Obama: Congress' Refusal To Pass the Law I Like Grants Me The Power To Do Like Whatever

The Constitutional Law Scholar in the White House (TM).

I rarely assume tyrannical power, but when I do, I prefer socialist tyrannical power.

Think about how stupid this is: Obama is claiming that Congress' choice not to pass a law constitutes an abandonment of constitutional power (rather than the exercise of it), and then that power flows precisely to the President.

Just how the Framers' designed it, huh?

You have refused to grant me the power of Imperium. Therefore, you have irresponsibly abandoned your exercise of that power, and the power to declare myself emperor flows into my own hands.

Grant me power, or I will seize it. The choice is yours.

Senator Ron Johnson and actual law professor Jonathan Turley address the crisis that Obama has created.

A growing crisis in our constitutional system threatens to fundamentally alter the balance of powers -- and accountability -- within our government. This crisis did not begin with Obama, but it has reached a constitutional tipping point during his presidency. Indeed, it is enough to bring the two of us -- a liberal academic and a conservative U.S. senator -- together in shared concern over the future of our 225-year-old constitutional system of self­governance.

...

First, we need to discuss the erosion of legislative authority within the evolving model of the federal government. There has been a dramatic shift of authority toward presidential powers and the emergence of what is essentially a fourth branch of government -- a vast network of federal agencies with expanded legislative and judicial power. While the federal bureaucracy is a hallmark of the modern administrative state, it presents a fundamental change to a system of three coequal branches designed to check and balance each other. The growing authority invested in federal agencies comes from a diminished Congress, which seems to have a dramatically reduced ability to actively monitor, let alone influence, agency actions.

...

The framers believed that members of each branch of government would transcend individual political ambitions to vigorously defend the power of their institutions. Presidents have persistently expanded their authority with considerable success. Congress has been largely passive or, worse, complicit in the draining of legislative authority. Judges have adopted doctrines of avoidance that have removed the courts from important conflicts between the branches. Now is the time for members of Congress and the judiciary to affirm their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution” and to work to re-establish our delicate constitutional balance.

Indeed, the Supreme Court has the Last Clear Chance of averting an actual coup.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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