WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Republican is blaming Obama administration policies for the arrival of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors at the nation’s southern border. And Mitch McConnell says the president’s emergency spending request amounts to more of the same.
On the Senate floor today, McConnell said President Barack Obama seems to be “asking for a blank check” that would let him sustain what McConnell calls “his current failed policy.”
Obama has asked for $3.7 billion to help deal with the flood of immigrants.
McConnell says Republicans “want to make sure we actually get the right tools to help fix the problem.” And he says it’s “not what we’ve seen so far from the president.”
Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) raised similar concerns to reporters, and he was noncommittal about bringing the president’s request to a vote.
Obama, visiting Dallas yesterday, asked Congress to act quickly on the emergency spending request. Among those who met with the president yesterday was Republican Gov. Rick Perry — who, in a statement afterward, made no promises to help build Republican support for the spending package. Perry also underscored the notion that the border crisis was the result of what he called Obama’s “bad public policy” on immigration.
%@AP Links
APPHOTO TXJM302: President Barack Obama, center, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, right, step off the Marine One helicopter to attend a meeting with local elected officials and faith leaders at DalFort Fueling in Dallas to talk about the border and immigration, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (9 Jul 2014)
< Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
