Immigration Bill makes it through Senate, but can it get past the Hastert Rule.

              The Senate has passed historic immigration legislstion. It offers the hope of American citizenship to millions. It also promises a military style surge to secure our pourous border. The vote was 68-32, 8 more than needed to send the measure to the House.

                Prospects are not nearly as high for the Bill to pass the House. Many Conservatives are opposed to any type of Immigration Reform, or any reform that May help the 97%. Not that the Bill didn’t meet any roadblocks in the Senate. Last minute Republican amendments to the Bill almost brought it crashing to the ground.

Vice-President Joe Biden presided, and Senators cast their votes from their desks. Both steps are usually reserved for momentous votes. The Bill, which was a high priority for President Obama, would be the most sweeping changes in decades to the nation’s immigration laws. The last time there was Immigration Reform was during the Reagan administration.

One major roadblock to the Bill passing the House is the Hastert Rule. The Hastert Rule is a Republican party made up rule that states, a law cannot pass without the majority of the majority party voting for it. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner in this case, invokes the rule. Boehner has threatened the Immigration Reform Bill with the Hastert Rule. In order to pass the Bill 118 out of 234 Republicans need to vote for the Bill. Regardless of a majority vote, the Bill cannot pass without the majority of the majority party voting for it.

Democrats have pushed hard to pass this Bill, as well as the Gang of 8. For a Republican party that call themselves fiscal hawks, but wantb to spend billions more on border security. That is fine to be a budget hawk everywhere, but not just on policies Republicans don’t like. Increasing border security will cost billions, billions that need to be found. Don’t cut from social welfare programs to militarize our border.

The Hastert Rule, Republicans way of ensuring minority party can’t pass a bill without the majority of the majority party.

              The Hastert Rule was started in the mid 90’s. It actually originated with Speaker of the House Gingrinch, who supported it, but Speaker of the House Hastert was a very vocal supporter of the rule, so that is why it bears his name. A Bill cannot pass the House wothout 218 votes, but under the Hastert Rule, which is not an official rule, even if you get that amount it won’t pass without the majority of the majority party voting for it.

It is the Republican way of removing any power from the minority party. Even if the minority party gets enough Republicans to help them pass the Bill, the Hastert Rule will stop the Bills passage. Republicans have 234 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats would need 118 votes from Republicans to get the Bill’s passage. It takes the majority vote out of the question because the majority party doesn’t support it.

It is just like the Republicans to make passage of Bills near impossible. Speaker Boehner is thinking about using the Hastert Rule to stop Immigration Reform from passing. It was a bipartisan bill that Republicans screwed up by adding ridiculous Amendments to. They were Amendments that they knew Democrats wouldn’t support. This is another Republican ploy to bring gridlock to our government. This is just another Bill the do nothing Republicans stopped from moving forward.

If Speaker Boehner invokes the Hastert Rule it is the cowards way out. Instead of doing the hard thing and looking for compromise they choose the easy way out. Anything to stick their thumb in President Obama’s eye. Despite the importance to our country, this I’d another Bill that I’d dead in the water. This is why government has ground to a halt in America. Avoidance.