Legislative president 

By Jim Killebrew

[April 16, 2014]  What goes around, comes around is almost the way of history. Eventually something that happens will return and happen again — maybe not exactly the same way, but close enough that it can be related to the same incident. Things have a tendency to come full cycle. It is a truth that a person's actions will have consequences for that person and others close to that person.

It is no secret the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been a disaster. First the web page didn't work. Then people were told their current policies they had paid on for years was useless and didn't meet the standards the President and all his Obamacare developers had decided was actually needed. So the policies were dumped and millions of people lost their policy they had been told they could keep. Then the exchanges that should have been set up in each state were established by only a portion of the states thereby confusing the people who were trying to sign up. Apparently millions of people who though they qualified for the government-based insurance discovered they were not eligible and were automatically diverted to Medicaid. Since then, those same people, and the rest of America have discovered that Medicaid covers very little of the actual costs of the medical care and service. Consequently, physicians across the country are dropping out of the Medicaid program altogether. Finally, the law has directly been a contributing factor in many physicians leaving the medical practice thereby causing a doctor shortage. Replacements going into medical schools presently will not be seen in the field for at least the next seven to ten years.

People are discovering as each month passes now as they are getting their medicine, visiting their healthcare professionals and receiving bills for their insurance premiums, they are discovering their costs have risen exponentially to levels many cannot afford. On top of that, their deductibles have risen sometimes by thousands of dollars that must be met before the insurance kicks in. Many are finding too, the actual coverage is inferior to what they had before in the policies they were told did not meet the standards.

The most egregious practice the Obamacare government insurance law has brought to America is the rise of the legislator president. At last count the President has significantly changed the law at least 36 times since it was passed by Congress and signed into law. In the process of the President, who represents the Executive Branch of American government, changing the law from what Congress has passed, the President has trampled on the Constitution of the United States by usurping the authority of Congress to develop and make laws. There is a clear line of authority between the Legislative (Congress) Branch and the Executive (President) Branch of government. When the President changes the laws unilaterally without the Congressional authority, he is in effect saying, "Even though I swore to uphold the Constitution in the Oath of Office, I am not going to do it because I believe I can judge better than Congress what parts of the laws need to be implemented and enforced." He has even taunted Congress, and America, with the pledge of not needing Congress to make laws, he said, "I have a pen and a phone," and indicated he intended to by-pass Congress when necessary. Since then he has proceeded to make laws through executive policies and regulations.

If the Congress passes a bill through both houses, then sends it to the President who signs it, the bill is elevated to an actual law. When that law is in effect and ready to be implemented, the law enforcement agencies of the federal government are bound to direct all federal law enforcement officers to uphold the law. When the President later decides not to enforce certain components of that law, doesn't that mean all federal law enforcement agencies and officers of the law must receive directions to change their enforcement procedures? Isn't that actually changing the law to suite the whim of the President rather than the actual legal authority of the Congress and the Constitutional process of enacting a law in the first place? How is it that the President gets a pass on this practice?

The reality of this practice is confusion among all law enforcement agencies in both the federal and state departments. If the law states one thing and the enforcement directives of the Directors of the agencies are another, each time the law enforcement officer fails to enforce the law as written; it puts that officer in jeopardy of being indicted for failing to enforce the law on the books. This exposes the first-line law enforcement officers while at the same time protecting those up the ladder who could fall back on the actual law as written rather than the directives to change the law without legal authority.

Not only is the example of this legislative president being seen in the Obamacare law, it is also being seen in the laws pertaining to immigration. Every day we are witnessing hundreds of people coming into the United States illegally. Law enforcement officers are being directed to ignore those laws pertaining to protection and deportation. Border States have even been sued by the Executive Administration for following those laws when the Administration has through edict, policy, pen and phone changed the legislative laws of the land.

This represents a first step to anarchy. Laws become fluid without the process for procedural law, a lack of consistent enforcement leading to confusion on the part of the general public as to which interpretation to obey. The framers of the Constitution very clearly created a division of responsibilities between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches of our Government. This practice must stop if the Constitution of the United States is to remain in force.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]