Along with Jeb Bush & The Chamber Of Commerce Crowd:
IT’S AN ACT OF LOVE!
Katy you are a sharp cookie but the money is not his to do with as he pleases, or it wasn’t until Bonehead Boehner lied through his teeth to get this Marxist spending bill passed.
Were I a legal immigrant, I would file a class action lawsuit in order to have the apparently unnecessary fees I paid refunded. Of course, the emotional strain the process caused and the time spend on documents and travel back to my homeland would require monetary compensation as well.
In a blink, John Roberts can deem the "fee" as a "tax". Then, Congress can shut it off.
Can you say Criminal Conspiracy to Misappropriate Public Funds?
Sure you can. The GAO will be calling.
A fee-funded agency or activity typically refers to one in which the amounts appropriated by Congress for that agency or activity are derived from fees collected from some external source. Importantly, amounts received as fees by federal agencies must still be appropriated by Congress to that agency in order to be available for obligation or expenditure by the agency.
I have tried to explain this to people before when they say the Agency is “Self Funded”. There is NO SUCH THING. All Monies paid to ANY Federal Agency go to the US Treasury, CONgress appropriates NEW Money every year, a self funded agency only means they bring in as much as they spend at the end of the day. A Self Funded Agency can be cut off TOMORROW by CONgress.
If those who follow the law are forced to subsidize those who do not, the outcome will be obvious. Legal immigration will end, and only criminals will come here. That sounds like a big win for Obama and his corrupt crony capitalists.
[Note: I am a big fan of real capitalism and real profits; I just despise the thugs who use national socialist techniques instead of Adam Smith’s invisible hand to collect money.]
It appears Congress surrendered their power of the purse long ago by allowing agencies to self-fund with fees.
moral hazard
Hmmmmm. A case for legal immigrants to file suit against Obama under equal protection of the 14th Amendment and the 5th Amendment.
This fee by non-elected federal bureaucrats is a major sidestepping of the Constitution’s Clause 1 of Section 7 of Aritcle I (1.7.1) imo, 1.7.1 being the “power of the purse” clause that James Madison wrote about in Federalist No. 58.
”The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government. This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure [emphasis added] …” —James Madison, The Federalist Papers : No. 58.
Just as with constitutionally indefensible Obamacare, and noting that 1.7.1 doesn’t specify a source of revenue, who cares if federal revenues are called a fee, a penalty or a tax? As Madison had indicated, 1.7.1 is the “emergency brake” that the House can use to redress the grievances of the voters, voters not supporting Obama’s constitutionally indefensible immigration policy in this case.
And speaking of constitutionally indefensible immigration policy, please consider the following. Politically correct interpretations of the Constitution's “Uniform Rule of Naturalization” clause (1.8.4) and slavery clause (1.9.1) aside, interpretations used to wrongly justify federal immigration laws, the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate immigration. This evidenced by the excerpts below from the writings of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Madison generally regarded as the father of the Constitution.
“4. _Resolved_, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction and protection of the laws of the State wherein they are: that no power over them has been delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the individual States, distinct from their power over citizens. And it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the — day of July, 1798, intituled “An Act concerning aliens,” which assumes powers over alien friends, not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force [emphasis added].” —Thomas Jefferson, Draft of the Kentucky Resolutions - October 1798.
"That the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" passed at the last session of Congress; the first of which exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government, ...
…
… the General Assembly doth solemenly appeal to the like dispositions of the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid, are unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each, for co-operating with this state, in maintaining the Authorities, Rights, and Liberties, referred to the States respectively, or to the people [emphasis added]. ”— James Madison, Draft of the Virginia Resolutions - December 1798.
So as evidenced by Obama’s constitutionally indefensible Stimulus Program and likewise indefensible Obamacare, the corrupt House, this time controlled by RINOs, is once again helping Obama to act independently of Congress. It is doing so this time by not only wrongly front-ending federal appropriations by hiding behind a constitutionally undefined federal agency exercising constitutionally nonexistent federal government powers, but also passing a spending bill which undoubtedly ignores Congress’s Article I, Section 8-limited powers, not that doing so is a major issue with lawless Obama.
Finally, I hope that patriots are also beginning to see serious problems with the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, a state legislatures-controlled Senate arguably killing the Cromnibus bill.
What a mess! :^(