Posted on 01/28/2014 8:44:07 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama will unveil a slate of executive actions in his State of the Union address Tuesday just as questions about competency plague his White House.
It's a challenge -- asking Americans to let his administration take the lead after a series of self-inflicted setbacks -- that could imperil confidence in Obama's 2014 agenda before it even gets out of the gate.
Much of the blowback leading up to Obama's prime-time speech has centered around the idea of executive overreach, that the president is simply sidestepping another branch of government to get what he wants.
Yet, Obama has a more burning question that he must answer Tuesday: Is his administration capable of delivering on his progressive blueprint for a self-professed “year of action?”
“It's not the perfect environment to be rolling out executive orders,” conceded one Democratic Senate aide. “He's got to first use his pulpit to win over some converts.”
Pointing to 2013 as a lost legislative year — and with no better prospects on Capitol Hill — the Democrat added, “What choice does he have?”
The president has said he is willing to work with lawmakers, but will press ahead solo if they fail to act. The White House is banking that the public will reward Obama for navigating around a historically unpopular Congress to enact measures to jump start the economy.
Obama, however, is essentially asking the public to support his unilateral agenda at a time when many Americans have soured on his job performance.
Trust in the executive branch was arguably the biggest casualty of the botched Obamacare rollout and uproar over National Security Agency surveillance techniques.
In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 53 percent of respondents said the administration had not been competent in running the government and nearly half of those surveyed said the president was not trustworthy.
Obama will outline executive action on infrastructure projects, climate change and a variety of economic fixes -- including some earlier proposals and fresh policies.
What remains to be seen is whether the message fades away like much of Obama’s domestic agenda in recent State of the Union addresses or if the speech gives the White House some desperately needed momentum.
On the eve of Obama's address to Congress, the White House accused Republicans of overplaying the president's intentions.
“We're not saying this is an either/or proposition,” press secretary Jay Carney said of executive action versus new laws. “It's a both/and. It's reaching out to Congress and looking forward to the possibility of further bipartisan cooperation on big, medium and small issues.”
“The president should absolutely use the powers available to him and the unique authority that the office provides to move forward,” Obama's top spokesman added.
Some Republicans argue, however, that Obama's latest State of the Union pitch is just a rhetorical gimmick. They say Obama's address Tuesday is just the latest version of his “we can't wait” tour and other campaign-style messages employed to change the narrative in Washington.
“He can work with us to create opportunity and prosperity. Or he can issue press releases,” Brendan Buck, spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of Obama. “That's the choice the president faces this year.”
Nancy Pelosi is outraged: ‘We did not treat President Bush this way’ "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said Tuesday that a large segment of the GOP is “anti-government, anti-science and anti-Obama” and that while Democrats opposed much of President George W. Bush’s agenda, Republican obstruction to President Obama is “something quite stunning.”..............
If it were me, I would do it right after I pointed at his face and said, "You're finished, Emperor."
Huuah!
Thank God
The hapless Republicans will just sit there while Obama trashes them and runs over congress. They should walk out on the tyrant.
The only person more vile to the left than George Bush, is Dick Cheney and the left expressed that hate every day for 8 years! ...and still spew their venom at them even 5 years later.
If the Republicans could muster up the courage to do this, it would send a powerful message to the country. This is a grand opportunity for congress to assert itself and to make a statement that no one is above the law. But they lack conviction will fail to seize the moment — yet again.
If nothing else, EACH TIME he lies, one GOP legislator should walk out. By the end of the speech, they will all be gone.
No, Obama is NOT “willing to work with law makers.” Unless they agree to any stupid thing his handlers dream up.
Obama can be called many things however competent isn’t one of them.
Amen. And then start impeachment proceedings.
The only job I can think of that Barry Soetoro is qualified for is that of a community agitator. The guy that stands on the street corner and tries to rile a crowd up against other people and institutions.
Other than that, nothing.
OBAMA’S ROAD TO SERFDOM
By Lloyd Billingsley January 28, 2014 In Daily Mailer,FrontPage
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/lloyd-billingsley/obamas-road-to-serfdom/print/
Barack Obama has his pen and his phone and as this report notes, the President of the United States is poised to bypass Congress and “use his control of federal agencies to impose his progressive agenda on the economy and society throughout 2014.”
This is more evidence that Barack Obama has not read Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, the 1944 book endorsed by John Maynard Keynes “in deeply moved agreement” both philosophical and moral. Hayek’s book nevertheless remains enlightening about president Obama and his administration in several ways.
Last year in a piece on Obamacare Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson cited Hayek on the challenge of technocratic planning: limited information. The knowledge, Hayek wrote, “never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.”
