El presidente imperial actuará unilateralmente
En un correo electrónico enviado recientemente a sus seguidores, el presidente Obama se lamentaba de la frustrante falta de competencias de su cargo. “Hay tantas limitaciones a lo que puedo hacer por mí mismo” sin el Congreso, confesaba.
En términos de interpretación constitucional, tiene razón. Pero en la práctica, el presidente ha mostrado un marcado menosprecio por los límites legales de su poder.
La presidencia imperial de Obama se ha manifestado de muchas formas. A menudo desatendiendo su deber constitucional de “preocuparse por que las leyes de ejecuten fielmente”. Como hemos visto con la educación, la inmigración y la atención médica, aplazar la ley equivale a redactarla de nuevo.
Otras veces, el presidente es más directo. Puede que el poder legislativo sea potestad del Congreso, pero eso no lo detuvo a la hora de volver a redactar por sí solo la ley de asistencia social, vaciándola de sus exitosos requisitos laborales federales.
Desafortunadamente, parece que esto es sólo el principio del imperialismo de Obama.
Una vez liberado de las limitaciones de la lucha por la reelección, no tardó en señalar su entusiasmo por las acciones unilaterales durante su segundo mandato.
“El Congreso se resiste por ahora”, declaró recientemente, “pero eso no me va a detener”.
Armado de su inmunidad electoral, el presidente también es ahora más sincero a la hora de justificar sus medidas:
Cuando el Congreso no esté dispuesto a actuar, tomaré las medidas administrativas que sean necesarias con el fin de hacer lo correcto para el pueblo americano.Desde esta perspectiva, el Congreso es más un inconveniente que uno de los tres poderes del gobierno iguales entre sí. Las prerrogativas constitucionales están ahí para el que las quiera; quien esté más dispuesto a redactar leyes, gana.
La visión del presidente sobre cómo funciona nuestro sistema no es sólo peligrosa, sino que también contradice rotundamente la idea del gobierno que tenían los Fundadores.
El presidente no ve la necesidad de molestarse con todas las discusiones, acuerdos, compromisos, rivalidades (en una palabra, política) que envuelven el orden constitucional. Es decir, que restringir al Congreso la autoridad legislativa es un obstáculo innecesario para el progreso.
Pero nuestro sistema se diseñó a propósito para que hubiese enrevesadas disputas políticas. Los Fundadores comprendían que la alternativa era aún peor. La experiencia con Gran Bretaña les enseñó los peligros de un gobierno que tendía a la acumulación de poderes.
A pesar de su apetencia por burlarse de aquellos que desconfían del gobierno, el presidente Obama justifica sin querer el temor de los Fundadores a que hubiera una tiranía en Estados Unidos cuando alardea de que “Vamos a hacer todo lo que podamos, en cualquier ámbito que podamos, con o sin el Congreso, para hacer que esto ocurra”.
Sin señales a la vista de que el presidente vaya a ralentizar su marcha imperial, sería ingenuo esperar algo de la modestia que finge en sus correos electrónicos. Es más, es el deber del Congreso oponerse a sus usurpaciones. Con tanto en juego este otoño, desde la retirada de la financiación de Obamacare al recorte del gasto público, es un momento crucial para que el Congreso haga su trabajo.
La versión en inglés de este artículo está en Heritage.org.
Obamacare Exemption: None Dare Call It Treason
WASHINGTON -- Even by the standards of Washington, this is one sick, twisted and deceitful deal. Quite possibly, it is a whole new low, even for the federal government.
Had we innocent, taxpaying citizens not long ago lost our capacity to be outraged by the disgraceful manner in which this place operates, we would already be in all-out political revolt. Against President Obama. Against Democrats in Congress. And, especially, Republicans.
Literally, revolutionary wars have been fought over less.
Last week, while many Americans spent hard-saved money on long overdue vacations, the snakes and weasels inside the federal bureaucracy schemed until they hatched an evil plan. It would feather their own nests with more of your money, protect themselves from the ravages of the laws they foist upon us, desecrate our Constitution and then smear us with insult so putrid it would make a roadside vulture gag.
All the legal, constitutional and parliamentary maneuvering is enough to confuse Albert Einstein, but here is the bottom line: Congress and staff managed to get themselves exempted from one of the most punishing aspects of Obamacare.
Yes, you should be sharpening the tines of your pitchforks.
Back when the President and his henchmen rammed Obamacare through Congress, Republicans inserted a key provision requiring that whatever Frankenstein healthcare boondoggle got yoked upon the hardworking American people would also be yoked around the necks of every congressman and staffer on Capitol Hill. President Obama, being the slick fellow that he is, made sure it did not apply to him or anybody working for him in the White House.
The noble idea was that if they were seizing control of our titanic -- yet still largely functioning --health care system and started ramming into every passing iceberg, then, by God, they were not going to get to be first in line for the life boats. No, they were going to go down with the ship.
