WHERE DO NIXON’S CRITICS STAND ON OBAMA’S ENCROACHMENT?
Jun 24, 2016Jason Lewis, Republican Party of Minnesota’s endorsed candidate for Congress in MN-02, continues to offer solutions for our state and nation in an opinion editorial.
“President Obama, you see, has issued more “presidential memoranda” than any executive in history. He has ignored Congress and the will of the people by unilaterally legalizing millions of illegal immigrants; rewriting the Affordable Care Act; making unconstitutional recess appointments; violating the War Powers Act; undoing welfare reform; restricting energy exploration; and instructing local public school students on which bathrooms they may use,” said Lewis. “Voters in the second district deserve to know if Angie Craig still supports the Obama/Clinton view of expansive presidential power and most importantly whether she believes in the Constitutional checks and balances so vital to our collective freedoms.”
Full editorial here: http://www.twincities.com/2016/06/24/jason-lewis-where-do-nixons-critics-stand-on-obamas-encroachment/
Jason Lewis spent 25 years on the air as a voice in the conservative movement. An active Minnesota resident for two decades, he and his wife Leigh have two young daughters, Lindsey and Lauren. Jason organized the first annual tax rally that has become a tradition in St. Paul, with thousands gathering to fight to keep more of what they earn. Jason is also an author, public speaker, and started his career as a business owner running Lewis Motor Supply, a small business founded by his grandfather.
Lewis has been endorsed by Congressman Tom Emmer, the Republican Party of Minnesota, the Freedom Club, the Powerline Blog, State Senator Dan Hall, State Senator Karin Housley, State Senator Eric Pratt, State Senator Dave Thompson, State Representative Tony Albright, State Representative Matt Dean, State Representative Steve Drazkowski, State Representative Kelly Fenton, State Representative Jon Koznick, State Representative Kathy Lohmer, State Representative Bob Loonan, State Representative Linda Runbeck, State Representative Bob Vogel, 2014 Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson, U of MN Board of Regents and former State Representative Laura Brod, South St. Paul Councilman Bill Flatley, former MNGOP Chair Bill Cooper, former Speaker Kurt Zellers, former candidate for Governor and CEO of Celcuity Brian Sullivan, 2nd Amendment advocate Dr. John Lott, 2008 national delegate and veteran Chris Andryski, retired Army Captain and Iraq War veteran Jake Duesenberg, U.S. Air Force Veteran Nathan Krogstad, United States Marine Corps Veteran Greg OConnor and County Commander Ty Sheridan.
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Jason Lewis: Where do Nixon’s critics stand on Obama’s encroachment?
At the height of Watergate, critics of President Richard Nixon loudly proclaimed, “no President is above the law” and endlessly lamented the 37th President’s circumvention of Congress and the concentration of power in the White House. Ever since, these liberal guardians of the Constitution have been urgently warning Americans of looming executive encroachment at every turn.
Right up until Barack Obama, that is.
President Obama, you see, has issued more “presidential memoranda” than any executive in history. He has ignored Congress and the will of the people by unilaterally legalizing millions of illegal immigrants; rewriting the Affordable Care Act; making unconstitutional recess appointments; violating the War Powers Act; undoing welfare reform; restricting energy exploration; and instructing local public school students on which bathrooms they may use.
He even expanded the use of “executive privilege” to thwart congressional probes into both the Benghazi investigation and the Fast and Furious drug-war scandal.
And those so-called watchdogs of civil liberties such as my likely opponent in Minnesota’s second congressional district, Democrat Angie Craig? Well, this time they’re “all-in” with the “imperial presidency.”
In fact, Craig said that “she felt compelled to challenge (John) Kline” because of several votes, one of which included a measure “to defund President Obama’s executive order on immigration!”
You may recall that in November 2014, the Obama White House unilaterally unveiled the Deferred Action for Parents of Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) which not only deferred deportations, but granted temporary legal status to more than 4 million illegal aliens. A federal district court enjoined DAPA in 2015 on behalf of the 26 states that sued the administration, and Thursday’s tie vote in the Supreme Court effectively blocks the administration scheme.
Ironically, Mr. Obama had already admitted his executive action was untenable, telling Telemundo in 2013 that if he ever were to grant such a blanket amnesty, “I’ll be ignoring the law in away that I think would be very difficult to defend legally.”
But the president wasn’t deterred by mere legalities and didn’t stop there.
Indeed, he went on to unilaterally reclassify without congressional approval individual gun owners as dealers “engaged in the business” of selling firearms so as to fall under federal background or registration checks. In the aftermath, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ms. Craig’s endorsed candidate for president in 2016, remarkably said Obama hadn’t gone far enough with his executive power.
Which naturally brings to mind what kind of president Mrs. Clinton would be, especially since the State Department’s own inspector general now says she failed to seek legal approval for transferring classified information from government email servers and may have dis-regarded the plain language of the law.
Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution declares the president shall “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” It says nothing about rewriting law from the Oval Office or trampling congressional prerogative and the separation of powers. No matter what one thinks of these issues, all Americans should agree that it is their elected representatives in Washington and at home who make the law, not the president. The “imperial presidency” is a dangerous encroachment on the liberties of all Americans.
When Nixon famously told David Frost that in matters of national security or covert operations if the “president does it, that means it’s not illegal,” liberals like Clinton and Craig were aghast. However, when Democrats like Barack Obama enlist the NSA to collect the bulk phone records of individual Americans without a search warrant, the usual guardians of privacy are nowhere to be found.
They put partisan politics above the law.
Voters in the second district deserve to know if Angie Craig still supports the Obama/Clinton view of expansive presidential power and most importantly whether she believes in the Constitutional checks and balances so vital to our collective freedoms.
Jason Lewis: Where do Nixon’s critics stand on Obama’s encroachment?
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