President Obama attended Harvard College, but apparently he did not do any
homework in American history. His latest blunder is to "warn" the Supreme
Court about overturning his pet project, Obamacare. This legislation is probably
the most unpopular act of Congress since Prohibition, and easily more
far-reaching in the damage it will do to the American economy in general and
American healthcare in particular.
It would seem that the Obamacare "mandate" alone is unconstitutional on its
face.
Did President Obama go to high school? That's where every American learns
there are three branches of government. Mr. Obama says that if the Court
overturns Obamacare it will be an unprecedented overturning of congressional
legislation. What a strange thing to say since that is what the Supreme Court
hiatorically has done since 1803!
I suspect that no Supreme Court justice, even the most liberal who is likely to
vote for constitutionality, finds President Obama's comments appropriate,
welcome or proper.
As for the most important constituents, the voters. it is another and egregious
example of why the sooner this term is over the better.
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Copyright (c) 2012 by Barry Casselman
All rights reserved.
Obama's comments are very divisive, more so than any of the "divider" George W. Bush.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am struck by the increasingly partisan tone from President Obama. It has been clear that since August his strategy has changed from governing to campaigning. But - even so - his most recent pronouncements are alarmingly strident. Not at all presidential. I was troubled by his inappropriate comments regarding the Supreme Court. Obviously, an activist Court is in the eye of the beholder - and so it is not surprising that Democrats complain about some rulings while Republicans complain about others. But to complain before a ruling is issued is disrepectful of the independence of the judiciary. The President is evidently fearful of a 5-4 Court majority ruling against all (or part) of the health care law. He is apparently attempting to discredit this anticipated ruling before it is made. Amazing. In a related vein, the President chose to attack the recently passed House Budget Resolution - describing it in highly unflattering (and frequently inaccurate) terms. This despite the fact that the House Republican budget does far more than his own budget to control future deficits and debt (an issue the President claims to care about). The Republican budget has its flaws - to be sure (including an unwillingness to consider any revenue as part of a long-term solution to our budget woes). But it bears mentioning that this past week, the President's own budget received not a single vote of support - even among House Democrats. In addition, the Senate (which is controlled by the Democratic party) has not produced a bugdet in three years. Rather than complaining about - and distorting - the contents of the House Republican budget, perhaps the President should instead urge the Senate to design a budget more to his liking. Then, negotiations could begin on crafitng a bi-partisan budget. And, then we could also have an honest debate (rather than a phony "straw man" style debate) about competing approaches to deficit reduction and competing priorities within our budget. But that would require governing - and, sadly, President Obama is too busy campaigning.
ReplyDeleteTim Penny