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Obama signs bill exempting presidential appointees from Senate confirmation
Daily Caller ^ | 8-11-12 | Paul Connor

Posted on 08/11/2012 6:27:58 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday evening that would exempt some senior-level presidential appointees from Senate confirmation.

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and cosponsored by Republicans and Democrats, the bill, now law, weakens the power of the legislature and strengthens the executive branch, critics have warned. The bill skated through the Senate three months after being introduced in 2011 and was passed by the Republican-controlled House 216-116 in July.

The law now allows Obama and future presidents to name appointees to senior positions in every branch of the administration, from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Homeland Security.

Conservative critics worried that the bill restricts congressional authority to monitor executive branch decisions, but the measure received bipartisan support because of the gridlocked, slow-moving Senate, which is known for being the more deliberative of the two bodies of Congress.

Whereas the House is a more populist body, the Senate grants more power to its fewer members. It only takes one senator to filibuster an appointee, forcing the majority party to find a “super majority” of 60 votes to end the filibuster and move ahead with an up-or-down vote.

The law now sidesteps that process, with Congress willingly giving up oversight of these appointees.

“The United States Constitution does not bestow kingly powers on the President to appoint the senior officers of the government with no process,” wrote Thomas McClusky, senior vice president for the Family Research Council’s legislative arm, in a memo to lawmakers last week.

The positions exempted from Senate confirmation include high-level posts like the treasurer of the United States and chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and mid-level posts like the assistant secretary for management at the Department of Education.

The bill also seeks to streamline the paperwork involved in a presidential nomination.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: appointees; assininity; bho44; bipartisancrap; confirmation; czars; dictatorship; elitists; frc; house; huntsman; johnhuntsman; king; noaa; nolabels; oboma; obummer; senate; senateconfirmation; treasurer; treasury
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To: afraidfortherepublic
This is the reason there are RINOs. They'll let the Dems do anything they want because they
know that one day it will be their turn to wield the throne of power.

There is no difference in party affiliation when one side is socialist
and the other side allows it. Dems do not play fair and love to slap around the RINOs when
the RINOs finally get their turn. The DEMs will howl unfair, but only
after they get kicked out of office and the scepter of power is in the other hands.
A prime example was the Senate 51% rule for the minority Senate members. After the Dems
controlled 60% of the Senate they wanted the rule changed again back to 61%, a rule they were against
when they were the minority.

And while Repubs just whimper away to their corners this contrived trick by
both sides is orchestrated to allow the Dems to pass freedom crushing powers
while the Repubs can claim they're victims. And BTW, Rush was the one who pointed this out many years ago.
I think it's time for Rush to make this point public once again.

41 posted on 08/12/2012 3:25:28 AM PDT by MaxMax (If you're not angry, you're not paying attention)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
We're cooked and ready to fail as in European socialism/totalitarianism.

I've been very negative of late, and this is a good example as to why. The "balance of powers" doesn't exist anymore since Congress has allowed Bambi to over-ride Congressional authority with his Executive Orders of late, and now this.

I'm starting to believe the conspiracy types that we are headed to a fight. Am I missing something here?

42 posted on 08/12/2012 3:42:10 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (An Oath is Forever)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

This makes it more imperative than ever that we get rid of President Chavez. I mean President Mugabe. I’m sorry. I mean President Obama. (I’m always mixing those three up. Pardon me.)


43 posted on 08/12/2012 3:45:41 AM PDT by samtheman (Obama. Mugabe. Chavez. (Obamugavez))
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Congress just does not want to do its job. They have become the branch of appeasement. We now have a king/president with the approval of Congress and even the USSC.

So what happens if Romney takes the WH? Will he and Ryan turn this around? I doubt it. "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Recently had a discussion about a couple of small CA city councils and how corrupt they have become. Personally, I think it starts from the lowliest city zoning commission and grows from there.

Other than a few politicians I can name on one hand, I don't believe any who gain power can control their desires to want more power - for whatever the ideological or other reason.

I personally now believe that anyone who wants to be a politician does so because of control power - not for the good of their constiguents.

We're done. I'm cashing out.

