The New York Times reports that President Obama intends to spend the remainder of his first term, and the whole second one if he wins one, bypassing Congress:
The Obama administration started down this path soon after Republicans took over the House of Representatives last year. In February 2011, Mr. Obama directed the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages, against constitutional challenges. Previously, the administration had urged lawmakers to repeal it, but had defended their right to enact it.
Point of hypocrisy: DOMA was passed by a strong bipartisan majority and signed by a Democratic president. It has not been ruled unconstitutional. It is still the law of the land, yet this president unilaterally refuses to defend it. When President Obama attacked the Supreme Court over its ObamaCare hearings, he described ObamaCare has having passed with a “strong majority” that was partisan in nature, and not strong at all in terms of numbers.
In the following months, the administration increased efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions through environmental regulations, gave states waivers from federal mandates if they agreed to education overhauls, and refocused deportation policy in a way that in effect granted relief to some illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. Each step substituted for a faltered legislative proposal.
Mainly, because they could not have even passed when the Democrats had total control. And in the case of immigration law, Obama’s move was a naked sop to the left and an attempt to stir up heat on the right.
Obama came into the presidency having criticized President Bush for a host of issues, including using signing statements. As president, Obama has done the very things he criticized Bush for doing, and then some. Bush never recess appointed anyone to federal positions while Congress was actually in session, but Obama did back in January. Bush also never forced through a sharply partisan piece of legislation that transforms a vast swath of the US economy, and then used that law as the basis from which to launch direct attacks on our fundamental freedoms. Obama did do that, via ObamaCare and then this year’s abortifacient mandate. So while the use of executive power by presidents isn’t new — presidents are the only executives mentioned in the Constitution, and they lead one of the three co-equal branches of the government — this president’s reliance on extra constitutional powers has reached a new level. He came into power having expressed disdain for the Constitution as a “charter of negative rights” that doesn’t give government enough sweeping power to ensure “social justice.” He promised/threatened “fundamental transformation” on the eve of his election. Once in office, he appointed an unprecedented number of czars to empower the likes of Van Jones, figures who could not have gotten through the Senate’s advise and consent role — and has consistently used the agencies of the executive branch to push ideology through regulation what could not pass as legislation, even when the Democrats had total control for two years. Among the results of all this is a fearful and moribund business climate, with stubbornly high unemployment.
So if you’ve enjoyed the last three plus years, you’ll love the next one to five if Obama is re-elected.
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