Obama’s Constitution Features “Obstreperation of Powers” [1]

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By Jeff Rutherford

Here is President Obama’s brief statement to the press before his first cabinet meeting of 2014, on January 14th:

If you’re a Progressive, you listened to the whole 2½ minutes and believe the promised outcomes justify any methods required to achieve them, because the President was elected and re-elected to run this country, and has an obligation to fulfill the promises he made to those who voted for him.

And you thought the President’s pronouncement that

“…we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need.  I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”

was a pretty snappy line and a muscular show of leadership in the face of obstructionists in Congress that are blocking the President’s transformational agenda.  You’re proud of him.  During this 2½ minutes that you’ve watched, the Constitution doesn’t enter your mind.

If you’re a Conservative, you listened to the first 25 seconds and heard a President that brazenly dismisses the Constitutional limits imposed on the Executive Branch.  You heard the President go on to say

“I can use that pen to sign Executive Orders and take Executive Actions and Administrative Actions that move the ball forward….”

You understand that the Constitution specifies the Executive Branch’s role is to execute and administer the carefully-enacted laws and spending appropriations of the Legislative branch.  Its role is NOT to take the ball into its own hands and move an agenda forward, ahead of the Legislative branch.

As a Conservative, you recognize that what this President openly said he’s going to do is unconstitutional.  Thank goodness the Constitution provides methods of checks and balances, allowing a naturally self-protective Legislative Branch to restrain an imperial president via the impeachment process.

You’re confident that if President Obama actually says anything like this directly to Congress – during a State of the Union speech for example – then Congress will surely be offended by such a display of intent for Executive overreach.

When you first heard this “I have a pen and a phone” statement by President Obama on January 14th, you had to wait 2 weeks for the State of the Union address.  You tuned in 4 days ago to watch the high drama, knowing the battle lines were drawn.  Here’s what was going through your mind:

You can hardly stand the suspense, wondering if the President will actually have the audacity to spit in the eye of Congress and bring their anger thundering down upon him.  You start watching this speech:

At the 07:22 point in his address, President Obama actually does it.  He says this about his various proposals:

“Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps WITHOUT legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

As he finishes that astonishing sentence, the look of determined belligerence on his face is chilling.  Here it is, in freeze-frame:

You think “Oh man, this is it.  Congress is not going to accept being told directly to their face by a president that he intends to bypass them wherever and whenever he can.  Surely impeachment proceedings will begin tomorrow!”

But then, aghast, you watch for 15 seconds while the Progressives in Congress stand, applaud, and cheer the President’s unconstitutional intent to bypass them:

These Progressives hold a majority in the Senate, and they are clearly ecstatic at hearing how irrelevant they are.  Impeachment?  Yeah, right….

Progressives who are reading my words are thinking “You’re exaggerating.  He said he’s eager to work with Congress.  And he only said ‘wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation….’  Clearly this shows he realizes there are some things he can’t do.”

To you Progressives, I say:  What consequences does he face for overreach?  Will he fail to be re-elected?  No…he’s ineligible to run.  Will he be prosecuted by the Justice Department?  No…Eric Holder is his puppet.  Will he be impeached?  No, not by these lemmings who applauded his imperial declaration.

He disregards his oath of office [2], and still he faces no consequences because neither Congress nor the Press holds him accountable.

All the powers of the United States Government that were intended to be broadly separated are now, instead, tightly concentrated on the head of a pin.  Indeed, this one pinhead now rules this country, as if from a throne.

Folks, we no longer have even the dreaded “living” Constitution.

We have a Dead Constitution.

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Footnotes:

[1] Obstreperate:  “to be aggressively noisy, to create an unruly din, to be stubbornly resistant to control.”

[2]  Presidential oath of office (per Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution):  “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”