As the Republican leadership aims to pass the $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill before Thursday’s deadline, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan affirmed that a vote for the bill is a “vote for amnesty,” while calling President Barack Obama “a constitutional scofflaw.”
Appearing on “Hannity” Wednesday night, Buchanan said that the president is also “engaged in civil disobedience” by granting amnesty to five million illegal aliens after repeatedly saying he did not have the authority to do so.
“The president is a constitutional scofflaw, Sean,” said the political commentator. “He’s engaged in civil disobedience. He has said himself he didn’t have the authority to offer an amnesty to five million people, then he went ahead and did it. Then he said I didn’t change the law, then he said I’ve changed the law. He is all over the lot, flip, flop and fly,” said Buchanan.
Buchanan aimed much of his ire at the GOP leadership, though, who desperately wants to pass the massive spending bill, which would be in effect through September 2015.
“NumbersUSA, which is a good outfit, says that there’s over $900 million in there to deal with the folks that walked across the border, the young people, earlier this year, and that’s in the budget. And they’re going to register this, any vote for this omnibus spending bill as, basically, a vote for amnesty, and I think it’s exactly right,” said Buchanan.
“Sean, we’ve talked about this before, but there are parts of the Republican Party, the corporate conservatives or the corporate Republicans, they want an amnesty,” he continued. “They want to get this behind them, they don’t want to fight that battle anymore, and they want to move ahead on their own agenda. And basically, they’re throwing the tea party folks under the bus.”
“I think that the leadership of the Republican Party, in its heart, would like to fulminate against this, to keep the folks — say we fought the good fight, we tried to stop it. But in the end, I think the Republican leadership will go into the tank on this one,” said Buchanan.
“Find out what the agenda is of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable and you will find out the agenda of the leadership of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill,” he said.