President Obama is threatening to veto a law that would allow Congress to sue him in federal courts for arbitrarily changing or refusing to enforce federal laws because it "violates the separation of powers" by encroaching on his presidential authority.
The lead sponsor of the measure, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said it was designed to curb Obama's abuse of presidential authority, most notably in his frequent changes to Obamacare.
"We have pursued certain remedies afforded to Congress to address executive overreach but these efforts have been thwarted," Gowdy said. "This bill is necessary; it will give Congress the authority to defend this branch of government as the Framers and our fellow citizens would expect."The Affordable Care Act is law. It was passed by the House and the Senate and then signed into law by President Obama. Like all federal laws, the ACA can be changed by Congress, but cannot be unilaterally changed or amended by the President. Congress, not the Executive Branch, makes laws.
Yet Obama continues to change the Affordable Care Act by extending effective dates, exempting favored groups from compliance, fiddling with coverage, and most recently, delaying the individual mandate. The President's motives are apparent: politics and favoritism. As the November congressional elections draw near and the voters are increasingly angry about ObamaCare, Obama simply changes the law so that politicians in his party have theoretically better odds of being re-elected.
Representative Gowdy and others in Congress believe the President's actions to be illegal. Other remedies are not available (good luck having the AG intervene on behalf of Congress). As a result, Rep. Gowdy and co-sponsors will bring this bill to the floor of the House for debate and vote. And if it is passes and then passes the Senate vote (very unlikely) Obama will use his pen to veto the bill. That may work now, but President Obama would be well advised to consider that the protective Democrat majority in the Senate may not be there after January 20, 2014.
Do you believe Obama is breaking the law by unilaterally changing the ACA? If you don't, are you willing to have the next Republican president hold the same power? Because left untested, that is the precedent that has been established.
59 comments:
The federal government has been ignoring constraints on its power for over a century. Obama's behavior is just the latest example.
Personally, I like to terrify my left-wing friends by suggesting the next Republican President might decide to unilaterally suspend the capital gains or corporate income taxes.
The left is convinced that a Republican will never be elected President again.
They are wrong.
Can't wait.
This is not like in the past, and this would not be happening with a Republican President, because he could not get away with it. That alone is enough to prevent me from ever voting Democrat again, despite being one since 1976.
If you want a the benefits of a free Press and value that freedom, then you can't also vote Democrat anymore.
He's already impeachable.
If the Demos had any sense, they'd let this one through so, when everything goes ka-boom, they can let the Rs do them a favor.
The funny thing is that the idea of a penalty for this hasn't even been worked out. There are tons of outdated laws, there are unenforceable laws. C'est la vie. I don't have a problem with causing a ruckus about it, but if you were serious about this route, you'd have to contemplate penalties. And not all law non-enforcement is equal, just like not all law-breaking is equal.
When it comes to phased implementation of a law that the law's very detractors and his haters want to crucify Obama for pursuing in a delayed manner, I'd say this ranks somewhere up there with selling alcohol on a Sunday in Pennsylvania. Or whistling in inappropriate places. Maybe he could be given a citation or ticket for it and a $20 fine.
This is not like in the past, and this would not be happening with a Republican President, because he could not get away with it.
Lol. Come on! Democrats hating on a GOPer for delayed implementation of a law of his they claim to hate and claim will tear the country to pieces? Hahahahaha. Democrats are logical. If they really thought a law would be a disaster they'd actually not mind his not rushing to implement it. Unlike some, they don't seem to believe in welcoming what they feel will be a disaster simply to make a political point. That's for the other party.
@Ritmo
As usual, you're wrong.
The delayed implementation is clearly meant to put off full implementation until the mid-term elections are over.
It's a political move designed to try to lessen the backlash from voters angry over Obamacare against Democratic candidates, in particularly, senatorial candidates.
The president is violating the law by usurping the powers of the legislature. As is always the case when the president violates the law, the penalty is whatever is politically possible for the opposition.
And, nobody is trying to "crucify" the president.
You are given to such ridiculously hilarious hyperbole.
What does it say about this douchenozzle that you have to pass a law to make him obey the law?
Other Presidents have delayed or not obeyed the law. Even Lincoln. But none have done it in as a contemptuous way since Nixon.
In fact even Nixon wasn't as bad as this crook. When he tried to impound funds he was impeached.
Obama just does what he wants without a care in the world.
I wonder how many people he is going to pardon on his way out the door. He is going to make Clinton look like a piker.
@Troop
What it says is that a black man, or a woman should not be president, since Democrats insist that all opposition to a black man is racism and will insist that all opposition to a woman is sexist.
