Days after the Republican body of the House of Representatives stated that they would not support the highly-debated immigration reform bill, President Obama once more took to the airwaves in his weekly radio address to call for the House to pass the bill into law.
On Saturday, President Obama called for Republicans in the House to pass comprehensive immigration reform during his weekly radio address, hitting on two key points: the benefits to the economy and the support the bill had from former Republican President George W. Bush.
"If Democrats and Republicans - including President Bush and I - can agree on something, that's a pretty good place to start," President Obama said in his weekly address.
President Obama pointed out in his address that the bill--which institutes stricter security measures and a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S--was a compromise and while neither side got everything they wanted, the bill was consistent with key principles for immigration reform that both Democrats and Republicans had repeatedly laid out.
In addition, the president added, passing the bill would provide a boost to the country's economic recovery efforts.
As ABC News reports, on Wednesday, the White House released a 34-page report that touted the economic benefits of passing the "Gang of Eight" bipartisan senate panel's bill on immigration.
That report mentions that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that enacting the Senate immigration bill will increase real GDP by roughly $700 billion in 2023 and $1.4 trillion in 2033. A portion of those gains, the report states, come from immigrants creation of new inventions and companies, as well as adding new immigrants of working age to the labor force.
However, most of the Republicans in the House seem less sold on any merits to the Senate's immigration reform proposal. On Thursday, Republicans said after a closed-door meeting that they would not support the proposal on the table, preferring a peacemeal series of smaller bills passed.
Several House Republicans appear to be unconcerned of any possible political consequences they could suffer from by defeating the proposed immigration bill.
"We don't want the White House to hope that we fail to make it a campaign issue," said GOP Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas to CNN. "House Republicans want to do this on our terms, and not on the Senate's terms and not on the White House terms."
However, President Obama pointed out that immigration reform has been something that members of both parties have been pushing for-most recently, former President George W. Bush, who called for a "positive resolution" to the "broken" immigration system last week during a naturalization ceremony in Texas.
"We've been debating this issue for more than a decade - ever since President Bush first proposed the broad outlines of immigration reform - and I think he gave a very good speech this past week expressing his hope that a bipartisan, comprehensive bill can become law," President Obama said during his address.
"If Democrats and Republicans - including President Bush and I - can agree on something, that's a pretty good place to start," President Obama added.
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