"Saturday Night Live" took on President Barack Obama's executive order to halt deportations of up to 5 million illegal immigrants with a sketch modeled after a familiar "Schoolhouse Rock" cartoon.
In the original
"I'm Just a Bill" cartoon from the 1970s, Bill explains to a young boy the process of how a bill becomes a law. In Saturday's opening sketch, Bill begins his explanation, saying that's he's a immigration bill that he hopes Republicans will craft then send to Obama to sign into law.
Story continues below.
Just then, an actor playing Obama shows up and shoves Bill down the steps.
"You know, son, there's actually an even easier way to get things done around here. It's called an executive order," Obama tells the boy.
A similar-looking character to Bill shows up, but he's labled "Executive Order."
"I'm an executive order and I pretty much just happen," he says smugly, then takes a drag off a cigarette.
When the boy asks if he doesn't at some point have to go through Congress, Executive Order responds, "Oh, that's adorable. You still think that's how government works."
He then explains his purpose is to establish a new national park or holiday.
But when Obama says that he actually just gave legal status to 5 million illegal immigrants, even Executive Order expresses surprise.
"Wait, what?" he says. "I didn't have time to read myself. Whoa!"
Bill repeatedly climbs back up the Capitol steps to intervene, but is shoved back down by Obama.
"Look at the midterm elections," Bill pleads. "People clearly don't want this."
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading opponent of Obama's executive action,
referenced the skit on "Fox News Sunday."
"'Saturday Night Live' literally had the president pushing the bill down the steps of the Capitol because we no longer need the steps in the Constitution to pass laws," Cruz said.
During the "Weekend Update" segment on "SNL," co-anchor Colin Jost noted, "So in six years, Obama has gone from 'Yes We Can' to 'Yeah I Can.'"
Related Stories:
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.