The Unimpeachable President

Obama promised that he would ignore Congress. He has kept that promise and he will continue to keep it to the detriment of American people, and the Constitution he swore to protect and defend

The Unimpeachable President

Professor Richard Neustadt began his classic study of the presidency, Presidential Power, with the assertion that “even a ‘strong’ President is weak.”  This, of course, is what James Madison and the other delegates to the Constitutional Convention intended when they designed a tripartite governmental structure in which a President’s actions were to be constrained by a system of checks and balances.



Presidential frustration with a constitutional system that inhibits the President from acting unilaterally has been a fixture throughout our history.  Presidents have railed as Truman did at a “do nothing Congress” and even tried to change the system as FDR did when he proposed increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first modern President to use executive orders to expand the scope of his powers.  Citing the Antiquities Act of 1906 which gave the President the authority to protect “objects of historic and scientific interest” Roosevelt issued an executive order creating Devils Tower National Monument.  His extension of the act to include areas of natural beauty was challenged in the courts, but his interpretation was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The difference between all past Presidents and Barack Obama is that where prior presidents have used executive orders to push the envelope by interpreting acts of Congress in such a way as to expand their powers, Obama has chosen to act as if Congress did not exist.  He knows that the House of Representatives would never dare to impeach him, and even if it did, the Senate would never remove him from office, and that allows him to act with impunity.



He can refuse to enforce laws that he doesn't like which he has done with respect to immigration.  He can modify laws to suit his political purposes which he did with Obama Care.  He can totally ignore Congress as he did when he released the five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo.  He can defy Congressional Committees and not respond to their requests for information which his administration has done both with Benghazi and the IRS.

Obama’s latest overreach of executive power involves his Justice Department’s attack on legitimate small businesses that his administration does not like by investigating the banks they do business with.  The DOJ’s Operation Choke Point instead of “prosecuting only fraudulent merchants” expands the Department’s focus to include “the payment infrastructure.”

Operation Choke Point

According to a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report, “Operation Choke Point has forced banks to terminate relationships with a wide variety of entirely lawful and legitimate merchants.”  The report goes on to state that “banks are put in an unenviable position: discontinue longstanding, profitable relationships with fully licensed and legal businesses, or face a potentially ruinous lawsuit by the Department of Justice.”


While the House of Representatives has voted to defund Choke Point, that will not stop Obama’s Justice Department from continuing to harass firms in businesses that it finds objectionable.  The Economist (June 7, 2014) reported that Chase had closed the account of a strip tease dancer because she was a “high-risk customer.”  The bank did this even though she and her husband had no credit card debt and no outstanding loans.  However, the real focus of Operation Choke Point has not been strippers.  They along with retail merchants such as tobacco stores are intended to show that the DOJ is being even handed.  The real target has been shops that sell firearms and ammunition.

The Journey Museum in Rapid City, South Dakota is conducting a fund raising raffle.  The prize is a Baikal 12 gauge shotgun.  If the news gets out that a gun manufactured in Russia is being raffled off by a non-profit organization in the Red State of South Dakota it will undoubtedly trigger a joint DOJ/IRS Choke Point investigation.

The prior paragraph would be laughable if sadly it wasn't true.  In the Federalist Papers (#51), James Madison wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”  When Congress lacks the will or the ability to rein in the Executive Branch, as is the case today, then the President can do as he pleases.

In his Second Inaugural Address, President Obama promised that he would ignore Congress.  He has kept that promise and he will continue to keep it to the detriment of American people who elected him and the Constitution he swore to protect and defend.

Author
By Al Kaltman