If Obamacare was good enough for the American people, it should be good enough for Congress.
Well, that was BEFORE the bill passed, when they still needed to get it through. Now, it simply will not do.
It turns out that the healthcare packages currently provided to Congress and their staff are so generous and the squalor that will be caused by Obamacare is so terrible that the healthcare law simply cannot be applied to such precious people.
The thought is so terrifying that staffers from both parties in both chambers of Congress declared they would quit if forced to endure Obamacare. To those of us paying the bills around here, this sounded like a great idea.
But the federal bureaucracy blanched in terror. There would be a mass exodus of "talent," they shrieked. There will be a "brain drain!"
After all, without these people, who would come up with all these fantastic new laws like, say, Obamacare?
I mean, if it was "talent" and "brains" that got us into this mess, maybe it's time to try something else. Like letting them all quit. Or exempting all Americans from Obamacare.
Instead, after personal pleas made directly to President Obama, his administration quietly ruled last week in the dead of August that Congress and staff would be exempted.
Now they will dispute this and say that, indeed, they are being forced out of their cushy government health insurance plans and into the Obamacare health exchanges. This much is true. But there is a dirty, dirty secret. You are still paying for their insurance.
If a regular citizen makes $100,000 a year working for a private company and loses his insurance because of Obamacare, he must pay out of his pocket for the insurance he will be forced to purchase from the exchanges.
However, if you are a sainted Congressional staffer earning $100,000 a year and enter the exchanges, guess who picks up the tab for your new insurance plan? That's right, your employer, the federal government, the lowly taxpayer.
In other words, under Obamacare, the only people forced into the exchanges whose insurance will still be paid for by their employer will be members of Congress and their staff.
Not only is this sneaky, self-dealing and cynical, it is a dishonest bait-and-switch. And once again, we lowly taxpayers are the suckers who get stuck with the bill, get chained down by their terrible laws and laughed at all the way to the hospital.
Black Citizens Group Files ‘Articles of Impeachment’ Against Obama
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
August 14, 2013
Image: Wikimedia Commons
A conservative black citizens group has filed lengthy
and detailed articles of impeachment against Barack Obama, calling for
the President to be removed from office over NSA spying, prosecution of
whistleblowers, wiretapping of journalists, the torture program as well
as the Benghazi cover-up.
Despite the fact that the Florida-based National Black Republican Association (NBRA) associates
itself with the GOP, a number of the articles of impeachment refer to
activities undertaken by the Obama administration that have been
supported by establishment Republicans, such as mass NSA surveillance,
the illegal torture program and the treatment of whistleblowers like
Edward Snowden.
This non-partisan broadside against Obama makes the
articles of impeachment less easy to dismiss as merely a Republican
group with an axe to grind.
Citing the Declaration of Independence and the need “to
free ourselves and our fellow citizens from governmental tyranny,” the
articles note that Obama “has intimidated whistleblowers and brought
twice as many prosecutions against whistleblowers as all prior
presidents combined, also pointing out that, “while refusing to
prosecute anyone for actual torture, (Obama) prosecuted former Central
Intelligence Agency employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture
program.”
The articles slam Obama for his administration’s role in
failing to secure the US consulate in Benghazi and then subsequently
launching a cover-up to hide the true nature of the incident, including
subjecting CIA agents to regular polygraph tests to ensure they don’t
leak information about an arms smuggling operation based near the consulate that saw weapons smuggled to Al-Qaeda militants in Syria.
The articles also mention the Department of Justice’s
role in wiretapping over a hundred Associated Press journalists as well
as Fox News reporter James Rosen.
Article 6 lambastes Obama for having authorized and
permitted, “(1) the National Security Agency to conduct or continue
electronic surveillance of over 300 million average Americans; (2) given
access to National Security Agency surveillance data to other
intelligence units within the Drug Enforcement Administration, the
Secret Service, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland
Security in violation of the law; and (3) conducted the surveillance of
average Americans unconstrained by Congress, the United Supreme Court
or the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court which has, to this
date, functioned as a rubber stamp, having approved every request made
of it in 2012 and rejecting only two of the 8,591 requests submitted
between 2008 and 2012.”
Other articles focus on the IRS’ harassment of Tea Party
groups as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives trafficking guns to Mexican drug dealers under Operation Fast
and Furious.
Some of the articles of impeachment listed also echo those first launched by Infowars in January.
The NBRA has done an exemplary job in compiling such a
well written and detailed list. Hopefully this will serve to help a lot
of black people and other Obama loyalists wake up to the fact that
despite his promises of “hope” and “change,” Obama has fronted one of
the most unconstitutional administrations in US history.
Read the full text of the articles of impeachment below. CONTINUE READING
