Former Illinois Rep. Michael Patrick Flanagan tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama is counting on Republicans hyperventilating "over process," when it comes to his executive actions on immigration, which is an argument the GOP will lose.
"He knows that Republicans are going to hyperventilate over process, that's what we do," Flanagan told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Friday. "We hyperventilate over process constantly."
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"Every commentator from the right this morning has talked about how it's unconstitutional, it's a grab of power, he's an emperor, blah, blah, blah. Not one Republican discusses the merits of it," he explained.
"It's about the process and he knows that he can put us on a process argument and he knows that we lose every process argument we've ever had, and however much we're right with government shutdown or whatever it is, we lose the process argument," he said.
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Flanagan contends that Obama's executive actions on immigration, which he described in a speech Thursday night is "about power politics."
"He got put back on his heels in the last election, his policies were on the ballot, he got shellacked, and so now he has to retake the initiative," the Illinois Republican explained.
"He has to retake the advance on the Republicans and the best way to steal our march is to make us talk about process — an argument we cannot win," he said.
In addition, Flanagan also says that GOP lawmakers ought to avoid "tit for tat" tactics like putting political appointments on hold.
"Politically speaking, we're going to get slapped if we do that," he explained.
On the contrary, he contends that Republicans should be about the "business of government, go about running the country, do what [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid has refused to do for the eight years he's been there, and legislate the business of the nation," he said.
"If that means approving appointees, the rigorous process that we should put them through to be sure, but don't hold them up just for the sake of having a tit for tat," he added.
"The way we must react is the way
[House Speaker John] Boehner reacted this morning — it was brilliant — not furious, not upset, not screaming about policy issues, not screaming about process issues," he contends.
According to Flanagan, it was "just a quiet lament that the president doesn't want to work with us, never has, never will, and we have to continue to do what we have to do alone and we'd much rather do it with him, but he wants to go it alone so we'll have to do the same."
"We need to just smile, be the cheerful conservatives [President Ronald] Reagan wanted us to be — drive on, do our work, send the bills to the president, and hopefully work with him after that," he explained.
"If we do that, we will win," he said. "We have no choice but to win."
"The Constitution gives us all the cards," he added.
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