44 posted on 08/12/2012 4:00:09 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (An Oath is Forever)
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To: Nachum

dictator


45 posted on 08/12/2012 5:17:25 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh

“How did a republican controlled majority let this happen? “

Why do you think they care?

Congress has been surrendering its icky powers for 100 years. After all, if they exercise those powers, women might think they were mean, and we can’t have that.

Congress has atrophied to the point that they can’t even pass a budget.

The last step is not far away.


46 posted on 08/12/2012 5:22:28 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Diseases desperate grown are by desperate appliance relieved or not at all.)
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To: Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh

They [the Republicans] not only let it happen they supported , co-sponsored, and voted for it. Is there any doubt that both the Republican Party and Democrat Party are owned by the same owner[s]?


47 posted on 08/12/2012 6:10:38 AM PDT by sport
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To: centurion316
The Congress has a long history of surrendering Constitutional power so long as they are allowed to remain in power and continue to stuff money in their pockets.
Yup.
48 posted on 08/12/2012 6:12:57 AM PDT by samtheman (Obama. Mugabe. Chavez. (Obamugavez))
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To: chooseascreennamepat
And you will not hear one peep from the Republican Party when he does.

The Elite Repubican Party operate under the delusion that the Democrat Party is their friend. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Democrat Party hates the Republicans and at first opportunity will do to them what Communists always do to their political enemies. The Democrats lump Conservatives and Republicans in the same pile.

The Republicans, on the other hand, consider the Democrats to be their friend, as they have the same goal[s]. The Republicans consider the Conservatives to be their mortal enemy. To be destroyed at the first opportunity. This was manifested so clear in the 2010 mid terms than even a blind person could see it a mile away on a pitch black night. But denial runs deep, and as in the case of the abused spouse, they[ Conservatives] believe what the abuser tells them, tuck their tails between their legs, and vote for the Republican Elite pick every two to for years. Why do they do it? I don't know, other than the good feeling they get each time they are screwed. The four letter word would be a better description.

49 posted on 08/12/2012 6:26:19 AM PDT by sport
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To: afraidfortherepublic

What’s next treaties?


50 posted on 08/12/2012 6:52:03 AM PDT by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

What’s next treaties?


51 posted on 08/12/2012 6:52:17 AM PDT by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

More radical actions from the Dictator wannabe..... =.=


52 posted on 08/12/2012 7:32:18 AM PDT by cranked
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To: chooseascreennamepat

There has got to be so much going on (under the radar) that
would makes us sick, literally.


53 posted on 08/12/2012 8:33:24 AM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (0bama's agenda—Divide and conquer.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I don't need no stinking Senate!

54 posted on 08/12/2012 8:38:24 AM PDT by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/?)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Another reason to vote out the Democrats & the RHINOS in November!!!!


55 posted on 08/12/2012 9:35:38 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: afraidfortherepublic; Nachum; A Navy Vet; Kartographer; blam; The Duke
READ THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - WHO DOES THIS SOUND LIKE?

* He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

* He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

* He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

* He {intends to keep} among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

* He {intends to render} the military independent of and superior to civil power.

* He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws...

* For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent...

* For depriving us in many {future} cases, of the benefits of trial by jury...

* For ... abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

* He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless ... savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

* In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

* Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our ... brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

56 posted on 08/12/2012 10:02:16 AM PDT by Old Sarge (We are now officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Where are you Joe DiMaggio when we need you????


57 posted on 08/12/2012 10:02:56 AM PDT by bramps
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To: Old Sarge
WHO DOES THIS SOUND LIKE?

Hmmmm... Let me see...Is it Obama, or George III?

58 posted on 08/12/2012 11:14:55 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (ABO)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

A tyrant by any other name would smell as odious...


59 posted on 08/12/2012 11:32:00 AM PDT by Old Sarge (We are now officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet)
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To: CottShop
not that this makes the dear leaders UNCONSTITUTIONAL bill any better

It is Constitutional.

Article II Section 2 Clause 2

...but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

-PJ

60 posted on 08/12/2012 11:34:28 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( It doesn't come naturally when you're not natural born.)
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