Editorial: Predictable demise

Our dim hope for a border bill was, predictably, quashed when Donald Trump piled on late last week. Blame it on me, Trump wished. Yet another bipartisan Senate compromise on immigration falls by the wayside. It was not Trump, it was the House Republicans who would never go along. They demand action at the border. When the Senate proposes it, the House rejects it. The Oklahoma GOP Central Committee castigated Sen. James Lankford, R-Ok, for being a party to bipartisan discussions. Speaker Mike Johnson had declared the bill dead on arrival in the House, even though he has not read it.

“When we’re finally going to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border,” Lankford told Fox News.

House Republicans are not serious about solving the problem. Neither is Trump. They want to preserve it to keep the anger boiling. They think it’s good politics. Lankford is right: People expect solutions, even imperfect ones, that make some progress. Republicans should worry if yet another failed shot at border security justifiably gets pinned on them. They are playing into the hands of Biden and the Democrats to blunt every one of their arguments on immigration. They had a deal and rejected it out of hand.