Since only a white male president can be held responsible for his actions, only a white man should be president. Unless we want a monarchy.
Note to Ritmo. Look up definition of satire before responding.
Disregarding the law. Using the IRS against his enemies list. Illegal wiretapping.
Obama is the black Nixon, not his guy.
This is not taken from The Onion.
That's how sometimes I have to pause and consider that there are either greater forces at play here, a historically unparalleled transition into something we are yet to discover. Or, some of us are going insane?
I don't believe we are going insane but... I have to believe my eyes and ears.
Revenant said...
Personally, I like to terrify my left-wing friends by suggesting the next Republican President might decide to unilaterally suspend the capital gains or corporate income taxes.
And watch the budget deficit blow up, just like the good old days of Reagan and Bush.
Or, are some of us going insane?
We won't know until the game plays out fully.
And watch the budget deficit blow up, just like the good old days of Reagan and Bush.
I don't really care who's president, which I know you won't believe, and I don't care about that either.
Obama presided over the biggest expansion of the budget and the deficit in history.
You're going to tell me otherwise, and you'll be lying. The shit you've been reading about this is all based on cooking the books.
Among the Obama admins most serious offenses is a love of cooking the books and pretending to present the cooked books as "evidence."
Trooper, I have heard you worship Nixon.
He's out-Lincolning Lincoln
It's a political move designed to try to lessen the backlash from voters angry over Obamacare against Democratic candidates, in particularly, senatorial candidates.
Lol. Really? Well let's pretend that the same original point, that if Republicans think its effects are so bad that they'd force him to impose them on people just to make them go through that, isn't a political point.
Thomas thinks it's better to make a political point by imposing pain upon the people than by making their lives better.
He's a political sado-masochist. And this bizarre fetish of his actually seems to sum up his aims quite nicely.
Just make sure you have obligatory photos of your 2014 and 2016 candidates wearing leather and assless chaps. And nipple rings. Don't forget the nipple rings.
Lol. /FREAKS!!!
You have me confused with Titus. He loves Dick.
I am a Reagan guy.
Also I am a big William Howard Taft fan.
That was a fine figure of a President.
Shouting Thomas said...
You're going to tell me otherwise, and you'll be lying. The shit you've been reading about this is all based on cooking the books.
This is a good strategy for you ST- everyone else is lying and the voices in your head are telling the truth.
Because left untested, that is the precedent that has been established.
Right now, our system of checks and balances is in disrepair.
When Obama single handedly re-writes law, passed by the congress, he is subverting the rule of law, putting himself above it.
I'm no constitutional law professor, but, those law degrees held by nose holding, averting eyes law professors, aren't worth the paper they are written on, if the rule of law giving those degrees weight, can be usurped by a president, regardless of popularity, cool, hip, nice hair, strong hand grip or that he can sing like Al Green.
Imagine if William Howard Taft was President and Mooschelle started talking about eating broccoli and shit.
He would have sat on the bitch and squashed that shit right there.
Thomas thinks it's better to make a political point by imposing pain upon the people than by making their lives better.
The question is whether Obamacare makes people's lives better or worse.
The immediate answer seems to be worse. What will be the long term consequences? Who knows?
You were doing pretty good until you gave into your desire to engage in ridiculous hyperbole again.
And, once again you engage in your favored juvenile tactic of trying to plant thoughts in another person's minds.
The only juvenile tactic that you favor that you didn't drag in was your standard declaration that you represent the future.
Why don't you ever engage in discussion in good faith? Maybe you don't have the ability?
That's a pretty good tactic you are using, ARM, pretending that you are an everybody.
The most transparent tactic Obama used in cooking the books was attributing all the expenditures of his almost $1 trillion "stimulus" spending to the Bush admin, because it occurred in the first year of the Obama admin.
That was good for a laugh.
Certainly I have the ability to discuss what the consequences of policy will be. Like you, I'm not entirely sure what it will be and think if there are problems, they should be pointed out, corrected, or paid for with political momentum for a better solution, even by opposing parties if need be - which would be great if the Republicans cared about uninsurance and underinsurance in the first place.
But in the meantime, you we both alleged political tactics on the part of each. There's nothing "bad faith" about that. It's a simple discussion of the politics of forcing policies people claim to believe are dangerous. Or delaying implementation of things that you feel aren't yet ripe for implementation. Nothing wrong with that. It's just a discussion.
William Howard Taft was a real man not a Mom jeans wearing arugla eating poofter like Urkel.
