President Barack Obama won’t be deterred in his planned executive actions on immigration by Republican rumblings about a potential government shutdown fight if he follows through, the White House said Wednesday.
“The president is determined to act where House Republicans won’t,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “It would be a real shame if Republicans were to engage in an effort to shut down the government over a common sense solution like that. But they’ve done it before.”
“We would hope that Republicans wouldn’t do the same thing again,” he said.
Recently Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) floated the prospect of going after Obama’s yet-to-be-announced executive moves in a muss-pass government funding bill to keep federal programs operational past Sept. 30. In addition, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) suggested a similar idea on Wednesday if Obama acts alone to “legalize millions.”
It’s too early to know if Republican leaders will embrace the strategy.
