Category Archives: senate
Separation of Powers
During his State of the Union speech the president again emphasized his intention to go it alone. He’s his own separation of powers. He’s got a phone and a pen and he doesn’t need no stinking Congress.
Update:
Back in December Law professor Jonathan Turley said that President Obama is “becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid”.
Update 6/5/14:
Professor Turley now says Obama is the president Nixon always wanted to be.
Big Stack of Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act has 20,000 pages of regulations. Nebraska senate candidate Ben Saase uses the thing in a 9 foot high stack as a prop. It’s held together by a pipe right jammed down the middle. He would like to impale it permanently.
I Have a Pen Speech
President Obama gave his I Have a Pen Speech yesterday. He waved his pen and said he also has a phone.
He then warned Congress that if it doesn’t do his bidding he would have his way by executive order. He would do that with the pen. He would use the phone to rally “non-profit and private sector support” for his agenda.
He didn’t mention recess appointments. In 2012 he declared the Senate in recess, even though the Senate said it was not. He then used the self-proclaimed recess to appoint 2 new members to the National Labor Relations board without Senate approval.
The Supreme Court is not looking kindly on the maneuver.
Plastic Gun
Nowadays you can make a plastic gun with a 3-D printer and slip it past an airport scanner.
“Who in God’s name wants that?” asked Chuck Schumer. So the senate renewed the Undetectable Firearms Act.
Nuclear Option
Harry Reid pulled the trigger on the so-called Nuclear Option on Thursday. The move changed a 200 year old rule that allowed filibusters against presidential appointments. Now the Senate can confirm nominees with a simple majority. That can happen with a straight party line vote – the same way ObamaCare was passed.
As usual, hypocrisy is non-partisan here. The Republicans threatened the same thing when President Bush was having trouble getting his judicial nominations confirmed in the Senate.
Nuclear Option
Here are some strong arguments against the Nuclear Option – from Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
