http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/19/10-ways-obama-violated-constitution-presidency/
Hopefully, our new President will do better.
Paul Ryan, in his recent townhall chat, talked about how wrong it was for Obama to go around Congress with his Executive Orders. He said they were un-Constitutional. Actually, no, they aren’t. And we never heard a peep from Ryan while Bush issued far more of those orders than Obama.
And, of course, Trump, on his first day in office, just issued his own executive orders, and Paul Ryan can be seen behind him as he does this. He also had the Climate Change page from the whitehouse.gov site removed, as well as the page for LBGT issues.
It’s all too clear what Ryan really meant: It’s okay for Republicans to issue Executive orders. But Democrats can’t do so without this being against the Constitution.
Hypocrisy and cherry-picking on steroids.
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I don’t think the GOP was against executive orders. Your comments point that out.
They are against orders that try to get around current law and Constitutional mandates.
Like the article points out.
The article makes assertions. It’s an opinion piece. For example, it claims the ACA and Dodd-Frank go against the Constitution. There’s no proof of that, and none presented in the article.
The writer also makes false use of things Obama said, offering no evidence of any follow through after those words. Without that follow through, it’s absurd to cite it as evidence of “the most lawless administration in American history,” which is also just a partisan opinion, without any basis in fact.
(Tackling just a few of his other errors:)
1. The Chrysler bailout as example is nonsense as well. Were it not for the bailout, those creditors wouldn’t have received a penny. There is nothing un-Constitutional about the action, and the author lies when he said unions made out well in the bargain. Unions took a huge hit, lost thousands of jobs, made deep concessions when it came to wages and benefits as well. What the author should have said, if he were being at all honest, is that Obama steered most of the bailout toward the very same people traditionally protected by the GOP and the right: the 1%. Obama just showed why it’s ridiculous to say he governed from “the left.”
3. More nonsense. The IRS scrutinized all groups, left, center or right, that applied for tax exemptions as a 501C. And after that scrutiny, granted all of them that status, despite the fact that the law says they shouldn’t. The law states that these groups must be exclusively involved in social welfare pursuits, and no political group can accurately claim that. The right, as usual, whipped up its followers into a frenzy by cherry-picking what the IRS did. They didn’t look at their pursuit of left-leaning groups, or centrist, and pretended it was only the right. More lies by the author.
4. Recess appointments are legal under the Constitution, and all presidents have made them. The author is not telling the truth. From Wiki:
Recess appointments are authorized by Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states:
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
6. More nonsense. The author appears to be siding with those who commit sexual assault on campus, and against their victims. He’s also just voicing the usual right-wing line that it’s an assault on free speech.
7, 8 and 10. The author is arguing against protecting public health, which is par for the course for the Koch brothers-owned CATO institute.
9. Net Neutrality. See Commerce Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause and the General Welfare Clause. These four clauses can also be applied to EPA rulings.
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The problem with using right-wing Op Eds to demonstrate the failings of Obama and the Dems is that they invariably distort the truth, falsify or just make up stuff that never happened. And their agenda is all in the service of the super-rich, against the poor, the marginalized, the outcast. And right-wing media is invariably funded by billionaires for that purpose.
To me, the best and most accurate criticisms of Obama and the Dems come from their left. And since they’re a center-right party, for all intents and purposes, that covers a lot of ground.
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