Obama's manipulative tactics
vs. the Supreme Court
By
Monte Kuligowski
President
Obama is giving new meaning to the term "bully pulpit."
Reuters
reports
that, "President Obama took an opening shot at conservative justices on the
Supreme Court on Monday, warning that a rejection of his sweeping healthcare law
would be an act of 'judicial activism' that Republicans say they
abhor."
The Los Angeles Times
reports
that Mr. Obama took the podium, "warning Monday that overturning [Obamacare]
would be an 'unprecedented, extraordinary step.'"
The New York Times
reports
that, "Mr. Obama offered both a robust defense of the law and a barbed warning
to justices thinking of striking it down."
For Mr. Obama,
third-world-style politics override dignity and appropriateness at every turn.
First, Obama scolded the United States Supreme Court like disobedient
schoolchildren at his 2010 State of the Union Address. Apparently Obama couldn't
restrain himself because, after all, he disagreed with the Court on its Citizens
United case. And now, Obama warned the Supreme Court at a news conference
covering issues between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Prime Minister
Stephen Harper and President Felipe Calderón stood by as Obama attempted to
intimidate the High Court on a pending domestic policy case.
If not for
Mr. Obama's established mannerism, the audacity of his childish rhetoric in
warning the Supreme Court would be shocking. Here is one of many eye-catching
excerpts
from Obama's answer to the ill-timed (perhaps staged) question on the Obamacare
case:
Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would
be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by
a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.
Maybe Obama is
preparing for a new career in stand-up comedy. Except, normally, good comedy
contains at least an element of truth.
Does Obama really believe that
overturning his unprecedented and extraordinary law would be "unprecedented" or
"extraordinary?" The Supreme Court's job is to strike down unconstitutional law.
As a former constitutional law instructor Professor Obama should know at least
that much. Surely the constitutional scholar knows how
Marbury v. Madison
has been applied for over 200 years: the Supreme Court may strike down laws if
found to violate the Constitution; whether passed by a strong or weak
majority.
Does Obama believe that we have really short memories? "Strong
majority?" Really?
In ramming the overreaching debacle through, Obama
committed the same crime for which he forced Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak
out of office — governing against the will of the people. Obama, Pelosi and Reid
were aware of the polling numbers. Mr. Obama knew that a strong majority of
Americans opposed the massive expansion of federal control otherwise known as
Obamacare.
A law carrying such far-reaching transformation should never
be passed strictly on partisan lines. Remember, the only bipartisanship about
the entire healthcare coup d'état were the 34 Democrat lawmakers who voted
against it! The Democratic leaders which controlled both chambers of Congress by
huge majorities were so stubbornly entrenched that they were even willing to use
a
Rules
Committee scheme to "deem" a Senate version passed, fearing a vote
deficit.
To get the necessary votes, Mr. Obama had to bribe, threaten and
coerce moderate Democrats to fall in line. One example was the false promise on
abortion coverage made to secure the vote of pro-life Democrat Ben Nelson from
Nebraska. Additionally, Democrat leaders overtly bribed Nelson with the
"cornhusker kickback" provision in which Nebraska would get 100% funding for
Medicaid in exchange for Nelson's vote.
The radical and corrupt
overreaching of Obama led to an
unprecedented and
extraordinary
opposition movement. By overspending and governing against the will of the
people, Mr. Obama singlehandedly produced the Tea Party movement. Unfortunately,
the power of the people as expressed through the Tea Party could not stop the
Democrats from ramming the law through on Christmas Eve, literally at the
midnight hour.
Mr. Obama looked the other way when Republicans won the
governorships of Virginia and New Jersey. Next, in a special election for the
seat Ted Kennedy held for 47 years, a Republican won the election by campaigning
as the vote against Obamacare. The 2010 midterms were also a referendum on
Obamacare and were such a disaster for the Democrats that even Obama
acknowledged that he was dealt a "shellacking."
At Monday's news
conference, Mr. Obama also
warned
that if "an unelected group of people [the Supreme Court] would somehow overturn
a duly constituted and passed law," that would be an example of "judicial
activism, or a lack of judicial restraint."
First, all duly constituted
and passed laws are subject to the Court's power of judicial review. So, Obama's
rhetoric is nothing more than an emotive, political red herring for the
dumbed-down public. Ironically, if any law is questionable of being a duly
constituted and passed law, it is Obamacare.
Mr. Obama should be
embarrassed to suggest that Obamacare was "duly passed" when in fact the law was
forced on the people over protests, clashes at town hall meetings and enormous
rallies across the country, including one with hundreds of thousands of
protesters in Obama's own back yard.
Does Mr. Obama really view the 2,700
page maze of laws and bureaucratic discretion within the
law that not one
lawmaker read before voting for, as "a duly constituted law?" The suggestion
that the sweeping law that grants incalculable power to unelected HHS appointees
was "duly constituted," is debatable at best.
The fact that the White
House has
no
contingency plan in the event that Obamacare is struck down is more evidence
of the
it's-my-way-or-the-highway attitude of Mr. Obama. Ironically,
Obama now directs the same tactics he used to ram through his unwanted flagship
at the Supreme Court — by warning that the law is invincible because it was
duly constituted and passed.
To insult the intelligence of the
Supreme Court by misusing the terms "judicial activism" and "lack of judicial
restraint" is unacceptable.
Mr. Obama may have been successful in forcing
moderate Democrats to see things his way.
But bullying members of the
High Court with insulting rhetoric might produce a different result.