President Obama has been ruling by decree, with a huge number of executive orders, bypassing Congress. His czars and democrat-controlled government departments have been issuing regulations that either twist the law of the land or ignore it.
Republicans in congress have previously tried to stop this, without success. On Wednesday, The House cast an historical vote that aims to stop Mr. Obama’s loose interpretation of the Constitution in its tracks. The House bill would expedite congressional lawsuits against the chief executive for failing to enforce federal laws.
The main things that have lawmakers’ blood boiling are Obamacare, environmental laws and immigration law.
The vote on the Republican-sponsored ENFORCE the Laws Act, H.R. 3857, was 233-181 in the Republican-led House. Representatives speaking about it before voting for the bill cited:
their four-year struggle with the disastrous Obamacare rollout the president’s constant tinkering with the federal law his steps to ignore immigration law his failure to defend the federal law banning gay marriage his attacks on the second amendment
Pennsylvania Republican, Jim Gerlach tol The Hill, that Obama’s decisions “have not only exceeded the rights and responsibilities bestowed on a president by the U.S. Constitution, but they have undermined the collective work that Congress constitutionally fulfills under Article I.”
He went on to say, “The U.S. Code is not an a la carte menu compiled to serve the whims of a president and federal agencies – and no president or executive agency, regardless of political party or affiliation – should be able to simply pick and choose the laws they believe should be enforced based on their policy agenda or political wants.”
The White House already threatened to veto the bill if it passed, but that did not deter republicans who brought on the House vote.
What democrats fail to realize is that if the next president is a Republican, he will be able to carry on in the same way as Obama and democrats will have themselves to blame.
Democrats in congress may not care, but democrat constitutional scholars do.
Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said, “Throughout the Obama presidency we have seen a pattern: President Obama circumvents Congress when he doesn’t get his way.”
The House measure stands no chance of being passed – and may not even reach the floor in the Democratic-led Senate.
The aim of bill is to allow quickly-reviewed civil lawsuits against the president if that president “failed to meet the requirement of Article II, section 3, clause 17, of the Constitution of the United States to take care that a law be faithfully executed.”
After speeded-up litigation enabled by this law, any appeals would be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
As expected, Democrats defended Obama’s actions. Rep. John Conyers, a close ally of the president, drew some very weak comparisons back in history to highlight Obama’s tinkering with passed laws. His tenuous examples included President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of all slaves and President Harry S. Truman’s integration of the military.
As expected, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney supported Democrats and poured cold water on Republicans. He said Republicans were stalling on immigration overhaul but finding time for the bill on lawsuits that he said would impede the president in limiting deportation of young immigrants. “It’s pretty amazing that today House Republicans went in the opposite direction by passing legislation targeting the deferred action for childhood arrivals policy that removed the threat of deportation for young people brought to this country as children, known as DREAMers.”
Carney is a master of obfuscation and weak comparisons. meanwhile, Obama continues to do whatever he wants to do, acting exactly like a dictator.
