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| Obama's AutoPen Signature Reuter's "Front Row Washington" |
It is terrible when we cannot trust our President to not make recess appointments that would place radicals in key positions. While many in Congress are headed home for Memorial Day weekend, the Senate reconvened for a pro forma session at 9:30 AM today. Pro forma sessions will also be held on May 31 at 10 AM and June 3 at 10:30 AM. The pro forma sessions are being held to prevent President Obama from making recess appointments - even by "autopen." More on the use of the "autopen" later.
Congress will be back to work for legislative business on Monday, June 6th.
Yesterday, with mixed emotions and feelings, many conservatives and liberals watched as the Senate debated the Patriot Act. While Americans know the need the act in some form to help protects us from attacks from foreign terrorists, a significant number of Americans fear the potential abuse of the embedded powers of this "secret" Act against American citizens and believe that the Patriot Act goes too far and threatens individual liberties regardless of who is in the White House.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke to these concerns. This debate on the issues actually delayed the vote on the bill down to the last hours before current Patriot would have expired. Prior to the final vote, the Senate voted 85-10 and then 91-4 to table two amendments to the bill offered by Sen. Paul. The Senate then voted 72-23 to pass a 4-year extension of expiring provisions of the Patriot Act (The vote was to concur in the House amendment to S. 990 with a Senate amendment #347 containing the Patriot Act language).
After Senate approval, the House who was held in session voted 250-153 to pass the Patriot Act extension (concur in the Senate amendment to the House amendment), sending it to the president for his signature. The bill extends court orders for roving wiretaps, court orders for certain business records, and investigations of non-citizen “lone wolf” terrorists.
With President Obama being out of country we learn today that the bill was signed into law by the President using an "autopen." The Wall Street Journal reports that Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) has objected that the Patriot Act bill being signed by White House using "the presidential "autopen." They used this method (like sending out notes to White House guests and annoying citizens) to sign the bill because they could not get the bill to the President Barack Obama who was traveling in Europe. The Journal reports that "Mr. Obama signed the bill remotely by authorizing a mechanical signing in Washington, D.C. . . . the White House had a legal opinion, written during former President George W. Bush’s administration, supporting the constitutionality of signing legislation by autopen."
Note for future investigation, who gave that opinion? Who has access to the "autopen"? Rep. Graves said in press release today that "the use of the autopen set a dangerous precedent." Puts a new meaning on Franklin's idea of using a "pen name."
This week, Democrats have made it abundantly clear to Americans that they are failing to address the nation’s fiscal crisis.
As previously noted over the last week, Democrats spent weeks demagoguing House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget. Then they voted against every single budget proposal in the Senate this week. Many in the press pointed out that Democrats have offered no solutions of their own.Politico wrote in its daily Huddle briefing yesterday, “[T]here's another unresolved question after yesterday's votes: Where do Democrats, with their party in control of the White House and Senate, stand on the budget. They were unable to produce one last year, when they held both chambers of Congress and it's not clear that any of their divisions over spending and taxing have been bridged. The Senate's answer to not having a budget: Vote no on every other plan.” National Journal noted that “Senate Democrats have almost no legislative agenda of their own” and The Washington Post agreed, writing, “The Democrats . . . are not proposing major, new ideas of their own.”
Even former President Bill Clinton and The New York Times editorial board find Democrats’ refusal to act troubling. At a fiscal summit earlier this week, President Clinton said, “I'm afraid that the Democrats will draw the conclusion . . . that we shouldn't do anything. And I completely disagree with that. . . . We’ve got to deal with these things.” The NYT editors agreed, writing that “Bill Clinton was right on Wednesday to warn his party . . . .”
In her Wall Street Journal column today, Kimberley Strassel argues that “Republicans are forcing Democrats to acknowledge that voters want spending reform.” She writes, “Here's the Washington headline of the week that nobody in America got to read: Paul Ryan, 40. Barack Obama, 0. Forty is the number of Senate votes that went in favor of Mr. Ryan's reformist budget, a tally that included nearly every Senate Republican. Zero is the number of votes President Obama got for his own tax-and-spend budget, a blueprint that not one of his own party had the backbone to support. It went down, 97-0.
“Washington is in a game of high-stakes chicken over raising the debt limit, though so far only one side is flinching. According to the headlines (and Democrats), Republicans are on defense over Mr. Ryan's plan, are risking America's creditworthiness, and are delaying sensible compromise by refusing tax increases. It is only a matter of time, goes the betting, before the party swerves.
“This has little relation to reality, in which it is Democrats who keep calling their own bluffs. It was Mr. Obama who first swerved, submitting a ‘do-over’ of his initial, embarrassing budget. It is Democrats who have since swerved on the debt-limit debate, agreeing to spending-cut negotiations, then continuing to up the size of a package. By refusing to blink, Republicans keep forcing Democrats to acknowledge a very simple political reality: Voters do want spending reform, and do not want tax hikes. That's why this debate has so far moved in the GOP's direction.”
So, where do the Democrats Senate and House leaders go from here. The Senate is controlled by the Democrats and they offered no budget. The House Republicans offered a clear plan which the Democrats would not accept or even offer amendments to modify the proposed budget. The President (their Democrat Party leader) offered a budget and absolutely no one voted to support his budget. It is evident that The White House is out of touch with the reality with respect to Our Federal Government having a real fiscal crisis that is destroying our economy and our country. Do Democrats want an end to American Prosperity? Have they joined our President as an apologist seeking to punish a America for its past success as a Nation.
Tags: Washington, D.C., U.S. House, U.S. Senate, White House, Patriot Act, autopen, budgets, no budget, Democrats, Federal Spending, debt To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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