( CNN ) It looks like the Republicans in Congress have failed again . House Republicans defeated a plan pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to fund the Department of Homeland Security , money that congressional Republicans have been holding hostage in their effort to overturn President Obama 's executive order on immigration . McConnell proposed that there would be a separate vote on the immigration issue . When Speaker John Boehner proposed an even narrower compromise , funding the Department for only three more weeks , his caucus said no . The final bill provides funding for one more week , at which point Congress needs to take up the issue again . Yet from a different perspective , congressional Republicans are achieving their goal . Once again they are using up a valuable chunk of President Obama 's political time . Congress has already squandered several months rather than addressing bigger questions , such as economic inequality or climate change , which the White House hoped to put at the center of political debate even if the Republicans refused to do anything about these problems . While the odds of the president making progress on key issues is extremely slim , President Obama has not even had a chance to introduce issues fully into public debate -- a key function of presidents who hope to build the groundwork for future legislative breakthroughs and shape the national conversation -- or to even to attempt to make progress on issues , like tax reform , where there is potential support for a bipartisan breakthrough . Using up the legislative clock has been central to the Republican strategy since the 2010 midterm elections , a tactic that the Democrats have found difficult to fight back against . The strategy has been pretty straightforward . Each time that President Obama tried to introduce a new issue to the nation , whether that has to do with immigration reform or economic inequality , Republicans have instantly shifted public attention elsewhere by threatening extreme action on some other area of policy . This is what Republicans did in 2010 and 2011 when they warned that they would not raise the debt limit ceiling if Democrats did not accede to their budget demands . Congress spent many months wrangling over the budget as they faced the real possibility of the federal government going into default . This was all that anyone in Washington was talking about . The GOP did the same with the threat of a government shutdown . Even though the possibility of repealing the Affordable Care Act is remote , Republicans keep bringing it up for a debate , forcing Democrats to defend the program and spending more time on a proposal that nobody really thinks stands a chance of passing . The `` tea party '' faction of the House Republicans has been pivotal to this strategy as was clear this week . Since they have shown repeatedly that they are willing to employ the most extreme measures to defend their principles , and that they wo n't allow Boehner to rein them in for `` practical '' political considerations , Democrats ca n't afford to take the threats lightly . Republican leaders can and have said to the White House they would like to find reasonable solutions to these problems , but with a nod to the Republican caucus , remind Obama that they do n't have full control . While it is true that these tactics have hurt the name brand of the GOP and place Republican presidential candidates at greater risk in 2016 , many congressional Republicans have been willing to suffer hits in the polls because the tactic has allowed them to continue using up time on the legislative calendar . Aside from vetoing bills , President Obama does n't have many options other than to watch the clock tick away . Now the GOP has done it again . Even if there is a resolution that continues funding for the Department of Homeland Security , months have been consumed on Capitol Hill . When the year began President Obama wanted to make economic inequality a defining theme for the year . He wanted to use the limited power he had to bring more attention to the growing divide between the rich and the poor , as well as the struggles facing middle class Americans . But he has only had limited success . Instead , he and his party have been consumed with this struggle over the budget bill . When House Republicans pushed their `` stop-gap '' measure to fund Homeland Security for just another week , they were following the standard game plan . By avoiding permanent solutions to budgeting problems , and keeping the debate over these issues in play for even more time , the GOP continues to eat away at the president 's political clock . Usually political extremism does not have the virtues that Sen. Barry Goldwater claimed in his famous 1964 speech to the Republican Convention , but it sure can have short-term political benefits in Congress . Just ask Mitch McConnell , who can barely contain his grin .
• Zelizer : he hogs the spotlight with pressing issues like the battle over money for the advancement of Homeland Security . He sees the continual crises remind Obama of the chance to push his agenda forward even slightly .