Republicans' job security dependent on amnesty

Eighty percent of Republicans would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress who spends tax money on the president's amnesty plan, according to a new poll.

A total of 84 percent of the respondents said they were somewhat less likely or much less likely to support re-election if the representative "voted to allow taxpayer money to be used to implement the president's amnesty."

The result comes from "The People's Poll: National Survey of Republican Voters," which deals with immigration and health care.

The poll by Caddell and Associates, with a 4 percent margin of error, surveyed 602 voters Dec. 26-30.

Among the findings: More than 80 percent of Republican voters "broadly and intensely" oppose Obama's executive instructions on immigration, through which millions of illegal aliens are expected to be given the perks of citizenship, such as the right to seek a job and a ban on deportation.

The poll found more than 70 percent of Republican voters want Congress to pass a law preventing any use of taxpayer money to implement President Obama's executive order.

And, by a margin of 10 to one, they are less likely to vote for a member of Congress who voted to allow taxpayer money to be used to implement the president's executive order.

Nearly 90 percent of Republican voters agree that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority by acting without congressional approval. Three-quarters of Republicans say Obama is "consistently acting in a lawless way."

Likewise, on Obamacare, almost 90 percent of Republican voters oppose the Affordable Care Act, and almost three-quarters strongly oppose it.

Seventy percent believe that Obamacare should be repealed outright or repealed and replaced.

"On the issues of immigration and Obamacare, self-identified Independents who lean Republican and voted Republican in November are even more intense in their opposition to both than are self-identified Republicans who classify themselves as not strong Republicans," the survey said. "Thus, those voters most responsible for the Republican landslide in November and who constitute one-third of Republican voters seem to be more animated on these issues than are many self-identified Republicans.

"On these issues they seem to be forming a coalition with outright Republican tea party supporters."

Nearly half (49 percent) of the respondents said they believe Republican leaders in Congress "really support immigration amnesty because they are beholden to corporate special interests and big campaign donors."

But they fault Obama for going beyond what the Constitution allows.

Eight-nine percent of respondents said they agree with the statement that Obama has exceeded his authority under the Constitution "by acting alone without congressional approval."

Seventy-four percent said Obama is "consistently acting in a lawless way on many issues and is in effect seriously undermining the constitutional separation of powers."

Earlier parts of the survey that were released showed 60 percent of Republican voters oppose John Boehner for House speaker, and 64 percent view him as ineffective. Just 16 percent of Republicans want both Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell elected to top leadership.

At NetRightDaily, Rick Manning wrote, "Anyone reading this study has to conclude that the canary in the mine shaft is already dead, and the Republican Party is in danger of making itself irrelevant unless elected leaders take bold action to change perceptions amongst those who elected them just two short months ago."

Manning, vice president of public policy for Americans for Limited Government, said, "The question is whether they will trust their own political fates into the hands of a speaker who their own Republican voters don't want, and believe is ineffective."