Carney said the president wants to work with Congress, but if the House and Senate don’t, Obama will.
“He’s going to take the actions that he can take using his executive authority to help the cause here, to help Americans deal with this challenging economy. And they can be small, medium or large actions and they don’t have to be just executive authority actions,” Carney continued. “They can be things we can do working with the private sector. So he’ll pursue all tracks.”
Carney added the president still would like to work with Congress (emphasis mine).
“But it is not accurate to suggest that he doesn’t want to engage with Congress and that he won’t engage with Congress,” Carney said. “He wants to continue to work with Congress. He and his advisors believe there will be opportunities to cooperate with Congress this year. We believe, as a purely political matter, that some members of Congress that have pursued an obstructionist path may begin to see it in their political interest to actually demonstrate to their constituents that they can get some things done.”
To me, the two bolded passages reflect a strange perception on the part of our current President that working “with” the Senate and the House of Representatives is somehow optional. That it’s sort of the preferred method, but by no means the only method of getting legislation passed and implementing national, federal policy in this country.
In other words, Congress has relevance only as long as the Emperor deigns to give it such. If it gets in his way, gets inconvenient, slows down his agenda, well then it’s time to shoulder the thing aside and get down to the real business of running this country the way HE thinks it oughta.
Folks, anywhere else, that’s called either a monarchy, or a dictatorship. And for all their talk about George Bush and his “imperial” presidency, I see President Obama showing a much more overt, fundamental, and arrogant disregard for the rule of law and the concept of separation of powers than any previous member of the White House.
Congress is explicity empowered and mandated BY THE CONSTITUTION as the body which make the laws in our country. NOT THE PRESIDENT. If the President is only willing to work with the Congress when they are doing what he wants, then they are no longer “of the people, by the people, for the people,” but rather, merely the steno pool for the CEO.
Scary, scary stuff.
Tattered Bits of Brain 