more cbp agents and invest in new fentanyl-detection technology, house republicans are once more compromising america s national security and economic growth with shutdown threats. willie? there s the question of whether house republicans even want a deal or whether they like this as an issue for 2024. exactly. a number of house republicans said they ll only accept a border deal that resembles the bill their chamber passed last year. at least one is suggesting any deal that helps president biden s election chances should be rejected. congressman troy nails of texas told cnnnn interview yesterday, this is a que, let me tell you, i m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a democrat and to help joe biden s approval rating. i will not help the democra try to improve this man s dismal approval ratings. i m not going to do it. why would i? chuck schumer has had hr-2 on his desk since july, and he did nothing with it.
at the op-eds that the presidential candidates have in the des moines register today. donald trump and ron desantis have op-eds because they think this is a winning political issue. they re not interested in negotiating. they re interested in making this a fear tactic to get their voters out in 2024. that s important for people to remember. otherwise, they would be having a real negotiation with joe biden, with democrats, which chris murphy says they re not even doing, and sit at the table and do that. they re not interested in solving it. they re interested in making it a political issue. molly, also, we know next they ve announced, house republicans are going to start impeachment hearings on secretary mayorkas because of, they say, his role in the crisis at the border. obviously, they see fertile political ground here, and a resolution, which is what they re supposed to be doing, to find some solution to this problem at the border, hurts them, actually, politically, and the issue
you know, if you are a democrat, though, if you re helping to run president biden s re-election campaign, one of the things you have to do is recognize reality. the reality is that fear has been sold quite successfully to the american public for at least the last six years by one donald j. trump and his acolytes, who are clearly members of the house of representatives on the republican side of the aisle. what jen was just talking about, she s absolutely right, this is not on the level. but i guess, just walking around would tell you that it is a reality. it s a reality. the issue is not a sleeper issue. it is the most visible issue we have in this country, other than grocery prices. people see this. they see the teems of people at the border. this is a three decade old problem that has not been resolved in at least three decades. jonathan, the negotiations between secretary mayorkas, with
jen psaki, this raises the important question of, what is the senate in this bipartisan group, what is the point of the work they re doing? they are working, and secretary mayorkas has been in the room with democrats and republicans on this. republicans saying out loud, we re not going to pass anything. if we do, it has to be tied to other things we want as a part of this bill, to avoid a government shutdown, for example. right. they re going to shut the government down over an immigration negotiation that is not a negotiation. as my mother would say, this is not on the level. you know, this is not on the level. couple things can be true at the same time, willie. i mean, there are increasing numbers of people coming in at the border. there s a range of reasons for that, including the broken immigration system. there is something that needs to be done. i think most people in the biden administration would say that. they also need to address the broken immigration system which is par
right. look, they re also trying to impeach biden. let us not forget, they re trying two impeachments at the same time. mike johnson is worried, right? the last speaker did not keep his job, and i think this is a ploy. gas is under $3. inflation is coming down. economic news is good. we ve had that soft landing. people may be cranky about the economy, but the fundamentals are solid. that s kind of a miracle. i think republicans don t have that much to run on. the crime numbers are down. the thing they have, the thing they need is fear. the only thing they can find that they think will help them run is the border because they think there s fear. but the thing we don t talk about when it comes to immigration is we don t talk about, this is a very tight labor market. we actually need these people to work jobs. i think you re not you know, there s a larger issue here, which is that we don t have a path to immigration.