Ryan Kills Stunt to Force Vote to Abolish ICE

Speaker Paul Ryan “quashed a rank-and-file effort to force Democrats to take a politically toxic vote to abolish the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,” Politico reports.

“House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) last week floated the idea of forcing Democrats to vote on a bill that would eliminate ICE, a proposal backed by the far-left but is unpopular with most voters. Republicans, the thinking went, would win either way: Democrats would either back the bill and watch Republicans use it against them in the midterms. Or a portion of Democrats would oppose it, depressing the liberal base.”

”But Ryan was concerned about a third option: that Democrats wouldn’t vote at all, or uniformly oppose it, making Republicans look silly.”