Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr: Congress Is in 'Rebellion' So Obama Should Go Outside the Constitution

Tyranny gets a backbench cheerleader:

Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that congressional opposition to the American Jobs Act is akin to the Confederate “states in rebellion.”

Jackson called for full government employment of the 15 million unemployed and said that Obama should “declare a national emergency” and take “extra-constitutional” action “administratively” — without the approval of Congress — to tackle unemployment.

“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,” Jackson said. “He’s looking administratively for ways to advance the causes of the American people, because this Congress is completely dysfunctional.”

“President Obama tends to idealize — and rightfully so — Abraham Lincoln, who looked at states in rebellion and he made a judgment that the government of the United States, while the states are in rebellion, still had an obligation to function,” Jackson told TheDC at his Capitol Hill office on Wednesday.

“On several occasions now, we’ve seen … the Congress is in rebellion, determined, as Abraham Lincoln said, to wreck or ruin at all costs. I believe … in the direct hiring of 15 million unemployed Americans at $40,000 a head, some more than $40,000, some less than $40,000 — that’s a $600 billion stimulus. It could be a five-year program. For another $104 billion, we bailout all of the states … for another $100 billion, we bailout all of the cities,” he said.

All of this is completely insane, but we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking it can’t happen. On two occasions, President Obama mused publicly that he would very much like to go around Congress on immigration law. And then he actually did it.

The Obama White House has also signaled that it may once again bypass Congress on the jobs bill.

Many of Obama’s priorities have sputtered and stalled, and the president blames gridlock in Washington for the lack of progress that voters might hold over his head come next November. But the White House has signaled it is willing to use other options such as executive orders, administrative action at the agency level and a review of regulations to implement the president’s wishes without Congress on board.

In recent weeks Obama has exerted his executive authority on issues ranging from education to housing policy to the environment.

That was back in September. And now we have an Obama ally, JJ Jr, egging the president on to declare Congress in “rebellion” for voting down a bill, and urging the president to unilaterally put 15 million Americans on the federal payroll. Never mind that we don’t have the money to do that; once you’ve expanded the federal payroll by that much, you’ve opened those millions up to government union membership, and you’ve permanently altered the American work force. You have probably also guaranteed either a collapse of the economic system, or a more genuine rebellion if you ever try to get those millions off the dole.

All of this is an invitation to real tyranny, and Glenn’s right that Jackson should resign over these remarks. They really don’t have any place in our republic at all.

If the president actually follows Jackson’s advice, impeachment should be on the table.

Update: A commenter wants Rep. Jackson’s contact info. Here ya go. Be CIVIL.