According to Hayek, a Nobel laureate in economics, the dispute is not about “whether planning is to be done or not.” Rather, the key question is whether the planning is to be conducted “centrally, by one authority” or “divided among many individuals.” Obamacare purports to plan health care for an entire nation. By any standard, that has not worked out well.
The federal website was dysfunctional but Obamacare bosses opted to roll it out anyway. Federal officials remained uncertain how many people had “enrolled” and whether enrollees had in fact secured a policy. Among other technical and economic problems, the federal website remains insecure and state exchanges have troubles of their own.
“So maybe the problem is not Obama or Sebelius,” Gerson wrote, “but rather a government program that requires superhuman technocratic mastery.” That validates Hayek on the information problem. Another section of his “grand book,” as Keynes called it, may be even more relevant.
That would be Hayek’s chapter on “Why the Worst Get on Top” in societies trending toward central control. In those, the dominating element is “the general demand for a quick and determined government action.” Therefore it is “the man or party strong enough to ‘get things done’ who exercises the greatest appeal.” But for such a man and his party, the problems range far beyond the lack of information.
“Where there is one common all-overriding end,” Hayek notes, “there is no room for any general morals or rules.”
The principle that the end justifies the means is in fact “the denial of all morals.” The leader who really wants to get things done will “soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure.” The necessary practices for such a leader include “cruelty and intimidation, deliberate deception and spying.”
Likewise, the “democratic statesman” determined to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of “either assuming dictatorial power or abandoning his plans.” That is why, Hayek says, in a society trending toward central control, “the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful.” Examples abound on the current scene.
The president is mounting a surge in his practice of legislating from the White House, a clear violation of the Constitution. This is precisely the kind of power grab outlined by Friedrich Hayek, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 1991.
The Obama administration has deployed the IRS to intimidate groups the president dislikes. His NSA continues to spy on ordinary Americans, strip-mining their private lives beyond any legitimate security needs. Deception also abounds.
“If you like your health care plan,” the president said repeatedly, “you can keep it.” This was not, as the New York Times wrote, an “incorrect promise.” It was the sort of deliberate deception that, as Hayek noted, even democratic statesmen must indulge if they believe the end justifies the means. Barack Obama, President of the United States, is up to the task, and the results are evident. His signature plan strips Americans of their health care policies and steers them to a dysfunctional and insecure website whose “navigators” can be convicted felons. If Americans decline to participate, the IRS will fine them. Millions of Americans are now in dire straits but Barack Obama says as long as he is president Obamacare will never be repealed.
Embattled Americans can doubtless find other evidence that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are already on top, and the nation progressing down the road to serfdom. But could this happen in the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave? Consider Hayek’s warning:
“Even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard if the danger is precisely that new institutions and policies will gradually undermine and destroy that spirit.”
Many Democrats suffer from Competency Transfer Bias. They assume that competency in one area means that a person will be competent in other, or all, areas. This is Fairy Tale Management. Look at Obama’s rallying cry “Hope And Change!” That is something you would expect to read in a Fairy Tale. “And then the Little Princess waved her magic wand and said ‘Hope And Change’ and everyone lived happily ever after.”
Obama has proven a competency in campaigning. That does not equate to competency in being an Executive. Has he shown any kind of competency in planning, organizing, leading or coordinating? If anything, events over the past five years( like Benghazi) prove that he has no competence whatsoever in these Executive functions. Worse, he shows absolutely no interest in educating and improving himself in these areas. Evidently, after 180 golf days since he was elected, he feels that his golf swing is a more important competency than planning or organizing or leading or coordinating. Fore!
Pelosi opens her mouth and lies.
I am anti leftist totalitarianism.
I am anti crony capitalism.
I am anti Obama.
EACH TIME he lies, one GOP legislator should walk out. By the end of the speech, they will all be gone.
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The entire delegation would exit within the first hour!
I can’t imagine having to sit through his littany of mendacious dissemblings. He is a pathological liar, among other things.
Obama can be called many things however competent isn’t one of them.
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His incompetence has thankfully kept things from being even worse in this country. I shudder to think how much damage he could do if he had any abilities at all and was adept and efficient at executing his policies. Granted, he’s making a mess out of everything he touches, but it would be worse if he was a competent executive who operated with precision like efficiency.
I saw her say this, on Greta. I believe the article mentions her saying it on MSNBC. I was also working at the time and quickly moved away from it. She is truly a frightening piece of work.
The absolutely perfect poster child for Mark Levin’s “Utopian Statist” designation.
They live for the impossible dream.
And any power, self-aggrandizement, money etc they can derive from the from it.
The reality that it can’t work, or whether or not it’s ever fully implemented, is really beside their point.
Their point is, it’s ever unfolding, it’s inevitable, we must bow the knee to it.
Most among us still haven’t grasped how DANGEROUS are Nancy and her ilk...
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