Thursday, November 20, 2014
Obama, McConnell, Executive Orders and the Rule of Law
In the past few days, media commentators and GOP leaders have begun to quote one of President Obama's older comments about going it alone to help illegal immigrants : "I am not the emperor of the United States." The inference is that Obama has completely reversed his position on the legality of executive action on immigration, ignoring his own earlier declarations that shielding illegal immigrants from deportation would be beyond his authority - and irresponsible. The Washington Post pointed out the President's reversal in an editorial posted online Monday night bearing the headline: "In Mr. Obama’s own words, acting alone is 'not how our democracy functions'." Obama has stated as many as 22 times that broad executive action on immigration is at odds with the law -- the last time as recently as September 2013, when he had a sit-down with Telemundo interviewer Jose Diaz-Balart, in which he defended his 2012 executive action protecting so-called Dreamers - people brought to the United States illegally as children. But he insisted he couldn't do the same for other immigrants. "If we start broadening that, then essentially, I’ll be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally," Obama told Diaz-Balart. "So that’s not an option." Other Obama comments that have repudiated executive action on illegal immigrants -- "I'm not a king." //"This is something that I have struggled with throughout my presidency." // "The problem is, is that I’m the President of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed." // "The easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws,...what I’m proposing is the harder path." // "There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President." ~~~~~ But now, President Obama says those same actions can be "legally unassailable," and the White House describes tonight's expected executive order as shielding up to 5 million people from deportation. As for Obama, he insists nothing has changed : "Getting a comprehensive deal of the sort that is in the Senate legislation, for example, does extend beyond my legal authorities," he insisted at the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia. "There are certain things I cannot do." But, he added : "I can’t wait in perpetuity when I have authorities that, at least for the next two years, can improve the system, can allow us to shift more resources to the border rather than separating families; improve the legal immigration system. I would be derelict in my duties if I did not try to improve the system that everybody acknowledges is broken." In an email to reporters, the Republican National Committee on Monday asked : “When did we add a 'politically convenient clause' to the Constitution in the last four years?" the Times reports. ~~~~~ Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving GOP Senator and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an interview this week : "These are important issues -- and it should unnerve every citizen that we have a President who, in some respects, is out of control." While Senator Hatch told Newsmax that he would give Obama "the benefit of the doubt" pending today's announcement, he added : "The preliminary indications are that he's going to give legal status to millions of people. That is not a power that a President should have or does have. In a way, I think he's just sticking his thumb in the eyes of everybody in this country." Senator Hatch reacted as details emerged from the White House of Obama's long-expected unilateral actions -- granting work permits and deferring deportation for as many as 5 million illegal immigrants, granting resident status to parents of US citizens and permanent residents of more than five years, but excluding parents of the so-called Dreamers brought to the US as children and sheltered from deportation by the President in 2012. On Friday, Obama will deliver an address with more details at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, which has a large number of non-English-speaking students. The President continues to indicate that he will revoke his orders if Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform legislation : "What I'm going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as President to make the system better, even as I continue to work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem," Obama said in a video on Facebook. But in a move that smacked of partisanship, Obama met with 18 Democrats from the House and Senate over dinner at the White House on Wednesday. No GOP members were invited. ~~~~~ Republicans have vehemently opposed Obama's immigration plans since he vowed to take action in a Rose Garden speech in May. He postponed the move until after the November 4 elections because of Democrats' fears of losing the Senate along with seats in the House if he acted on the unpopular plan. It didn't help. The Democrats suffered a blistering defeat in the elections, with the GOP retaking the Senate and gaining House seats. In a meeting with House and Senate leaders the day after the midterms, Obama obstinately vowed to act unilaterally on immigration by the end of the year. House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacted quckly, calling Obama's proposed action a "red flag" waved at a bull. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel slammed "Emperor Obama" yesterday when Obama confirmed his address for tonight, saying the executive orders would "cement his legacy of lawlessness and ruin the chances for congressional action on this issue - and many others." Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was among other Republicans charging that Obama's orders would "provide illegal immigrants with the exact benefits Congress has repeatedly rejected: Social Security numbers, photo IDs and work permits. "This will allow them to now take jobs directly from struggling Americans in every occupation. Congress must not allow this unconstitutional action." Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said : "the egregious use of executive action and rule by fiat is bad enough, but knowing that undocumented criminals continue to be released into communities, even this past year, and could still remain in the country is outrageous." ~~~~~ Dear readers, if we follow carefully the arguments passing back and forth between President Obama and congressional Republicans, it becomes clear that the fundamental difference between them is how they view the constitutional rule of law. Republicans have historically upheld the rule of law and constitutional constraints, even when it prevents actions that would be beneficial, preferring to work within the legal and constitutional constraints to find solutions. Obama seems to think that the rule of law is good until it interferes with doing what he wants to do -- not so much because he wants to abandon the rule of law but because it inconveniently opposes his personal view of what is "best" for his supporters. And if his calculated and unlawful action adds to the number of his supporters, so much the better. In this case, Obama has probably also concluded that Congress and the Supreme Court will not have the courage to oppose him. A mistake. Speaker John Boehner talks like your neighbor might -- about any Obama order on illegal immigrants, he said, "...we will fight him tooth and nail..." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with the measured cadence of a southern Senator. About Obama's executive order, he said : “He needs to understand something. If President Obama acts in defiance of the people and imposes his will on the country, Congress will act. We’re considering a variety of options. But make no mistake. When the newly elected representatives of the people take their seats, they will act.” That is the message of a leader sure of his position and convinced that he has been given the authority to act by the American people. Barack Obama has never faced such a combination of political skill and power and principled determination. The President is about to enter an arena he knows nothing about and has no skill set, experience or advisor to turn to for help. Let's see if he has realized this and it is reflected in his remarks tonight. Somehow I doubt it. Pride goeth before a fall.
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And when the new GOP controlled Congress convenes in January he will fall...
ReplyDeleteThis move tonight by President Obama is not a sign of righteous impatience or of his wanting to do the ‘right’ thing; it is however proof that he has failed and badly failed at that most basic of his tasks – working with Congress.
DeleteAs Ronald Reagan said .."Trust, but Verify"
ReplyDeleteDuring the hit and miss vetting of presidential candidates we seem to miss the little things that later surface as really big things in the candidates background - just the same as in federal appointees vetting, House and Senate vetting, Judicial appointees vetting.
I'm not talking about the big glaring things like we fail to find out that Cabdidate X watches porn every night, has a gambling problem, was once a "smoker", visits prostitutes on a regular bases, has children his wife has never had over to dinner, etc.
But more importantly the little personal quirks that flower into real problems. Such as I a a is not in his heart an Anerican, he has NO time for the Constitution,and he may fit into some if the above other categories.
We need to know all about those that will be our choices for public office
Prosecutorial Discretion is the legal, so-called legal underpinning for Obama's executive action he took tonight.
ReplyDeleteIn that oath of office, the president swears, he promises that to the best of his ability he will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath was violated tonight, in plain view of however many millions of people all over the world watch it. That oath has been rendered meaningless. A promise, a sworn promise: laughed at, cast aside as meaningless as a piece of confetti at a parade.
Executive amnesty. What the president is actually going to instruct tonight, the actual result of his executive order or amnesty tonight is an order or an instruction to law enforcement officials to ignore the law. Under existing law, illegal immigrants are not allowed to hold work documents, because they are here illegally. So the president is not enforcing a law; he's not changing, regulating, law. He's creating a new law out of thin air here. He is writing his own law.
Mr. Obama will be known to be a cheater and a fraud to his own party base, and especially to the people he purports to help. The people in the country illegally will know shortly that this stunt tonight does not help them and may in fact hurt them –badly. The collision of what is in essence a letter of recommendation from the president to employers with their genuine worries about liabilities under state law and about their fiduciary duties to their customers is going to be instant, and not to the good of the illegal population. Employers are going to flee the president’s testimonial that, if he were king of the forest, not queen, not duke, not earl, he’d let this person have a green card. Because he’s not king, he cannot bless this person’s employment in the real world of tort liability and state law. He cannot solve the issue of Social Security and unemployment insurance withholding. What he can –and will do tonight– is mark the illegal as someone not worth the trouble of hiring.
ReplyDeleteThe president simply cannot bestow a green card. Just a blessing, an Obama blessing… the blessing of a cheater.
Obama said he intended on becoming a “transformational president.” With this he succeeds.
ReplyDeleteHe has accelerated and ensured the remaking of America. Now when the wives and children of the illegals arrive, and their extended families apply for and receive visas, and bring their wives and children, we will become the Third World country of Obama’s dream, no more a free Western nation.
But then the community organizer who rode out of Chicago did not much like that old America. But does his new American much like him – via the poll numbers & the recent election result the answer is a solid NO they don’t.
