Podcast 331

DHS Funding and Netanyahu. Minnesota’s 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer voted for the ‘clean’ DHS funding bill, as congress capitulates to the President. Emmer says he is disappointed in his colleagues who fought to refuse funding the President’s effort to ‘amnestitize’ illegal aliens through executive memoranda. Emmer says the courts will handle it. The question really is where supporters in the 6th district – one of America’s most conservative – will come down on the issue. Congress seems to be loathe to actually have a fight with the President, in order to put some limits on what he thinks he can do with executive action. The fact is, capitulating to President Obama will only further embolden him to issue yet more executive orders, and cause further disputes Congressional Republicans can run away from. According to the White House, Obama is considering executive action on corporate taxation, and second amendment issues as his staff works day in and day out to find ways for him to run the country more like a Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin, than a constitutional US Chief Executive. For those who suggest Republicans need to ‘keep their powder dry’, or pick the big issue they can win to fight on … If not now, when? Be prepared; the new argument is you’re a ‘child’ if you advocate cutting the Government Gordian Knot. What we need, they’ll say, is trustworthy conservatives to make it run, right. Which is exactly what Obama said in 2008. The fact is, ‘radical’ ideas of lesser government aren’t childish, they date back to the birth of the republic. Moreover, there are structured proposals to audit the Fed, as well as eliminating agencies that are inefficient, or don’t work. They’re hardly rash, or childish. The idea that ‘conservatives’ need to nominate ‘responsible’ candidates ‘who can win’ is back. Times have changed, though, and the last thing this country and the Republicans need is another retread from the 1980’s, or timid go-along-get-along ‘problem solvers’ who believe NASA and the Interstate Highway system represent our future. As the so called radicals get organized, and raise money and votes, the message from Minnesota’s 6th voters, may soon be akin to Wyatt Earp’s … “Commence to fighting or get out of the way!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, upsetting White House aides who tweeted insults, and apparently nearly bringing minority leader Pelosi to tears. Contrary to critics, Netanyahu’s speech does provide alternatives to the agreement now being negotiated with Iran which the Israeli leader says constitutes an existential threat to Israel, and the US. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 256

Obama’s Executive Orders. As we head into the weekend, we’re in the middle of a political firestorm. The President has issued orders granting a 3 year amnesty to a selected group of illegal immigrants. To begin with, the major broadcast networks refused to give the President air time, which infuriated the White House. Staffers complained the networks had given President George W. Bush airtime to announce the National Guard was being sent to the southern border to assist in security, in 2008. The networks retorted that Bush’s announcement was a bipartisan enforcement of existing immigration law. Kind of a slap in the face to the current administration, and from the major mainstream media broadcast networks no less. However, don’t think the networks are finally coming to their senses. Maybe it’s just that the President doesn’t command the kind of audiences he used to, given a popularity rating hovering around 40 percent. The biggest problem with the President’s executive order? Not long ago, he himself said he didn’t have the authority to make law. Whether or not the President’s orders are legal will have to be determined going forward with lawsuits and legislation. Largely though, it will be a matter of public opinion, due to the fact that courts are loathe to intervene in disputes between branches of the federal government. In the end this will be worked out through the ballot box, and citizens will have to decide whether they think the President overstepped authority. It is certainly true Congress chose not to act on immigration, which is itself acting. It is also true that courts have suggested the president’s authority to act through executive orders has limits. One of the key questions is whether he has usurped the congressional constitutional responsibility to legislate and whether he has refused to enforce the law in this case, which could end up creating a constitutional crisis. This whole controversy drives home the fact that elections – especially Presidential elections – have long term consequences. The reaction to this action churlish action by President Obama should be to organize neighborhoods and precincts, so that attempts to use the office to build support for progressive policy and politicians in the future, won’t work. One of the craziest suggestions this week was that the US should repeal the 22nd amendment, which term limits the US presidency. The argument suggests that if Obama had to run for a third term, he wouldn’t be as likely to issue these kinds of orders. Meanwhile, for the time being the White House has succeeded in taking control of the news cycle. The good news is we can depend on this White House acting true to form, which suggests they’ll encounter a real crisis, which the President will screw up and then we’ll all be talking about that! One person who is thrilled with the executive order … Jonathon Gruber, the ‘brilliant’ MIT ‘economist’ who thinks the voters are stupid, and he is thrilled because for the time being, no one will be talking about his latest video. Sponsored by X Government Cars! 

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