Refugee ban a smokescreen

Public and even judiciary indignation over presidential actions constituting a travel ban is most conspicuous these days, and rightfully so. But are you telling me the White House could not predict this? The president’s staff is not stupid — on the contrary.

And marching eyes-right is the Republican Party.

For example, on Feb. 2 the House Committee on Financial Services conducted an organizational meeting to establish rules for the 115th Congress. Eleven amendments were offered by the minority Democrats to Rep. Jeb Hensarling’s resolution naming the rules. And 11 times every Republican committee member voted against suggested amendments.

Why does this matter when we have a Muslim ban to deal with? On Feb. 3, as the Wall Street Journal reports, Hensarling was ready with a plan to begin “the end of the Dodd-Frank mistake.”

It is clear Republicans are obsessed with repeating the mistakes leading to the 2008 recession.

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 8:26 PM with the headline "Refugee ban a smokescreen."