We just watched the Constitution get blown full of holes last night if Obama is allowed to do this immigration plan.
ReplyDeleteI understand there are people that don't like this country, and I understand there are people that don't like the Constitution, and I understand them celebrating. I mean, intellectually I understand it. But I don't get why there doesn't seem to be anything other than intellectual reasoned opposition to this, rather than real roll-up-the-sleeves "stop this" kind of opposition. We got all the intellect on our side we need. We have all the eggheads we need. We got all the brains. We got all the people that can tell us what's happening here is illegal.
Where are the people on our side that stand up? Where's the John Wayne? Where's somebody that stands up and says, "No more, not happening here"? Where are the people saying, "We're gonna do something about this?" I can name a couple. But then they get shot down. Like Ted Cruz, you name it, they get shot down, blamed for shutting down the government or what have you.
WHERE ARE THE MASSES OF PEOPLE REJECTING KING OBAMA???
With this amnesty plan Obama takes custody of and responsibility for the entire illegal population. He is the patron saint of illegal aliens. And for what they do, he will be held accountable, as was Jimmy Carter for the Marielitos Castro sent and Carter welcomed.
ReplyDeleteIf the amnestied illegals contribute to the drug trade and violent crime, that will be Obama’s legacy to his country. If they turn up disproportionately on the welfare rolls, exploding state and federal deficits, that will be Obama’s legacy. If this amnesty is followed by a new invasion across the border America cannot control, that, too, will be Obama’s gift to his countrymen.
One wonders. Will poor and working-class blacks and whites, Hispanics and Asians, welcome this unleashed competition from the amnestied illegals, for jobs where the wages never seem to rise? Will anyone in the end like this amnesty program?
House leaders have placed Obama on OFFICIAL NOTICE to stop the usurpation of Congress by violating the Constitution with illegal Executive amnesty.
ReplyDeleteThe North American Law Center (NALC), working in concert with numerous patriot groups across America, placed House Republicans on notice demanding that they use constitutional congressional power to stop Barack Obama from illegally issuing defacto amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
House Republicans followed by placing Barack Hussein Obama on OFFICIAL NOTICE ahead of Obama’s scheduled TV event at 8:00 PM ET on Thursday the 20th.
In part, that OFFICIAL NOTICE states… The NOTICE was signed by Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, R-VA and Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul, R-TX. The clear threat is to impeach Barack Obama if he dares to act unilaterally on Immigration and Naturalization, beyond the constitutional authority of the Executive Branch.
The question is… what will the leadership, members of Congress and the American people do about it?
Last evening the American Dream dove a little further into the abyss of lost civilizations. It’s not a matter of what will be the final verdict on the Obama Amnesty Great Give Away, but the fact that an American President could or would stand up in front of the TV cameras, while all the while being watched by the world and defile the American Constitution. To even suggest what he pronounced his plan was for immigration is in its action treasonable.
ReplyDeleteWe have reached new depths of the abyss that only the strong, unbending, unyielding leadership of Speaker John Boehner and in less than 43 days the new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can rescue us from. No one is coming to save us. The French will not be here as they were during our War of Independence. Not the Irish as in our Civil War – it’s just us waiting for our Congress under the leadership of Boehner and McConnell to stand up and do what is right by the Constitution and for the wishes of the American citizen.
Time (which is short) will tell and set the course for the Rule of Law or the Rule of One man’s Wishes.
“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” … John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902).
ReplyDeleteLast evening we witnessed an attempt of a person who relishes power attempt to so damage the Constitution of the United States so enable him to not be legally stopped in an attempt to run for an ILLEGAY third term as president. That is the definition of absolute corruption by an power hungry person.
Is our Immigration system that "broken" that we need to allow some 5million illegal immigrants that elected to enter our country in the dark of night via some path established in the desert I Southwestern United States? And if the system is that broken that the way to fix it is to ignore the Rule of Law and further exasperated a problem into a very large problem.
ReplyDeleteOr do we inforce our Immagration Laws already on the books, apprehend the immigrants that entered illegally and send them home on their home countries dollar. And tweek what ever needs repaired in the established system.
And if the system is so broken ...WHO BROKE IT - OBAMA has due to his Justice Department not I forcing the laws.
A little I forcement and a very tall dense will do a lot about a Illegal
Immigration. But will not do much for Obama's low approval poll numbers, his badly tarnished legacy, or the rejection of his supports at the polls in 2016