Let's take a quick peek back at one or two quotes from our esteemed President Barack Obama and see if he may be a tad hypocritical.
"The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up the national debt from 5 trillion for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added 4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have 9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic." Senator Barack Obama, July 3, 2008 campaign speech.
President Obama then proceeded to tack on another $4 trillion in just 2 and 1/2 years.
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies...Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here'. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices onto the back of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." Senator Barack Obama, 2006 debate on raising the debt ceiling before he cast his vote against.
Senator Obama didn't bother to vote for the subsequent debt raises in 2007 and 2008. President Obama argued that failure to raise the debt ceiling would be a disaster that would unravel the financial system and create a worse recession than what we had just been through.
"The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." Senator Barack Obama, 2007.
President Barack Obama then decided that apparently bombing Libya is not a "military attack" such that Congress needed to even be consulted. In fact, he adamantly refused to consult with Congress on the bombing campaign.
"I will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine congressional instructions as enacted into law. The problem with this (Bush) administration is that it has attached signing statements to legislation in an effort to change the meaning of the legislation, to avoid enforcing certain provisions of the legislation that the President does not like, and to raise implausible or dubious constitutional objections to that legislation...it is a clear abuse of power to use such statement as a license to evade laws that the president does not like or as an end-run around provisions designed to foster accountability...No one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president's constitutional prerogatives; unfortunately, the Bush Administration has gone much farther than that." Senator Barack Obama, 2007 interview with the Boston Globe.
In fairness, a signing statement is somewhat different from an executive order. However, those same criticisms are easily applicable to the myriad executive orders and actions that President Obama has taken. When President Obama could not get congressional approval of his debt commission (from a supermajority Democratic Senate), he took a note from "I Dream of Jeannie" and winked it into existence. Though the "Dream Act" failed to pass through congress (despite both houses still being under Democratic control), President Obama in the last few days has simply instructed the federal government to enact it through "prosecutorial discretion" (yet another legal term our Constitutional lawyer-in-chief apparently doesn't have a clue what its meaning is). That's just two of the numerous extra-constitutional activities the President has engaged in through actions and executive orders.
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." President Obama, inaugural oath of office, January 20, 2009.
Not only did he take the oath, he may be the only president to have ever taken it twice. Nonetheless, amongst his arguably unconstitutional actions noted above, there is one act that I believe cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny. When GM and Chrysler entered bankruptcy, the Obama administration stepped in and forced a "guided" bankruptcy which deprived creditors of their interests. Bankruptcy is provided for in the Constitution and the power is given to Congress to enact the laws relating to it. There is no provision for the President to step in and guide a bankruptcy proceeding or, in doing so, to violate the rights of creditors. This action violated Supreme Court precedent protecting creditors' interests under the 5th Amendment.
The funny part is, I realized in researching this that Senator Obama said a lot of things I agree with (though I wouldn't have said unpatriotic). It's a shame he never meant any of it.
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