President Barack Obama's real legacy: transformation of the executive branch. (Congress, illegal)

[wutitiz]

A poster in another thread made this comment about Obamacare:

LOL.."go through Congress".
You crack me up summers73.

The various agencies are all making their own rules now and Congress isn't doing a damn thing about it.
Obamacare was written with no specifics, leaving the details up to the agencies.

Congress GAVE AWAY their authority to the agencies.

This is correct, and it's not just us right-wingers who assert it. The administration itself is saying it.
White House Delays Obamacare Mandate Again - NationalJournal.com

The real legacy of the Obama reign will not be any of his domestic policies or foreign policies. It won't even be the Affordable Care Act, which is such a mess that it will probably be scrapped or radically modified after 2017.

The real legacy will be the transformation of the executive branch into the 'imperial presidency' that Nixon sought. The "broad authority" and "broad discretion" that both treasury and HHS officials have claimed under Obamacare constitute just one example.

• Under Obama, federal agencies have somehow been transformed into political henchmen for the WH. We don't fully know how it happened, but somehow the BATF pursued a harebrained scheme to pump up firearms deaths to justify new gun control legislation. We do know that prior to 'Fast and Furious' becoming public knowledge, Obama told Sarah Brady that he was working on gun control "under the radar." It's a similar story at the IRS. Recently the FCC announced plans to monitor newsrooms, effectively bringing back a version of the "fairness doctrine" without calling it such. The FCC later backed down.

•Obama abused the recess appointment process to stack the federal courts, so that any challenges to his overreach will likely be shut down.

•The "most transparent administration" has transformed the FOIA process so that many FOIA request now have to be funneled through the WH before being processed.
Political Review Hampers FOIA Process, Watchdogs Say | Washington Free Beacon

Cause of Action [legal watchdog group] unearthed an April 2009 White House memo, sent to all department and agency general counsels urging them to run public records requests dealing with White House materials, including those from Congress, through the White House counsel’s office.

Law prof Jonathan Turley sums it up nicely:

Originally Posted by Jonathan Turley

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments.

Future presidents, whether Republican, Democratic, or other, will be sorely tempted to follow the Obama model as they try to get their wishes enacted and their interests served. And that will likely turn out to be Pres. Obama's real legacy.

[sxrckr]

Yes... interesting.

[HappyTexan]

Yup..rule by EO from the Oval Office or "final rulings" by the agencies under you.

[wutitiz]

Here's one more example. In 2012 my state (WA) passed initiative 502 to legalize marijuana. But mj remained illegal under federal law. Obama and Holder hemmed and hawed but eventually decided that no, we will let federal law slide. No need to consult the Congress on this.
Feds won’t challenge Washington marijuana law - The Pot Blog

Whatever you think about marijuana legalization, it should not be a unilateral decision of the executive branch. Otherwise Congress could approve, and the president could sign into law, national legalization, but the next prez could overturn it via the precedent that Obama has set. Either we have rule of law, or rule of the executive. For the time being, we have the latter.

[HappyTexan]

Look at the stealth amnesty granted by EO.

Sure we'll deport them.."but not for 2 years" says the President.