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Obama’s new power grab: A climate change treaty without Senate ratification
Hot Air ^ | 8-27-14 | Allahpundit

Posted on 08/27/2014 9:16:09 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

It’s not a “new” treaty, apparently, if they’re rewriting an old treaty that’s already been ratified. Maybe that’s a sneak peek of Obama’s Syria policy too. Instead of asking for a new AUMF against ISIS, he could issue an “addendum” or whatever to the 2001 AUMF against Al Qaeda. Come to think of it, that’s his approach on immigration too. The mega-amnesty he’s getting ready to uncork isn’t being presented as new policy, even though it would legalize five million people or more. It’s being presented as a discretionary application of law that’s already on the books.

Turns out every bold new move Obama wants to make as president has already been authorized by statute, as if prophesied. I’m almost grateful in hindsight that he asked Congress to pass ObamaCare instead of deciding that some clause buried in the original Medicare bill allows him to order universal health care by fiat.

American negotiators are instead homing in on a hybrid agreement — a proposal to blend legally binding conditions from an existing 1992 treaty with new voluntary pledges. The mix would create a deal that would update the treaty, and thus, negotiators say, not require a new vote of ratification.

Countries would be legally required to enact domestic climate change policies — but would voluntarily pledge to specific levels of emissions cuts and to channel money to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change. Countries might then be legally obligated to report their progress toward meeting those pledges at meetings held to identify those nations that did not meet their cuts.

“There’s some legal and political magic to this,” said Jake Schmidt, an expert in global climate negotiations with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “They’re trying to move this as far as possible without having to reach the 67-vote threshold” in the Senate…

A deal that would not need to be ratified by the United States or any other nation is also drawing fire from the world’s poorest countries. In African and low-lying island nations — places that scientists say are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change — officials fear that any agreement made outside the structure of a traditional United Nations treaty will not bind rich countries to spend billions of dollars to help developing nations deal with the forces of climate change.

So enacting emissions policies and reporting progress on meeting them are requirements that will have the force of law, per the earlier treaty, but the actual substance of those policies is TBD and doesn’t require Senate ratification. Am I understanding that correctly? How is that different from O grabbing his pen and rewriting the old AUMF this way: “Congress hereby authorizes the president to use all necessary force against the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda ISIS”?

Three points here. One: It’s academic given the constitutional threshold of 67 votes for ratification, but I wonder if Harry Reid would have been willing to nuke the filibuster for this if the threshold were a simple majority instead. Don’t be so sure he would have; as in 2009, when the Senate began chin-pulling over whether to ratify an eventual Copenhagen accord, there are plenty of Democratic divisions on climate-change policy too. Would Reid rubber-stamp a global warming agreement knowing how awkward it would make life for coal-country candidates like Alison Lundergan Grimes? Two: Unlike DACA, this executive chicanery really might be undone by a Republican president in 2017. I’m convinced that the GOP so fears a backlash among Latino voters over immigration that Obama’s mega-amnesty will be allowed to stand by a Republican successor, albeit with plenty of pleading for Congress to pass something that subsumes O’s policy. That won’t happen here. President Rubio would, under intense pressure from righties, have no choice but to revisit this. Three: Part of O’s strategy in going bananas lately with dubious executive orders might be to bait the GOP into shutting down the government before fall. That’s unlikely to happen — even tea-party congressman recognize what it might do to change the political winds before the midterms — but the more aggressive he gets in seizing the power to decide hot-button issues unilaterally, the more tempted Republicans will be. If he decides to go all-out against ISIS without seeking congressional approval for that either, will that be some sort of final straw for Republicans in Congress? Or will Boehner just amend his lawsuit and add these new power grabs to it? My money’s on the latter.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: algore; climatechange

1 posted on 08/27/2014 9:16:09 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

BS


2 posted on 08/27/2014 9:21:40 AM PDT by oldbrowser (We have a rogue government in Washington)
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To: afraidfortherepublic; All
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Even if Obama had the support of the Senate concerning the climate change treaty, it remains that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to address climate issues.

3 posted on 08/27/2014 9:22:54 AM PDT by Amendment10
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Hey, the Felon in Chief of the Just Us department has already declared that he’s OK with disobeying laws that are not agreed with, so sooner or later we’ll all tell Holder and his Excrement livered boss that we don’t give a lilly livered liberal what they say.


4 posted on 08/27/2014 9:26:34 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: afraidfortherepublic

5 posted on 08/27/2014 9:30:37 AM PDT by JPG ("So sue me". OK, we will.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It has no legal effect; it should promptly be rescinded by the next president as an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.


6 posted on 08/27/2014 9:36:56 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: Jewbacca



7 posted on 08/27/2014 9:39:43 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill ...)
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To: Jewbacca

We need a Presidential candidate who will run on ‘pulling the plug’ on the UN!

HA! That alone, could be a winner!


8 posted on 08/27/2014 9:52:06 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Jewbacca
It has no legal effect; it should promptly be rescinded by the next president as an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.

You're assuming that the next president will be a Republican. Not likely. In fact, given the daily increase in the number of takers-not-makers, I don't think we'll ever see a GOP president again.

The best we can hope for is a JFK-type democrat.

Depressing, eh?

9 posted on 08/27/2014 9:58:48 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Jewbacca
It has no legal effect; it should promptly be rescinded by the next president as an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.

Hillary won't rescind it. Yep. I said it. Until the GOP becomes conservative, the takers outnumber the makers, and then that is the end of our Republic, just as the founders said it would end.

10 posted on 08/27/2014 10:19:20 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!!)
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To: Leaning Right

“The best we can hope for is a JFK-type democrat.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

One chance in ten million! JFK was more conservative than almost any Republican you care to name now. Hell, Hubert Horatio Humphrey was more conservative than most current Republicans.


11 posted on 08/27/2014 10:47:34 AM PDT by RipSawyer (OPM is the religion of the sheeple.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
this is animal farm style amendment
12 posted on 08/27/2014 10:48:56 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: RipSawyer
One chance in ten million! JFK was more conservative than almost any Republican you care to name now.

True that.

13 posted on 08/27/2014 11:01:53 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Why doesn't he just go on a trip to another country and order nuclear bombs dropped on the US?

He's destroying us slowly one piece at a time.

Climate Change legislation is the greatest threat to our economy and even civilization itself if taken to the extremes that the gullible man-made globull warming/Climate Change Alarmists nuts hope for.

“Wouldn't it be cool if there were only fuzzy bunnies and sunsets without the nasty humans around to wreck everything?” ~Econut

14 posted on 08/27/2014 11:05:42 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: afraidfortherepublic

This sounds like he’s trying to goad We the People into a full scale revolution.

BEWARE!


15 posted on 08/27/2014 11:08:17 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Jewbacca

The Senate REJECTED the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, known as the Agenda 21 treaty. Here is how it has been implemented anyway by Ex Order:http://www.activistpost.com/2013/05/how-bill-clinton-forced-agenda-21-on.html

This will be the template. The above treaty also came out of the 1992 UN Earth Summit, same as the Climate treaty.


16 posted on 08/27/2014 12:39:10 PM PDT by Captain7seas (Beware of "enviromentalist" spewing lies)
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