Is it too soon to begin to sum up President Obama’s “legacy”? Possibly,
but after six years we know enough to draw some conclusions.
There is much to protest on any given day Obama sits in the Oval Office
with all its powers at his disposal. The Constitution granted the executive
branch considerable power, particularly in the conduct of foreign affairs but
the Founders also created a system to offset the office when it comes to
domestic affairs.
It is clear that Obama has virtually no interest in foreign affairs,
preferring to tell lies about Islamic terrorism and to ignore Russia’s seizure
of Crimea and its support of insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Instead he has
devoted most of his time, when not vacationing and playing golf, to his
domestic agenda. It has proven to be a failure.
The failure of ObamaCare, introduced with a series of lies, is the most
dramatic feature of his legacy. While it remains a law, it has been so plagued
with problems that one can easily imagine it being repealed once Obama is out
of office. It has seriously harmed what was widely understood to be a costly
system. By now, thanks to Jonathan Gruber, one of its architects, we know that
both he and the President knew it would be largely unaffordable back in 2009
and both regarded Americans to be “stupid.”
The Supreme Court will hear a case, King
v. Burwell, on March 4 and will likely rule in June. As The Wall Street
Journal opined, “As a matter of ordinary statutory construction, the Court
should find that when the law limited subsidies to insurance exchanges
established by states, that does not include the 36 states where the feds run
exchanges.” That many states refused to set up their own exchanges and that
tells you just how poorly it was received.
Fundamentally, “if the subsidy foundation is undermined, the rest will
collapse of its own weight…The subsidies are crucial to ObamaCare because they
offset the added costs of the law’s regulations.” Suffice to say, Republicans
who now control Congress had better have some measures to enact to replace
ObamaCare. And, yes, if it was passed in whole, it can be repealed in whole.
While 36 states refused to participate in ObamaCare’s exchanges, 26
states joined together in a legal suit against the legitimacy of Obama’s
unilateral executive order intended to alter the laws regarding illegal aliens,
but only Congress can change those laws. No President has the authority to do
so.
Ironically, on President’s Day, February 16, Federal Judge Andrew Hanen
enjoined Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, from
implementing “any and all aspects of phases of the Deferred Action for Parents
of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program as set out by Johnson in a
November 20, 2014 memorandum.
The injunction was based on “the failure of the defendants to comply
with the Administrative Procedure Act.” That Act governs the issuance of new
rules and regulations by government agencies, including requirements that
public notice be posted and opportunities to comment exist before a substantive
rule can be enacted. The routinely arrogant Obama administration ignored this.
The greater issue, of course, has been Obama’s refusal to obey the
existing immigration laws in order to add five million or more illegal aliens
to the U.S. population without their going through the process that millions of
others have obeyed.
If Obama won’t obey the law, why should he expect the states or anyone
else to do so? The suit was brought by the states on the grounds that “the
Government has abandoned its duty to enforce the law” and Judge Hanen concluded
that “this assertion cannot be disputed.” The case will now move up through the
court system because, of course, Obama’s Department of Justice will seek an
appeal. By the time a ruling is made, Obama is likely to be out of office and
his amnesty efforts will have failed.
Obama’s two key initiatives will go down in flames and that is very good
news.
Beyond them is the astonishing amount of debt he had added over the past
six years, starting with a failed “stimulus” program that wasted a trillion
dollars on non-existent “shovel ready” jobs, the bailout of General Motors that
left taxpayers with a loss of $11.2 billion, and grants to “clean energy”
companies, many of which went belly up.
As of this writing, not only has the credit rating of the U.S. been
downgraded for the first time in its history, but U.S. debt stands at $18
trillion and growing. That is definitely not good news.
We can, however, as Obama’s term of office recedes with every passing
day, know that his “transformation” of America into a socialist state will end
in failure. When gone, whoever replaces him will have a huge job of
reestablishing America as the leader of the free world.
It will not likely be a Democrat. Obama’s legacy will include—as it
already has—a major voter shift to support of Republicans in Congress, in the
governorships, and many state legislatures throughout America. And that is good
news.
© Alan Caruba, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment