House Republicans insist they will only consider H.R. 2, their draconian enforcement-only bill that would destroy the asylum system, gut protections for unaccompanied kids, and end all parole programs. Policies that stand no chance of passage in the Senate, which shows that they’re not interested in real solutions.”

.@RepJerryNadler: House Republicans insist they will only consider H.R. 2, their draconian enforcement-only bill that would destroy the asylum system, gut protections for unaccompanied kids, and end all parole programs. Policies that stand no chance of passage in the Senate,… pic.twitter.com/yJE1eyaTsf

— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) January 17, 2024

On Monday, Greg Sargent at The New Republic wrote, “Why Mike Johnson Is Having a MAGA Meltdown Over the Border Deal.”

“The House speaker,” Sargent explains, “is afraid that if the Senate bill passes, the GOP will partially own the border crisis. He—and Trump—also fear the bill will work.”

On Sunday, confronted by NBC News’ Kristen Welker, Speaker Johnson was asked if Donald Trump was “calling the shots.” He said, “of course not. I am calling the shots.”

Welker: Is Donald Trump calling the shots here, Mr. Speaker?

Johnson: Of course not. He’s not calling the shots. I am calling the shots for the house. pic.twitter.com/hzgwkGuXYM

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 4, 2024

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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A central theme of Ron DeSantis’ reign as Florida’s culture war GOP governor and in his now-defunct presidential campaign has been “parental rights,” a far-right movement that began by empowering right-wing parents’ political and social grievances at the expense of children’s rights to a complete and well-rounded education, while ignoring the rights and needs of children.

Governor DeSantis’ infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law, first launched to include just children up to third grade, then expanded to all public school grades, was just the beginning.

Now, Florida Republicans including Governor DeSantis are moving to take healthcare, food, and workplace protections away from children.

“DeSantis and conservative/Trumpian/MAGA public officials” are “disassembling Florida’s social service safety net,” according to an op-ed by Barrington Salmon at the Florida Phoenix.

They are “refusing to allocate money or enough of it for school lunch programs to feed hungry children; rejecting no-strings-attached federal government dollars to expand Medicaid that would allow the state to enroll 1.4 million people; not prioritizing access to quality healthcare; continuing to siphon off money from traditional public schools to give to church-affiliated and private schools, and passing punishing draconian laws to further alienate and marginalize gay, transgender and LGBTQ children and teens,” Salmon writes.

Indeed, last week, after having already kicked 420,000 children off Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Governor DeSantis sued the Biden administration over a new federal law that requires children be allowed to stay on Medicaid for at least 12 months, regardless of challenges to their eligibility or their ability to pay, Axios reported. The governor wants the ability to remove even more children from the life-saving healthcare program.

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At issue is the federal government’s policy that even if a child’s parents cannot or do not pay, the child cannot be kicked off or denied benefits for at least 12 months.

DeSantis, in his federal lawsuit, says that amounts to a “free-for-all,” but Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, is warning what DeSantis is doing is “harmful.”

“If he is successful, the Governor will ensure that more children in Florida will spend more time being uninsured. He’s not stopping there – he’s seeking to remove the protection for all children in separate CHIP programs that charge premiums. This is harmful and puts children’s health and educational outcomes at risk in both the short and the long term,” Alker said in a statement.

“This comes on top of Medicaid unwinding where Florida has the second worst performance in the country having terminated Medicaid coverage for over 400,000 children. (Only Texas has a worse record.)  The new federal protection for children was designed in part to mitigate against inappropriate losses of Medicaid and CHIP for eligible children resulting from red tape and shoddy customer support for families renewing coverage – problems which have been on stark display recently in Florida,” she adds.

The attacks on children and their safety net in Florida continues to expand under DeSantis’ leadership.

“Gov. Ron DeSantis and state administrators have rejected at least $11 billion in federal funds in the past few years, saying there were strings attached, they ‘politicized’ roads or fought climate change,” the Orlando Sentinel reported last month. “The programs affected include an expansion of Medicaid, rebates for energy-saving appliances and upgrades, a program to cut motor vehicle emissions, and summer lunches for children from low-income families. Millions of mostly low-income Floridians could have benefited from the funding, the governor’s critics say.”

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U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) last month in a statement blasted DeSantis for rejecting nearly $250 million in federal funds for summer school lunches for Florida’s children, calling it “cruel and unnecessary,” and “mean and irresponsible.”

