According to the White House, President Obama plans to use - TopicsExpress

According to the White House, President Obama plans to use tonight’s State of the Union address to announce his impending dictatorship. Okay, okay… perhaps that’s not exactly what Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer wrote in an email to supporters on January 25. But it’s close enough. Both Pfeiffer and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney have called 2014 an “action year,” code words for the president’s plan to strong-arm Capitol Hill in the months ahead. If Congress is averse to his agenda, well, they’d better get out of the way. Obama has a pen and a phone, and he’s not afraid to use them. Meanwhile, with the 2014 election season nearly upon us, Obama is facing significant pressure to advance his agenda and boost the Democrat party outlook. And apparently that won’t be a problem! Obama will simply flip the switch on his “unilateral presidential authority,” as The Wall Street Journal called it, and start laying down the law. As Bruce Campbell once said… Hail to the king, baby. The End of Democracy as We Know It Amazingly, there has been little backlash over this State of the Union spoiler. Is it actually possible that we’ve become numb to such abuses of executive authority? If I recall correctly, the U.S. Constitution created a framework of checks and balances – the separation of powers – to prevent another king or dictator from taking control of the government. But the principles upon which our country was founded seem to fly in the face of Barack Obama’s whims. It “has a certain amount of arrogance,” noted Senator Rand Paul, which I’d say is something of an understatement. Paul also said that the White House’s vow to use executive power “sounds vaguely like a threat.” And he’s right. Rather than trying to find common ground with his opponents on Capitol Hill, Obama wants to take the shortcut on infrastructure development, job training, climate change and education. “He says, ‘Well, it’s hard to get Congress to do anything.’ Well, yeah, welcome to the real world. It’s hard to convince people to get legislation through. It takes consensus,” Paul said. “But that’s what he needs to be doing is building consensus and not taking his pen and creating law.” Election Season Posturing Unfortunately, the president doesn’t seem interested in consensus these days. In fact, he doesn’t seem interested in acknowledging Congress at all. Take, for example, his recent “effort” to get the long-term unemployed back to work. Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett has been busy reaching out to chief executives at companies such as Bank of America (BAC), Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) and Deloitte LLP, asking them not to discriminate against the long-term unemployed in their hiring processes. Many of the companies have signed a pledge saying that they’re committed to inclusive hiring practices. In theory, that’s the right thing for these companies to do. But in practice, it’s just another way for the president to circumvent congressional action on an important public policy issue. Besides, this dog-and-pony show doesn’t actually benefit struggling, unemployed Americans. The non-binding pledge guarantees nothing from the employers… but it sure does look great just before election season! Lots of Cheap Talk At this point, it’s unfair to expect anything from Obama other than cheap talk and a unilateral agenda. Look for more of the same from the president tonight as he lays out his plan for total political domination. In Pursuit of the Truth, Christopher Eutaw