Representative Jason Chaffetz (R) pens an opinion piece for CNN, but forgets one extremely salient point among all the other points
After listening to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, I came away with this question: What does a president do when he thinks he is right and the people he governs are wrong?
He issues executive orders and actions instead of working with the people’s elected representatives.
He imposes burdensome and expensive regulations to bypass the lawmaking process.
He conceals information from the public through a culture that encourages an unlawful presumption of secrecy.
He misuses government to target the First Amendment rights of Americans with viewpoints other than his own.
He limits access to information for federal inspectors general, the agency watchdogs charged with combating waste, fraud, and abuse and rooting out corruption in government.
This is the playbook of the Obama administration. It is unilateral, overreaching and unconstitutional. Left unchecked, it is behavior that undermines, and will ultimately erode, the foundation of our democracy and our freedom.
He’s not wrong in the least.
The President’s boldness appears to be growing with each swipe of the pen. In this instance, he seems to believe that he alone can rewrite longstanding medical privacy laws that protect all Americans’ health records. But he can’t. It requires legislation — a power not assigned to the president.
I wonder why that boldness is growing?
One of the more egregious acts by the President to expand his jurisdiction was the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to redefine the “Waters of the United States” through an opaque rulemaking process. The rule, currently under a court injunction, was a blatant effort by the President to assert his will over the private property rights of countless Americans.
If only there was some body that could do something about this. He ends with
The Constitution of the United States begins with “We the People,” not “I the President.” We elect presidents, not kings, in the United States. It would behoove us all to remind Mr. Obama of those facts, because every new power seized by government is an individual freedom lost. As such, this pattern of executive abuse and overreach cannot continue.
The state of our union depends on it.
So, let me ask a little question: what the heck are Republicans doing about it? They’ve controlled the House since the start of the 2011 session, and the Senate since 2013. They hold the power of the purse. They’ve barely used it. They finally just voted to overturn the EPA’s “waters of the US” rule. Once passed in the Senate, Obama is sure to veto it, at which point the GOP will fight back. Oh, who am I kidding, they’ll fold like a house of cards under a ceiling fan.
For all the fancy talk, the GOP doesn’t stand strong now that they’re in control of the Legislative Branch. They’ve pretty much refused to use their Constitutional powers, and by not fighting back hard, they have enabled Obama to push his agenda even further.
Good post. As to: “what the heck are Republicans doing about it?”
Nothing, which is why the party, as it exists today, has no future. Which also explains the rise of Trump.