From Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of The Liberty Counsel
Wednesday, 04 January 2012.... In one of four highly controversial “recess appointments,” President Obama sidestepped Congress and appointed Richard Cordray to head the newly invented Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In making the announcement in Cleveland, the President said, “When Congress refuses to act…and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them.”
Of course, presidents do have the power to make “recess appointments” when Congress is not in session, and administrations from both parties have used this provision to get around congressional approval processes.
But the problem with this latest arrogant abuse of power by the Obama Administration is that Congress wasn’t even in recess!
Mr. President, you swore an oath to follow the laws laid out in the Constitution of the United States of America!
Strong backlash against blatant power grab.
Even though the leadership of the House took specific precautions to formally keep the current session open and prevent President Obama from making a group of recess appointments, he did it anyway.
Speaker of the House John Boehner immediately condemned the President’s actions:
“This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department.”
I recall conservative columnist Kyle-Ann Shiver’s observation that Barack Obama’s central campaign pledge was to fundamentally transform the United States of America, and that his agenda has never changed:
“The remaking of America was and still is the goal of the Obama presidency. By hook and by crook, whether through gargantuan bills passed against the will of the people with aid and abetment from bribes, kickbacks, and corporatist maneuvers, or through the bypassing of Congress with agency regulations, this president has both his mind and his heart set on making America into the ‘world as it should be.’”
This year, we expect previously unimaginable attacks on our freedom of speech, our freedom of association, and the rights of religious groups to address the issues of our day in public forums. It is as though “open season” has been declared on every American’s constitutional rights!