He had a bathtub that would fit im and all of his Cabinet....he was a manly man.......errr...well....never
Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub
That reminds me of those Palladian in a hot tub series you did.
Wait a minute...here's the right link. I found it on the Old Dawg's website.
I know it's uncharacteristically un-P.C. of me to say so, but lately I was thinking it would be kind of funny if Obama stepped down and just decided to replace himself with a random black guy. Maybe a guy named "Clarence" or something.
I don't know why I found that funny, I just did.
That pic could have been taken at an Old Dawgz' rehearsal, Troop!
It would be kind of funny if that was even his name. Like, Obama and the press could be like, "Let's all welcome his/my replacement, Clarence the Random Black Guy."
It's how his name would appear on official documents.
@Ritmo
Because it is funny, and close to the truth.
Somewhere along the line, the Daley admin in Chicago, and the Jesse Jackson shakedown machine decided to put aside their differences.
They discovered that, if you place a black man in titular control of a company, the city could award contracts to that company without reference to which company placed the lowest bid.
And, so, a great romance was born. And the cash rolled in.
A little known fact is that Taft had to had a huge area carved out of the bottom of the tub as a resting place in which to fit his scrotum.
I think I'm subconsciously ripping off the Clarence idea from an Eddie Murphy SNL skit where he claimed to have been a fifth member of the Beatles who played saxophone and added the word "Man" to the end of every song title.
The blind faithful have no problem with it -- no problem whatsoever.
Bush and Reagan!
Clarence would be a better president.
In the same vein, I recommend this inspirational video on how Italians tell time.
I have to put up with a bunch of dagos in the Old Dawgz.
The two essentials of the Taft tub were a built-in holster for holding a beer and the carved out nut sack rest in the bottom of the tub to keep from crushing his scrotum on those hot steamy nights, especially while playing cards with friends.
Clarence Thomas would be a better president, indeed.
I think that's basically what they did with one of his senate replacements in IL, some guy named Burris(?) or something, was it? Just some random dude.
No, not Clarence Thomas, just Clarence the Random Black Guy.
Clarence Thomas I could go for as prez and I know how much you love him but only if he replaced the presidential seal on the podiums he'd speak at with one that somehow features Long Dong Silver in the seal.
Lately I'm getting such a kick out of that. It's like something I know I could never say to a woman at work, and yet, I find myself these days, quickly approaching middle age, and wondering how liberating it would feel to discuss how hairy I'm getting lately and how much I fear the imminent possibility of seeing a pubic hair on a Coke can.
Hey, it could happen! I'm just saying.
Conservatives are concerned about real problems facing everyday Americans. Like, have you ever just found a random pube laying about and wondering, "How did it get THERE?" I mean, it's not like a pube might not just show up anywhere, but sometimes you find one or two in a place that just makes you wonder how it got there. Like as if there were a pubs-transportation fairy or something.
I had a girlfriend that I went with one time to stay in her aunt's condo for the week, and we did a jigsaw puzzle. She noticed something coming out of the box that looked suspect, and then later just casually talked about which pieces were being arranged next to "the pube" and how to arrange them to be further away from "the pube" on the table. Just very nonchalantly.
I guess that's how she was about her family's pubes.
The 64-thousand dollar question, though, is how a black guy would be so certain that a hair was a pube and not just a black guy's head hair. I mean, I'm not saying HE wouldn't know, but I'm not so sure I could say that I'd know. I don't know how close I've ever been to black pubes. I've seen a sista or two up close, though, but I'm pretty sure they was shaved. No Afro-erotica here. I mean, yes, they were afro, but they didn't have Buckwheat underneath they pudendas if you know what I'm saying.
I think I'm going crazy here on my own.
Can someone please help me out here?
It's one thing to talk to Anita Hill like that, another to talk to oneself like that.
I could end up in an asylum, soon. Someone either change the subject or slap some sense into me.
Or continue where I've left off.
Anything.
Just, please!
Ok. As I was.
I know Clarence would say that every time your find a pube on a soda can an angel gets his wings.
Too true. Too true.
Troop - as long as you're here, do you know who this (possibly NSFW) chick is? I say that cause she looks like she's got a classy, pin-up look about her.
Congress should just ignore the veto.
Josephine Baker nude
Chip Ahoy has breast recognition "softwear"?
Troop has breast recognition software with enhanced mammary
No music tonight Chick?
Lem said...
No music tonight Chick?
Your pick, Lem. You used to be good at that on TOP.
Like what's his name said at the Oscars... alright alright then.
Yes, that's got to be it. Thank you -
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