By Douglas V. Gibbs
A hearing in the United States House of Representatives, largely led by Republicans, is asking, "Is President Obama pushing the Constitution aside?" While Mr. Obama picks and chooses what laws to enforce, and which laws to ignore, he has also been modifying law at will. Particularly with the Affordable Care Act, The President has repeatedly used Executive Orders to delay mandates, and later the provisions in the law, without legislative consent.
Can Congress stop these actions?
According to the Democrats, whenever Republicans launch an attempt to stop, or at least slow down, the big government actions of President Obama, it is a sign that government is broken. The Republicans, according to President Obama, "...grind the gears of government to a halt. . . today’s pattern of obstruction . . . just isn’t normal; it’s not what our founders envisioned.”
Steve King (R-IA) of the House Judiciary Committee said, regarding the executive branch's accumulation of power in the last five years, "What's America look like in the next 25 years if we have executive upon executive that builds upon this, this continual stretching or disregard of the constitutional restraints and disrespect for Article I."
Article I of the United States Constitution is the part of the document that establishes the Legislative Branch. Article I, Section 1 is the first statement in the Constitution regarding a Separation of Powers, indicating that "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
Article II, which establishes the Executive Branch, begins with a similar statement, "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."
If the American Form of Government was to follow the expressly granted authorities as written in the Law of the Land, that would mean that Congress cannot act upon authorities granted to the President, and the President cannot legally act upon the authorities vested in the Congress. However, with executive orders, President Obama has consistently altered and modified laws, and through his regulatory agencies has created laws that Congress never passed (as in the case of Cap and Trade through the EPA).
Jonathan Turley of George Washington University said regarding the President's unconstitutional actions, "I have great trepidation of where we are heading, because we are creating a new system, here; something that is not what was designed. We have this rising fourth branch in a system that is tripartite. The center of gravity is shifting, and that makes it unstable. And within that system you have a rise of an uber-presidency. There could be no greater danger for individual liberty, and I really think the framers would be horrified by that shift."
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
House hearing debates if Obama is violating Constitution - Fox News
It took Congress 5+ years to figure this out?
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