Posted on 11/24/2014 5:09:26 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
Last week President Obama declared new laws on immigration, similar to how a divine right king might. What’s interesting in his decree is that in the very least he acknowledges that he cannot actually provide a pathway to citizenship under the law. He expanded the power of the executive branch but he didn’t open up the floodgates. Nevertheless he absolutely expanded the power of the executive branch, pending action by Congress or the Supreme Court. What’s odd about Obama’s expansion of power is that he could have had exactly what he decreed had be been willing to play ball with Republicans the last year and a half. Speaker Boehner offered the President what he decreed and the President rejected it because it didn’t include a pathway to citizenship. Now the President declares he’s fed up with Congress and decrees exactly what he was offered in the first place.
The President is creating a Constitutional crisis over something he could have gotten in the first place had he been willing to compromise with Republicans. Unfortunately, progressives such as Obama believe that the conservative and Republican worldview is illegitimate. Because they view the conservative worldview as illegitimate they’ve convinced themselves that they don’t need to play ball with Republicans. There’s a certain logic to their thinking. If a worldview is illegitimate why would anyone negotiate with people to hold to such a worldview? The problem for progressives is that twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservatives compared to liberals. Half of the country routinely votes for Republicans for at least some elected offices. The country has elected a Republican House three elections in a row and just elected a Republican Senate. Yet the President continues to behave as though the Republican worldview is illegitimate and thus negotiating with its adherents unacceptable.
At this point the Republicans shouldn’t rubber stamp Obama’s decree, even if they would have agreed to it months ago. For the sake of the Constitution, the Republicans should not allow Congress to turn into an irrelevant body that simply rubber stamps the decrees made by the President. There is a legitimate Constitutional crisis created whenever a President creates law via executive order. It’s one thing for the President to issue an executive order to agencies telling them how to implement the laws passed by Congress. It’s another thing when an executive order circumvents laws passed by Congress, creating new law in the process. This is exactly what Obama’s immigration orders are doing. The laws Obama created could have and should have been passed by Congress in order for them to be legitimate. It doesn’t matter whether the President is frustrated and tired of waiting for Congress to do something. Congress is a co-equal branch of government, they don’t have to act if they don’t want to. They also don’t have to act when the President refuses to negotiate.
The question of our day is whether the President has the authority to create law. If the answer is yes, then the Constitution, as written, becomes moot. Under the written Constitution, laws are written by Congress not the President. If the President can also write law, specifically law not authorized by Congress, then the country can dispense with Congress altogether. The President alone could be the authority by which laws are written. Obama has written an immigration law, the next Republican President might write a law eliminating the capital gains tax. In fact, the next Republican President could write a law making abortion illegal. You say the Supreme Court has already ruled it Constitutional? If the President can eliminate the power of Congress surely he can eliminate the power of the Supreme Court as well.
Obama hasn’t quite taken it to the level of eliminating Congress but he’s creating a precedent that the next progressive President will attempt to expand. Over the last century Congress has willingly granted the executive a portion of their law making capacity. By allowing the President to write regulations without Congressional overview, Congress willingly gave up its power. In the case of immigration, Congress did not grant the President the authority to write regulations or issue orders in the manner he has done. The President is thus attempting to extend the power of the executive. He didn’t go all the way by providing full fledged citizenship to illegals. Make no mistake, the point of this exercise isn’t immigration. It’s about expanding the power and scope of the President. Not for Obama himself, he has only two years left, but for future progressive President’s. Obama doesn’t care about illegal immigrants, he cares about the broader progressive worldview. He’s setting a massive precedent for the next progressive, that’s what this immigration move is all about.
Somebody should have deported this SOB a long time ago.
This is the main problem. This lunatic has pushed the envelope so far, so fast, every president after him will have greater power now.
This also illustrates how far Congress has ceded their power to the presidency. Bad precedents all around.
It’s only a problem if Congress funds his declaration of law and if the Courts uphold his law as legal and allowable under the Constitution. If the Courts shoot down his immigration law, it sets the progressive cause back decades. That’s why I think Obama didn’t go all the way with this, he didn’t want to make it easy for the Courts to strike down the law. This isn’t about immigration, it’s about expansion of executive power.
The only path open to congress is defund or impeachment.
What Obama has done is act just like a Roman tyrant, ignoring laws as if he had no Congress to deal with.
Don’t limit this to Obama. The problem lies in the office of the president having become too powerful, at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, the states and the people.
The presidency needs a “haircut.”
To start with, a conservative POTUS needs to work with a conservative congress to do it right. Things like Presidential Signing Statements, Proclamations that grab state lands, national disaster dictatorship plans (which every president since Eisenhower have signed on to), Czars, and many other bad behaviors need to be eliminated outright.
Other things need to be reinforced and clarified, like the War Power Act and Posse Comitatus Act, the explicit limitations to Executive Privilege, the ability of congress to impeach cabinet officers and other appointees, the ability of congress to fire General Service bureaucrats and close agencies and bureaus of government, etc.
Non-government persons (especially first ladies) should be officially stripped of any notions that they have authority.
The FED needs auditing, as well as ALL of America’s strategic resources, especially our metals reserves.
This list goes on and on.
King Charles lost his head when he refused to work with Parliament.
I agree the problem with presidential power doesn’t begin with Obama. It begins with Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
I almost choked on a mouthful of lunch....Even when the GOP controlled all of D.C. (note I didn’t say conservative, let alone a *gasp* Constitutionalist), the only time the Const. was even mentioned was when it used to make another political point....as they passed NCLB, TSA, DHS, etc.
There will be ‘reset’ until the War of Indep. II; which I fail to see happening as the bread and circuses are in full swing (sports and TV).
I’d LOVE to see even the most basic of Law passed: an authority declaration needed for ANY/ALL Bills before voting (as if that’d make a difference, I know).
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