Reid: Boehner afraid of crossing … his majority?

The compromise is aimed at defeating one of the most oft-repeated objections Republicans have raised to passing an immigration bill, that they don’t “trust” Obama to properly implement the law. Under the compromise, whoever is elected in November 2016 would inherit that responsibility.

Republicans have objected to Obama’s deferred action for DREAMers plan, in which he said children brought to the country illegally by their parents would not be subject to deportation if they avoid further trouble with U.S. law. And while Obama has resisted calls to defer more deportations until an immigration reform bill passes, Reid at the chamber news conference hinted the president may not sit idle forever.

“We’ve kind of set a deadline, everyone agreed on that last week,” Reid said. “August 1. If the Republicans don’t do something by August 1st, then I think the president is going to have to do things more administratively.”

(The deferred action for DREAMers was implemented by executive order, not through legislation.)

The silent majority

Although Reid claimed a majority of Republicans in the House would support the Senate-passed immigration bill if given a chance to vote, the senator also said House Speaker John Boehner was fearful of holding such a vote because of backlash from his caucus.

“If we were allowed to have a vote on the bill we sent to the House, it would pass overwhelmingly,” Reid said. “Every Democrat would vote for it, with maybe the exception of two. And, I believe, a majority of Republicans would vote for it in the House of Representatives. So the speaker has been unwilling to do that.”

Why? “Because he has too much agitation from around the country and within his own caucus,” Reid replied. “There are people are living in the past. The problem is, there’s a significant number of his tea-party driven caucus that don’t accept the world has changed.”

But if a majority of Republicans support the bill, and would vote for it should it come to the floor, and Boehner’s hold on the speakership requires a majority of Republican votes, why would he possibly be afraid to bring the bill up for a vote?

“A lot that he’s [Boehner’s] done over the time he’s been speaker has been determined by this loud, shrill, tea-party driven part of his caucus which — it frankly isn’t as big as it was — but it’s still pretty big,” Reid said.

But, according to Reid, it’s not a majority. If Reid is correct in his assessment, then his explanation for Boehner’s reluctance to bring the bill to a vote makes no sense. Either Reid is wrong — and opposition to the immigration bill is more widespread than Reid is saying — or Reid is right, and Boehner’s opposition is for different reasons.

Economy doing ‘fine’ now?

Reid hailed the immigration bill as an economic boon to the country, saying it would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion.

“We’re doing fine economically now,” Reid said. “There are couple of things we need to do to really stimulate the economy, to put it, I think, even in years even better than the robust Clinton years, and that would be first of all to make sure that we get this immigration thing worked out.

“And, secondly, do something about the almost $4 trillion hole we have for infrastructure in this country. We’re only creating private-sector jobs now. We need to create public-sector jobs. For every billion dollars we spend in roads, bridges, dams, water systems, sewer systems, about 50,000 very high-paying jobs are created. And they’re created in the private sector.”

(Reid explained that public works projects are carried out by private contractors, which means that even a robust infrastructure plan would fail to create many public-sector jobs.)

Friends are friends forever!

Reid said the immigration bill has momentum — he cited polls showing large majorities in America support reform, and the bi-partisan 68-32 Senate vote on the bill. But now, he acknowledged, it’s up to Boehner to act.

“John Boehner, he’s my friend, I like him, he’s always been extremely nice to me, I’ve tried to reciprocate,” Reid said. (In reality, Reid has described Boehner as running the House like “a dictatorship,” and accused him of capitulating in fear to the tea party as late as … this morning’s news conference! Boehner responded in kind by telling Reid to “go [expletive] yourself” during a White House meeting in January 2013.)

“He’s [Boehner] caught in a bind, because he’s concerned about this very loud, vocal contingent in his caucus. He’s afraid to move,” Reid said. “He has to listen to [U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and immigration reform supporter] Tom Donohue and others who aren’t some left-wing socialists yelling at him. But it’s Tom Donohue, the president of the national chamber of commerce.”

Donohue has said the Republicans won’t elect another president until the party embraces immigration reform, and has warned them they shouldn’t even field a contender in 2016 if reform doesn’t pass. It’s not entirely clear why Reid would want to help Republicans to a place where they could elect a president in 2016, unless he’s simply seizing on Donohue’s quote as a handy rhetorical prod to corral reluctant GOP House members. (For the record, Reid has declined to endorse a candidate, but has made comments seemingly supportive of Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.)