As 2014 draws to a close, we can look back at many instances when an out-of-control federal government wasted tons of the money it took from us, deceived us about its activities, and trampled on the rights of its citizens. In short, it’s been a very bad year for the U.S. Constitution.
With my apologies to Judith Viorst, you might even call it a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” year for the Constitution. And if President Obama and his cohorts in the executive branch have their way in the coming year, the abuses are only going to get worse.
Congress is still investigating the way the IRS improperly targeted Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations. No one even tries to deny that our government has been improperly spying on its own citizens for years. Time after time, and on issue after issue, the Obama administration has made a mockery of the constitutional protections our Founding Fathers provided us.
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This is probably a good time to remind ourselves that before assuming office, the president of this country and every single member of Congress take the following oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.
That’s what they say they will do. But in fact, a majority of them routinely betray that solemn oath, by supporting programs that have absolutely no constitutional justification. Meanwhile, since becoming a lame-duck president, Obama has become even more outrageous in his flagrant determination to violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in his executive orders on immigration. No sooner were the 2014 midterm elections over than Obama said he would take executive action to grant amnesty to some 5 million aliens who are in this country illegally. No matter that on nearly two dozen occasions in the past the president admitted he lacked the legal authority to do such a thing. And no matter that, after he proclaimed the midterm elections would be a referendum on his policies, the results turned out to be a massive repudiation of them.
But immigration is just one of the issues where the Obama administration has demonstrated its utter distain for the Constitution. Many egregious examples can be found in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
So far, the Obama administration has taken dozens of unilateral actions to change the law without an iota of authorization from Congress. These include delays in the individual and employer mandates and numerous waivers of fees for favored groups (read: unions) or businesses (read: campaign supporters).
One of the most blatant examples are the rules issued by the IRS allowing people who purchased healthcare through federal exchanges to qualify for subsidies the law specifically restricts to state exchanges. This one has been appealed to the Supreme Court, which could deal a devastating blow to the president’s program if it decides such subsidies are unconstitutional.
Of all the departments within the executive branch, however, there is probably none that can match the Environmental Protection Agency for its ruthless determination to impose its dictates on this country without any legal authority to do so. It has declared war on the coal industry and coal-burning power plants, wreaking havoc on the economy of West Virginia.
The situation has gotten so extreme that even the New York Times noted that Obama “could leave office with the most aggressive, far-reaching environmental legacy of any occupant of the White House. Yet it is very possible that not a single major environmental law will have passed during his two terms in Washington.”
Needless to say, the Times totally approves of the high-handed, unconstitutional actions of the Obama administration.
The Republicans have promised to do everything they can to stop Obama’s blatant usurpation of power. We’ll know pretty soon if they’re going to keep that promise.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
Chip Wood was the first news editor of The Review of the News and also wrote for American Opinion, our two predecessor publications. He is now the geopolitical editor of Personal Liberty Digest. This article first appeared on PersonalLiberty.com and has been reprinted with permission.
