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Recent actions by the administration clearly demonstrate the President’s intention to circumvent enacted laws and clear direction by Congress, through regulation, on matters on which Congress has taken a firm, opposing position. Specific recent examples include:
• FCC regulation of the Internet (so called Net Neutrality) even though the FCC has no legal authority to regulate the Internet and the Congress expressly voted against his rule-making in December 2010.
• Proposed rule-making by the EPA to regulate carbon emissions (so called Cap and Trade) even though the Congress expressly voted against these policies in December 2010.
• The President’s and his Justice Department’s decision to provide special protections to non-uniformed, non-state combatants (terrorists) under so-called Protocol 1 Amendment to the Geneva Conventions, even though this provision was rejected by Congress and former President Reagan during his administration.
This should concern every American, who believes in the rule of law, as expressed by our Constitution. Only legislation that passes both Houses and is signed by the President should be enforced as law. These actions by the President and his administration marginalize the Congress, by-pass the constitutional process, and over time are intended to establish a precedent for unilaterally enacting “law” through Presidential fiat. Beyond this, it is an example of how secular progressives have and will continue to transfer power from the people to the “elected few” in their goal of global governance and a establishment of a new world order, at the expense of our individual, God-given liberties.
It is time that Congress takes action to re-establish Constitutional limits on presidential authority and reassert Federalism under the Constitution by taking one or more of the following actions:
• Pass resolutions in the House that DIRECTLY and CLEARLY repudiate the rule-making actions that are being taken by the President and are in contravention to the expressed direction of the will of the people, their elected representatives in Congress, and the Constitution of the United States.
• Under Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution explicitly limit the number of “inferior officers” (this would include cabinet heads, Czars, and other regulatory officers) that can be appointed by the President and, instead, have them appointed by Congress.
• Use the budgeting process to cut funding to those administration departments that choose not to follow Congress’s expressed will.
If the foregoing actions do not produce the desired result and instead the President continues to contravene the will of the Congress, the aforementioned resolutions should be used to draw up a bill of particulars that would form the basis for impeachment, which is a power granted solely to the House of Representatives under Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution.
I fear that without action by Congress, continued Presidential “legislative action through rule-making” will make the constitution irrelevant.
