Republican Leadership: What are You Prepared to Do?
Obama’s executive actions: Enacted less to solve problems than they were to weaken the rule of law, engineer radical political change that could not be accomplished through the ballot box, congressional votes
Fresh off their mid-term tidal wave, the Republicans now face the same dilemma as in the story line of “The Untouchables”—the 1987 classic about dealing with Al Capone in Chicago. As Sean Connery asked Kevin Costner, “What are you prepared to do?” Republican leadership must now decide what they are prepared to do to stop a President hell bent on taking executive action that ignores the Constitution and overturns current U.S. immigration law, by granting amnesty to 4-5 million illegal immigrants—a policy objective that a majority of Americans reject.
By now everyone should understand that the U.S. faces this dilemma because Barack Obama has been extended the benefit of the doubt on so many controversial actions taken during his first six years as President. As a result, he is now emboldened to take an unprecedented action with enormous impact that leads directly to a constitutional crisis, and potentially to civil unrest. While some might ask, why is the President in such a hurry and why can’t he just do his job as President, which is to faithfully execute the laws Congress passes and to uphold the Constitution? Perhaps the best way to understand Obama’s intent is to view this latest anticipated action in the context of the other unilateral actions that he has taken in his first six years. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and review highlights of the Obama legal record of firsts:
- In 2009, he became the first president to abrogate well-established bankruptcy law to turn over control of General Motors to its unions who helped elect him.
- First President to issue unlawful recess-appointments at influential regulators—the NLRB and CFPB—while the U.S. Senate remained in session.
- First President to sue states for enforcing their own voter ID laws
- First President to claim Executive Privilege to shield his Attorney General who was held in contempt of Congress for not responding to subpoenas to turn over records pertaining to a reckless and unprecedented program, known as Fast and Furious, which resulted in a border patrol agent’s murder.
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Scott Powell——Bio and Archives
Scott Powell is senior fellow at Seattle-based Discovery Institute and managing partner at RemingtonRand LLC.
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