Obama Under Fire for Bypassing Congress

Obama Under Fire for Bypassing Congress

on Thu, 5 Dec 2013

Barack Obama is coming under fire for his willingness to bypass Congress when implementing his agenda in contravention of the Constitution’s desire for three equal branches of government. GOP congressmen speaking at a House Judiciary Committee meeting this week were blunt about Obama’s defiance of the traditional negotiation with Congress.

Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) blasted that Obama "doesn't have a debate in the Oval Office about what he wants to do … he does what he wants to do, and then you no longer have representative democracy." GOP members noted that Obama has acted unilaterally on issues ranging from immigration laws, which he ignores, to consistent and enormous revisions of ObamaCare, which was passed as law.

Even Obama supporter Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, had the temerity to question his Obama’s methods, although he felt compelled to include George W. Bush when he commented, "The problem of what the president is doing is that he is not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system; he is becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid: that is, the concentration of power in any single branch.”

Of course, there are the other Obama acolytes who will defend him. Simon Lazarus, Senior Counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center, said that Obama’s changes to ObamaCare after it was already passed do not conflict with Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which requires the president to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Lazarus loftily intoned,  "I have to say that hyperventilating about how extraordinary and unprecedented and unconstitutional these delays are is just that, it's hyperventilation and it’s contrary to obvious historical fact."

Should we be surprised by Obama’s circumvention? This is the same man whoboasted in March 2012, "If Congress refuses to act, I'll do everything in my power to act without them."

Although there was a suggestion before the House Committee that the only way to solve the problem would be to impeach Obama, the reality is that the Democratic-controlled Senate would shoot that down. Those who called for impeachment concluded that the only real answer "comes down to elections.”