The Constitution - Is Obama and the Congress following it?

There is plenty of talk about this as the new Congress plans to read it aloud in chambers.  It may be the first time many of the Democrats (and some Republicans) have read it completely through.  I think listening to something being read will sometimes make it clearer.  We tend to scan when we read long documents. David Limbaugh has an article published by Creator's Syndicate that is a long discussion of overriding of the Constituion by executive fiat.

The Administration's Administrative Tyranny Marches On

This administration is abusive enough when it acts outside its constitutional authority, but it is even more tyrannical when it affirmatively thwarts the express will of the Congress on matters within the legislative domain.

When Congress denied Obama authority to transfer money to the International Monetary Fund, he did so anyway, issuing an executive order promising to give that body $140 billion for redistribution to Third World countries.

Now he's made another mockery of bipartisanship and the Constitution in making six recess appointments, including two people so objectionable that a near supermajority of Democratic senators wouldn't confirm them: James Cole as deputy attorney general, whose lax position in the war on terror is disturbing, and Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. as ambassador to Turkey.

Meanwhile, Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to engage in a defiant end run around Congress by attempting to impose cap-and-trade-type regulations by administrative fiat after Obama's failed attempt to shove this nightmarish disaster through Congress.

It obviously doesn't matter to these zealots that an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress couldn't pass cap and trade or that the Clean Air Act gives them no authority to regulate so-called greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn't matter that their proposed regulatory blitzkrieg would further damage an already anemic and precarious economy.

What matters is that the earth goddess Gaia beckons, and she is not to be denied. Just as her global warming cultists view every environmental development and incident as confirmation of their cataclysmic myopia, including the ones that flatly contradict their theories, her disciples in government march to her orders, irrespective of the rule of law and silly capitalistic concerns.

Unlike those annoying evangelical Christians, who employ gentle persuasion techniques in their efforts to proselytize, Gaia's acolytes use the coercive power of government to bring us all into the fold. And all this time, libs have been telling us they abhor state-sponsored religion.

Mr. Rush LImbaugh Sr. raised some really bright boys. Go read the rest of this article for some great insights into how far the Constitution has been trashed.

End Runs around Congress

The President and the Congress have been stymied on some things, but that doesn't stop them. They have just begun to fight using these end runs. Thomas Sowell explains it well
From Townhall.com

Political End Runs
by Thomas Sowell
The Constitution of the United States begins with the words "We the people." But neither the Constitution nor "we the people" will mean anything if politicians and judges can continue to do end runs around both.

Bills passed too fast for anyone to read them are blatant examples of these end runs. But last week, another of these end runs appeared in a different institution when the medical "end of life consultations" rejected by Congress were quietly enacted through bureaucratic fiat by administrators of Medicare.

Although Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Senator Jay Rockefeller had led an effort by a group of fellow Democrats in Congress to pass Section 1233 of pending Medicare legislation, which would have paid doctors to include "end of life" counselling in their patients' physical checkups, the Congress as a whole voted to delete that provision.

Republican Congressman John Boehner, soon to become Speaker of the House, objected to this provision in 2009, saying: "This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia."

Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposed provision in Medicare legislation, the Constitution of the United States makes the elected representatives of "we the people" the ones authorized to make such decisions. But when proposals explicitly rejected by a vote in Congress are resurrected and stealthily made the law of the land by bureaucratic fiat, there has been an end run around both the people and the Constitution.

Congressman Blumenauer's office praised the Medicare bureaucracy's action but warned: "While we are very happy with the result, we won't be shouting it from the rooftops because we are not out of the woods yet."


In other words, don't let the masses know about it.

It is not only members of Congress or the administration who treat "we the people" and the Constitution as nuisances to do an end run around. Judges, including Justices of the Supreme Court, have been doing this increasingly over the past hundred years.

Read it all here. Dr. Sowell is a very knowledgeable man who goes on to give the history of the Progressives.

Michelle Bachman has a great idea - Teach the constitution to lawmakers

Most of you know the tea parties want the constitution to be foremost in the thoughts of the people who make our laws, and that no law passes without passing the test of the constitution.  The recent flap over the "separation of church and state" in the Delaware debates shows us that lawmakers, law  professors and law students do not have a keen grasp of exactly what is IN the constitution. This article is good news.  It is from Politico.

Bachmann wants Constitution classes for lawmakers
By MARIN COGAN

For the Tea Party soldiers worried that the young upstarts they’re poised to send to Congress will lose their constitutional druthers once they get to Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a message: Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes.

Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor says, “It was something she’s always wanted to do. There’s so many folks that come to Capitol Hill to discuss obscure and mundane topics, but no one coming regularly to discuss bill of rights or the role of government.”

I think the writer is not perfectly happy about Michele Bachman, her Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes. comes across a slightly catty, but she does go ahead and give the full story.  Read it all here.

Tea Partiers are Us

I have read Bill Whittle for a few years now.  When he joined Pajamas Media I was disappointed that most of his works were done with PJTV and my broadband speed is a little too slow for watching any whole programs.  He still does some of his Eject!Eject! Eject! posts at that blog so occasionally I get to read some of his good work.  I would suggest you read this one, it goes along pretty much with all our thinking, and then read some of his archived work.  It.is.good.  Here is the latest, sent to me by Rockport Conservative writer Dolley Doright. 

REASONABLE MEN

There is a concerted effort afoot on the part of big-state socialists to paint the Tea Party as a bunch of dangerous, hate-filled radicals with a bunch of crazy new ideas that go far beyond the pale of the traditional American political mainstream.

Let’s ask some reasonable men – because the Founding Fathers were surely the largest collection of reasonable men ever gathered in one place at one time in history – what they thought about the issues raised by the Tea Party movement.

For instance, what did they think of a powerful central government?

At this point go to the Pajamas Media site and read it all.

Does your Congressman Know the Constitution?

From Hot Air:
Video: GOP congressman fails tea partier’s pop quiz on the Constitution


The article goes on to discuss this:

The point here, of course, is to demonstrate what an afterthought the Constitution has become for members of Congress. No surprise, then, that the item that’s currently getting the most votes for the proposed tea party “Contract from America” is the one demanding that each new bill cite the section of the Constitution that empowers Congress to act. Although how useful would that be, really? No matter what the purpose of the bill is, the citation will always, always be to the Commerce Clause. It entitles Congress to do anything it wants, don’tcha know.

The Healthcare debate could be very interesting for constitutional scholars

The rest of us will just sit here and wait for the next show to fall.  But from Alamo City Pundit we find this argument.

New Battle of the Alamo (ISD); Will Healthcare Be Decided in San Antonio?
April 6, 2010 by Johnny Alamo

So, in an odd confluence of the two, it appears that the battle over the Healthcare Bill may be decided by . . . a 1990’s San Antonio Gun Control case, of all things!

WASHINGTON — A San Antonio high school senior’s decision to bring a .38 caliber handgun to class in 1992 could end up at the center of the coming legal fight over President Barack Obama’s health reform plan.

Alfonso Lopez Jr.’s arrest at Edison High School set in motion a courtroom battle that is likely to be studied by the 13 state attorneys general fighting the new health care law. Lopez, a high school senior when he was arrested on a handgun possession charge in March 1992, ended up facing federal charges of violating the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990.

But the Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out his conviction in 1995 on the ground that Congress exceeded its regulatory authority under the Constitution when it approved the 1990 law, which made it a violation of federal law to possess a firearm in a school zone.

In filing a lawsuit last week challenging the new health care law’s mandate that everyone must have health insurance, the 13 state attorneys general cited the same legal reasoning that went into the high court’s Lopez ruling.

At issue in both cases is the Constitution’s commerce clause, which limits the regulatory powers of Congress to matters involving interstate commerce. The attorneys general argue that Congress exceeded that limit by requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

The emphasis is mine, go read Alamo City Pundit for the rest of the story.

Heritage has a blog, today it is a must read

The Constitution: Another Victim of Obamacare

Reports yesterday indicated that the Senate Parliamentarian “ruled” that the President must sign the Senate passed version of Obamacare before the Senate can act on a reconciliation measure. This ruling would have blown up plans in the House to use a very complicated procedure to pass both a Senate passed health care reform bill and a reconciliation measure to make change to the bill all at once. This scenario would have allowed the House to avoid a vote on the Senate passed Obamacare bill and they could have avoided the filibuster rule in the Senate (see Health Care Nuclear Option). The liberals are intent on passing Obamacare at any cost.

Reports have come out today that the Parliamentarian has not ruled that the President must sign a law before it is considered a law for reconciliation purposes. First, they came up with a strategy to get Obamacare passed in the House without the House ever voting on the bill, now they have come up with a strategy and a ruling to get the Obamacare bill to qualify as law without the President signing the law. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid should not support efforts to violate the clear words of the Constitution to pass Obamacare.

Go read it all.