Frustrated with President Obama’s continual changes or refusals to enforce laws passed by Congress, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) has sponsored the ENFORCE the Law Act, which would allow Congress to sue the president in federal court. Rep. Gowdy said the law is designed to curb Obama’s abuse of presidential authority, most notably his frequent changes to Obamacare. With Harry Reid still in control of the Senate it’s highly unlikely the bill would ever reach Obama’s desk, but he promised to veto it if it got that far. Obama also threatened to veto a bill introduced by Rep. Don DeSantis (R-FL) that would require the administration to explain the decision to not enforce laws when the decision is based on a policy instead of constitutional concerns. Rep. DeSantis said the American people deserve to know exactly what laws the Obama administration is refusing to enforce and why. Obama’s stated reasons for the veto threats is that the bills “violate the separation of powers” by encroaching on presidential authority. The White House Office of Management and Budget released a statement which said that the power the bills “assign to Congress to sue the President over whether he has properly discharged his constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed exceeds constitutional limitations. Congress may not assign such power to itself, nor may it assign to the courts the task of resolving such generalized political disputes.” To my mind, what this statement really says is that Obama and the Executive Branch have supreme power and that no other branch of government has the right or the power to tell him what to do. So much for checks and balances.
Rep. Gowdy made an excellent speech on the floor in support of his bill and he asked some very direct questions that no Democrat would want to answer. After watching it all I can think is why do we not have someone like him as Speaker instead of the absolutely worthless John Boehner.
Fox Nation – The vote was 233-181 in the Republican-led House as GOP lawmakers excoriated Obama for multiple changes to his 4-year-old health care law, steps he’s taken to allow young immigrants to remain in the United States and the administration’s resistance to defend the federal law banning gay marriage.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., sponsor of the ENFORCE the Law Act, delivered a fiery speech and read a series of statements by Obama when he was an Illinois senator in which he warned of the encroachment of the executive on the powers of the other branches of government.
“How does going from being a senator to a president rewrite the Constitution?” Gowdy asked. “What’s different from when he was a senator? Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there’s an amendment to the Constitution that I’ve missed. I try to keep up with those with regularity.”
Gowdy went on to argue that “process matters” in law enforcement, noting that evidence gathered with a legitimate search warrant is thrown out if an officer so much as accidentally checks the wrong box on the application.
“Even though he was well-intended, even though he had good motivations, even though he got the evidence — because process matters,” he added.
“We all swore an allegiance to the same document that the president swears allegiance to, to faithfully execute the law,” Gowdy continued. “If a president does not faithfully execute the law… what are our remedies?”
He then argued that Congress should do exactly what then-Sen. Obama suggested before he was president of the United States: “To go to the Supreme Court and have the Supreme Court say once and for all: ‘We don’t pass suggestions in this body. … We don’t pass ideas — we pass laws. And we expect them to be faithfully executed.”
The administration’s reaction to these bills is very much cause for concern. With Obama’s penchant for rewriting the Affordable Care Act whenever it suits him politically, it is he who is the one exceeding constitutional authority. Rep. Gowdy’s attempt to put an end to executive overreach is a good start but it will not stop El Supremo from doing whatever he wants. With the Democrats in Congress seemingly begging him to rule by executive order, the only possible way to put an end to the tyranny of the executive branch is to impeach Obama. Such a step would be doomed to fail as long as the Democrats control the Senate, but I believe that, if all other methods fail, it is the duty of Congress to take back the power granted them by the Constitution by whatever means is at their disposal, including impeachment. If Congress continues to allow Obama to chip away at their constitutional authority, the day may come when Obama disbands Congress, places a crown on his head and declares the country will now be ruled by executive fiat. Absolute power does corrupt absolutely, and for a man who was already corrupt when he took office, allowing him to seize power not granted him by the Constitution is the gravest of political errors.
Impeachment of the President is a drastic step, a last resort, in my opinion. It is a step that is doomed to fail, as long as Harry Reid is anywhere close to the leadership of the Senate. Having said that, what are we supposed to do, sit back and idly watch Obama do whatever he wants to do, with no repercussions to his actions? It seems he does something new ever day, some new expansion of his power and authority. To say he is encroaching on the powers of the other branches of government is the understatement of the year. Something needs to be done to rein him back within the proper boundaries established by the Constitution.
Even though impeachment would be a losing cause I’m not sure what else Congress can do to stop him from seizing power not constitutionally his. If the parties were reversed you can bet the Democrats would be screaming for impeachment.