Rebuilding America, Part 1
I have a lot of respect for Mark Levin, the Great One as Hannity refers to him, and I know that he has called for a Con Con, Constitutional Convention. I have been hearing about this for some time especially during the Obama years because he was doing whatever he wanted to do with total disregard to our established Constitution and the powers accredited his elected position. It is necessary to list at least a few of Obama’s unconstitutional overreaches to establish the pattern of primarily the Democrat Party in violating the Constitution. The Republican Party is not guiltless by any means but the Democrats have raised it to an art form.
In 2008 America was hit by a planned economic crash. The full explanation of this will be another series in itself but what Obama did during this crash left many scratching their heads as to just how he got away with what he did. Also keep in mind that the Republicans said little or nothing concerning this breach of authority. The crash left many industries in very bad situations specifically the home and auto industries. What Obama did in the auto industry still leaves serious questions to our rule of law and the spineless Republicans response to this massive overreach.
The Chrysler Bailout
Building on the Bush administration’s illegal use of TARP funds to bail out the auto industry, the Obama administration in 2009 bullied Chrysler’s secured creditors—who were entitled to “absolute priority”—into accepting 30 cents on the dollar, while junior creditors such as labor unions received much more. This subversion of creditor rights violates not just bankruptcy law, but also the Constitution’s Takings and Due Process Clauses.
This blatant crony capitalism—government-directed industrial policy to help political insiders—discourages investors and generally undermines confidence in American rule of law. The Supreme Court ultimately vacated the Second Circuit ruling that allowed this farce to proceed; Chrysler’s creditors are still out of luck, but there’s no legal precedent.[1] What also occurred was long time established Chrysler dealerships owned by Republicans that were not in trouble had their dealerships pulled from them and given to other dealerships owned by Democrats.
He, as president, was sworn to uphold the laws of the land and defend the Constitution. He did neither and his justice department under Eric Holder decided which laws he would enforce. Holder even told States that they didn’t have to enforce laws they didn’t agree with! Attorney General Eric Holder is taking the lawless attitude of the Obama administration and passing it down to state attorneys general. Yesterday during an interview with The New York Times, Holder said state attorneys general do not have to enforce laws they disagree with, specifically when it comes to the issue of gay marriage.
It is highly unusual for the United States attorney general to advise his state counterparts on how and when to refuse to defend state laws. But Mr. Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision should never be political or based on policy objections.
“Engaging in that process and making that determination is something that’s appropriate for an attorney general to do,” Mr. Holder said.
In 2011, the Obama administration announced attorneys in the Department of Justice would not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was later struck down in 2013 by the Supreme Court.[2] Holder made himself the judge and jury concerning the laws he would support. He had no authority to do this, but no one stopped him or even attempted to stop him. Again, the Republicans did nothing to reign in this blatant overreach.
On the issue of immigration the left is always saying that we have a broken immigration system. We don’t have a broken immigration system we don’t have a justice system that will enforce the laws we have in place! Obama decided to take on this issue himself even though he had no legal authority to do so.
DACA and DAPA
Congress has shamelessly failed to pass any sort of immigration reform, including for the most sympathetic victims of the current non-system, young people who were brought into the country illegally as children. Nonetheless, during his 2012 reelection campaign, President Obama directed the Department of Homeland Security to issue work and residence permits (Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals) to the so-called Dreamers.
Then, after the 2014 midterms, the president decided that he had been wrong 22 times in saying he couldn’t give temporary legal status to illegal immigrants. The administration engineered this Deferred Action for Parents of Americans in the wake of Congress’s rejection of the same policies, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, immigration law, and the Constitution’s Take Care Clause. A district court enjoined DAPA in February 2015, which action the Fifth Circuit twice affirmed, as did the Supreme Court by a 4-4 vote.[3]
The last, but by ne means the end of his dictatorial overreaches, concerns Obamacare. There are many situations with this disaster for the American people and direct attack on the best healthcare system in the world. Obama acted like a dictator with this bill. Please keep in mind that in America Congress establishes a law and the president either vetoes the bill or signs it into law. ANY changes to this law must be done by Congress however Obama decided that he needed to take control of this disaster and make it worse than it already was. Here is a short list of the changes he made to this law without the benefit of Congress: Delay of Obamacare’s out-of-pocket caps, Delay of Obamacare’s employer mandate, Delay of Obamacare’s insurance requirements, Exemption of Congress from Obamacare, Expansion of the employer mandate penalty through IRS regulation.[4] These are only five of the approximately twenty six changes he made to the law by passing Congress in the process. Where were the Republicans during all of this? Good question.
This is only scratching the surface of presidential and Congressional overreaches that MSM ignores and the people pay no attention to. We need to return to the rule of law but that won’t happen unless we elect people who are willing to take a stand for the rule of law. We don’t have a handful of people in D.C. that will do that. We must change that.
© 2018 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Roger Anghis: roger@buildingthetruth.org
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