Obama to Congress: Sue Me
By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com
Our founding fathers must be rolling in their
graves at President Obama’s latest degradation of
the constitutional principles of separation of
powers and his apparent disdain for co-equal
branches of government by now dictating immigration
law.
With Obama’s preference to issue presidential
directives, it is quite evident that the president
is more comfortable dictating than legislating.
For someone who bills himself as a constitutional
scholar and historian, the president sure does not
act like one. In one speech he will preach the need
for bipartisanship and respect for the rule of law,
and in the next he will say that “we can’t wait” for
Congress to act in the interest of justifying his
unilateral actions.
Obama has abused constitutional principles is
several ways. He either orders executive branch
agencies to issue new rules and regulations without
the need for legislation while in other case he
orders an agency not to enforce rules or
regulations.
If all else fails, he issues executive orders
directing that action be taken without the need for
congressional oversight.
Obama’s tenure to date is rife with unconstitutional
actions.
Lets look at some examples of his most egregious
acts to date as documented by Lachian Markay of the
Heritage Foundation:
“1. Environmental Regulation: President Obama has
made it his mission to impose economy-killing
environmental regulations on America in spite of
clear congressional opposition. Take the White
House–backed cap-and-trade bill, which would have
created a market for “carbon credits” that
businesses would have to trade in order to emit
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses.
The measure passed the House in 2009 but was
defeated in the Senate. Undeterred, the Obama
Administration sought to ram its agenda into law
without congressional approval. It managed to
classify carbon dioxide as a “pollutant” under the
Clean Air Act, thereby granting the Environmental
Protection Agency the authority to regulate its
emission — despite warnings even from members of
Congress who wanted to regulate carbon emissions but
recognized the problematic nature of doing so
without congressional approval.
2. Labor Law: Expanding powerful labor unions are
another Obama Administration objective. On June 21,
the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced
plans to dramatically reduce the time to conduct
unionization elections.
But in 2009, the Senate moved in the opposite
direction. It removed the “card check” provision
from the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act,”
effectively sinking a measure that could have
dramatically increased union membership by
rescinding workers’ rights to a secret ballot
election for union representation.
The NLRB’s new rule will reduce the length of
elections from about six weeks to 10-21 days,
thereby limiting employers’ abilities to present
their own cases against unionization to workers —
and making the formation of a union far more likely.
Increased unionization was always card check’s
purpose. The NLRB is now attempting to achieve the
same goal without Congress’s approval.
3. Immigration Law: On immigration policy, the Obama
Administration has not even waited for congressional
action before charting its own legislative course.
In May, Democrats reintroduced the DREAM Act — which
would provide a path to citizenship for illegal
immigrants who came to the United States before they
were 16 — after the lame-duck Congress failed to
pass it late last year.
But rather than waiting for Congress to act,
officials at Obama’s Department of Homeland Security
have instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents and attorneys to exercise “prosecutorial
discretion” for illegal immigrants who have attended
school in the United States, meaning far fewer such
illegal immigrants will be prosecuted and deported.
The agency cited a shortage of resources, but the
decision amounts to a de facto implementation of the
DREAM Act.
4. Selective Enforcement of Federal Law: Rather than
push Congress to repeal federal laws against
marijuana use, Obama’s Justice Department decided in
2009 that it would simply stop enforcing those laws.
Proposals to legalize marijuana at the federal level
consistently fail to win congressional approval, but
the Obama Administration decided to implement its
agenda in spite of that lack of legislative support.
The Justice Department again employed this tactic in
February when it announced that it would no longer
enforce another federal law: the Defense of Marriage
Act. The administration did not agree with the law,
so rather than attempting to repeal it via the
standard legislative channels, it decided to ignore
it.
5. Regulating the Internet: Obama’s Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) decided late last
year to assume authority over Internet regulation
despite a ruling by a federal appeals court
explicitly denying the commission that authority. In
contradiction of the court’s ruling, the FCC voted
3-2 in December to pass the first-ever federal
regulations on Internet traffic. The House has voted
to block those regulations, but Obama has pledged to
veto any such legislation.”
And let’s not forget about Obama’s appointment of
over 30+ “Czars” to high government positions of
responsibility without the need of Senate
confirmation, which the Constitution requires. We
now have a border czar, an auto recovery czar, a
climate czar, an energy and environment czar, a
government performance czar and a green jobs czar,
just to name a few.
The president’s arrogance of power is best evidenced
in his “so sue me” attitude toward Congress.
The president has created a constitutional crisis on
healthcare and immigration. As we await a decision
on healthcare and immigration by the Supreme Court
the nation has been held hostage to years of delay,
uncertainty and confusion with regard to healthcare
and the rights of states to secure their own borders
and population when the federal government will not
enforce immigration laws.
Obama’s habitual abuse of his constitutional
authority has had a direct negative effect on our
economic recovery. By ruling out of ideology instead
of reality he takes his eye off the real issues of
import to the American people — jobs, gas prices,
foreclosures, bankruptcies, entitlements, and debt.
You know Obama has gone too far when the New York
Times acknowledges the obvious in an article by
Charlie Savage published on April 22:
“One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted
a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not
on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the
administration needed to more aggressively use
executive power to govern in the face of
Congressional obstructionism.
“For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As
a senator and presidential candidate, he had
criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of
Congress. And during his first two years in the
White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr.
Obama largely worked through the legislative process
to achieve his domestic policy goals.
“But increasingly in recent months, the
administration has been seeking ways to act without
Congress. Branding its unilateral efforts ‘We Can’t
Wait,’ a slogan that aides said Mr. Obama coined at
that strategy meeting, the White House has rolled
out dozens of new policies . . .”
Be careful what you wish for Mr. President.
You wanted to be sued and you were. And, should the
Supreme Court rebuke your actions as
unconstitutional, your legacy will be forever set in
stone as a president who breached his oath and put
his personal and political agenda above the rule of
law and the people he swore to protect and defend.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy
assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04.
He is currently a professor of Politics and Public
Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent
contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports
from Bradley Blakeman —
Click Here Now.
© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.