“Just last year, 47 percent of Florida parents reported difficulties keeping food on the table for their families — a startling reality that has pushed too many families to skip meals or go an entire day without eating. However, instead of confronting this growing crisis, Governor DeSantis will deprive Florida children of nutritious meals,” Rep. Castor wrote.

Meanwhile, also last week, Florida Republican lawmakers passed legislation greatly reducing workplace protections for Florida’s children.

The Florida House “passed a measure allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work more than 30 hours a week and as late as 11 p.m. on a school night,” Florida Politics reports.

The bill’s sponsor, state GOP Rep. Linda Chaney, “said the bill merely offered opportunities for teens to work more flexible hours.”

“This bill is about choice and opportunity for families. I trust that our families and our teens will make the right choice for them,” Chaney said, while House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell denounced the legislation..

“This is 2024 this is not the 1900s, this is not the 1800s,” Driskell said. “Just because our kids like to play Minecraft doesn’t mean we should send them back into the mines.”

The Florida Senate has a “more expansive,” bill, “allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work starting at 5:30 a.m. and until midnight on a school night.” There is also an alternative version “that would bar 16- and 17-year-olds from commercial construction sites while allowing them on jobs with scaffolding, roofs and ladders under six feet.”

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Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in the history of the U.S. Senate, is facing increased rebellion from the far-right faction of his conference, with calls for his ouster including from one longtime GOP Senator who declared, “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW,” and a reporter calling it a hint “at mutiny.”

At issue is the bipartisan U.S. Senate border deal, months in the making, which includes funding for the southern border, a major rewrite of immigration laws, and funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Axios calls it “one of the harshest immigration bills of the century,” and even the traditionally right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports it. The bill was crafted by hardcore conservative U.S. Sen. Jim Lankford (R-OK), hardcore liberal U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and libertarian-leaning progressive Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). It is strongly supported by President Joe Biden, and both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Brawl erupts in Senate GOP over border security supplemental,” is the AM headline at Punchbowl News, with the news outlet reporting: “the bill’s release Sunday night was like pouring gasoline on the fire that is the Senate GOP internal war. Senators and aides publicly and privately questioned whether a majority of the Republican Conference would back it, a key metric. There were even calls for an immediate leadership change from some GOP senators and conservative outside groups.”

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The text of the legislation, unveiled Sunday evening, has drawn harsh criticism from Republicans of all stripes in the House of Representatives, with Speaker Mike Johnson calling it “dead on arrival,” and from far right Republicans in the Senate. Mike Lee of Utah appears to be the loudest of the three ringleaders charging against the bill – and against McConnell.

“This bill unites Senate Democrats and sharply divides Senate Republicans,” Lee wrote on X Monday morning, the latest in a screed of dozens of posts that began Sunday evening.

Behind all of this is Donald Trump, who has very publicly opposed the legislation long before the text of the bill was released. Those opposed to the border bill, strong promoted by Senator Lankford, are largely Trump acolytes. In addition to the large number of House Republicans, on the Senate side they include Steve Daines of Montana, who also serves Senate leadership as the Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Newsweek puts the count of GOP Senators opposed to the just-unveiled border bill at eleven. In addition to Daines, they include: Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, Eric Schmitt, Tommy Tuberville, JD Vance, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee.

Senators Lee, Hawley, and Cruz appear to be the ringleaders opposing the bill.

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Late Sunday night Senator Cruz (R-TX) wrote, “Two weeks ago, at a Senate press conference, I said this deal was a ‘stinking pile of crap.’ It turns out my assessment was too generous.” He also wrote, “This…is…INSANE. On Schumer’s Open-Borders Legislation, Republicans shouldn’t just vote no… …but HELL NO.”

Overnight and into Monday, Senator Lee went on a social media extravaganza, blasting the bill, and the Senate GOP Minority Leader.

“If you had a lawyer, agent, or employee who (while negotiating on your behalf) botched a deal as badly as Senate GOP leadership botched this border / supplemental aid package, would you immediately fire that person?” Lee asked on X, suggesting he wants McConnell gone.

“This is worse than bad negotiation. It’s betrayal. The Senate GOP can still stop it if 41 [Senators] will stand together,” Lee wrote on X, calling it a “crap-sandwich” and the “Border Capitulation Bill.”

Making even more clear his desire to see McConnell replaced, Lee added: “Senate GOP leadership screwed this up—and screwed us. Even while refusing to let us see the bill they claimed to be negotiating on our behalf—for MONTHS—they were never in doubt, insisting we’d be dumb and even unpatriotic NOT to support it. This is a disqualifying betrayal.

Unsurprisingly, Sen. Lee was the one to announce, “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW.”

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