With his time in office now slowly, albeit far too
slowly, drawing to a close, although it can’t get here soon enough for me,
there has much talk going around of late regarding what kind of legacy Barry “Almighty”
will leave behind. It has been during
his two terms in the White House, Barry has done his best to make same-sex
marriage the law of the land; implement trailblazing environmental regulations
to crackdown on climate change; issue sweeping legislation allowing millions of
undocumented immigrants to remain in the country; and reconstructed, some would
argue deconstructed, the healthcare system in this country.
It has been noted by many of those whose job it is
to ponder such ponderable things that there have been more than a few blows
dealt to Barry’s various policies by the Supreme Court — a venue where those
representing his administration have done less than a stellar job — that some
think have placed his legacy in jeopardy.
And it has also been pointed out that the Supreme Court has unanimously
ruled against Barry’s administration positions in at least 13 cases just since
January 2012. Not exactly a ringing
endorsement of those policies that Barry has tried to promulgate. But that never stopped him from trying to use
his pen and his phone.
It was John Fund who writes, "The tenure of
both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder has been marked by a
dangerous push to legitimize a vast expansion of the power of the federal government
that endangers the liberty and freedom of Americans." And he goes on to say, "They have taken
such extreme position on key issues that the Court has uncharacteristically
slapped them down time and time again.”
He adds, "Historically, the Justice Department has won about 70
percent of its cases before the high court. But in each of the last three
terms, the Court has ruled against the administration a majority of the
time."
And it’s on the topic of same-sex marriage that
Barry continues to maintain that his views on the topic have
"evolved" from opposing it when he first ran for president in 2008 —
a reversal from his 1996 Illinois Senate campaign when he supported it — to
backing it in 2012 after Vice President ‘Slow Joe’ Biden publicly pledged
support for gay marriage. After contradictory decisions by federal appeals
courts, the Supreme Court heard a case brought by Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and
Tennessee arguing that the decision should be left to the states. Same-sex
marriage proponents say gay marriage bans violate couples' constitutional
rights.
The court's much anticipated June decision is a
"potentially historic ruling" that will cap "a two-decade legal
and political fight for marriage equality," at least according to the Los
Angeles Times. In 2013, according to the
Washington Post, the Supreme Court ruled in the administration’s favor by
allowing the federal government to recognize legally married same-sex couples. So Barry may yet be able to ram this down the
collective throat of the American with help for a Supreme Court that may
actually lean more than a little to the left on the issue. So we will see if it turns out to be a ‘historic
ruling’ or another slap at Barry.
Obamacare, aka The Affordable Care Act, Barry’s
signature legislation, could be torpedoed if the court rules in favor of a
group challenging the legality of Obamacare subsidies to residents in 37 states
that didn't set up their own healthcare exchanges. The New York Times reported this week that a
four-word clause — "established by the state" — included in the
900-page act specifies that federal subsidies are only permitted for people who
buy their coverage on state-run exchanges, not those who go through the federal
marketplace, HealthCare.gov. Some 7.5
million people stand to lose their subsidies if the court rules they are
unconstitutional.
And it was in the Hobby Lobby case, brought by the
evangelical Christian owners of an arts and crafts store chain by the same
name, that the Supreme Court found that family-owned businesses do not have to
provide birth control coverage to their employees if it conflicts with the business
owners' religious beliefs. The landmark
decision, rendered on June 30, 2014, extended for the first time religious
protections to for-profit corporations, The Boston Globe reported, noting that
the ruling was a win for social conservatives who opposed a provision of
Obamacare that required contraceptive coverage be included in health insurance
provided by businesses.
And as far as Barry’s penchant for making rather
questionable recess appointments, the high court issued a unanimous rebuke of
the president for exceeding his constitutional authority by making high-level
government appointments in 2012 — specifically to the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) — when he declared that the Senate was in recess and unable to act
on the nominations. In January 2012,
while the Senate met in pro forma sessions every three days specifically to
deny the president his recess powers, Obama made three recess appointments to
the NLRB and one to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Barry contended that "even though the Senate
was meeting every three days, the pro forma sessions meant just a single
senator was on the chamber floor for a brief time, and no real business was
conducted, which meant the Senate was really not in session." The majority opinion of the justices on the
Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that "the founding fathers
intended for the president only to be able to use his recess appointment powers
when the Senate was gone for a long period of time, not the brief breaks
Congress regularly takes for holidays or weekends." Apparently Barry, the Constitutional scholar,
interpreted things differently.
This past spring, the Supreme Court heard arguments
in a case challenging what has been called by some in the state-controlled
media Barry’s "signature environmental achievement": Environmental
Protection Agency regulations limiting the amount of mercury emissions and
other toxic pollutants from coal-fired and oil-fired utility plants. More than 20 states and "major industry
groups" such as the National Mining Association argue that the rules place
undue costs on power plants. The EPA
estimates that the regulations, which would require plants to install high-tech
scrubbers to remove the pollutants, come with an estimated $9.6 Billion annual
price tag. A decision is expected next
month.
And on the topic of Immigration, Barry’s immigration
policy took a hit as recently as this past Tuesday, when a federal appeals
court in New Orleans, in a 2-1 decision, denied Barry's emergency request to
lift a lower court's injunction on deferring deportations of millions of
undocumented immigrants, according to a Washington Post story. Alleging executive overreach, 26 states sued
the federal government after Barry issued an executive order in November
expanding programs that allow millions of undocumented immigrants to remain in
the country and apply for work permits and some government benefits. But he didn’t get his way, at least not yet.
In February, a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas,
blocked Barry's order on the grounds that it should not be implemented until
the case is resolved. The administration
appealed the decision and it was decided in the plaintiffs' favor. In typical fashion the White House issued a
scathing criticism of the opinion. White
House bimbo, Brandi Hoffine said, "As the powerful dissent from Judge
[Stephen] Higginson recognizes, President Obama's immigration executive actions
are fully consistent with the law. The
president's actions were designed to bring greater accountability to our broken
immigration system, grow the economy, and keep our communities safe."
Republican House Speaker John Boehner lauded the
ruling. And in one of those rare
instances where I find myself in agreement with the Speaker, he said, "The
president said 22 times he did not have the authority to take the very action
on immigration he eventually did, and the courts have agreed once again." But the number of things that Barry has
managed to do despite the fact that he did not have the authority to them is
really quite impressive. And he got away
with doing those things primary because we had in Congress a combination of
rabid ideologues who were in complete agreement with him, and a band of gutless
cowards too afraid to stand up to him.
Personally, I would argue that Barry's legacy is
quite secure. He is the first foreign born,
affirmative action, America hating, white-hating president of this once great
republic. He has done what will most
likely turn out to be irreparable damage to this country both domestically and
internationally. This harm was not done
out of ignorance, incompetence or even stupidity as many would have you
believe, but out of a naked, plain and obvious hatred for The United States. His legacy will be one of an evil-doer who
could always count on the ignorance of the American people. His legacy will be one of someone who easily
and blatantly lied about everything and always got away with it because the
press was too feckless to call him on it. They were too afraid of being called
"racist". Better to let a half
black man lie than tell the truth about his lies. Let's pray that the electorate never makes
the same mistake. But with so much talk
about Hitlery Clinton, I'm not the least bit optimistic.
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