President Obama today appointed former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bereau. He used his recess appointment powers to accomplish this.
Wait a minute!! Congress is still in session! This is illegal!
Section 2, Article 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution states:
“The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen
during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall
expire at the End of their next Session.”
Needless to say, the Republicans in the House and Senate are upset. As they should be. As should the Democrats as well. The President is breaking the law.
In prepared remarks, Obama replies:
“I refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer. I’ve said before that I will continue to look for every opportunity to work with Congress to move this country forward. But when Congress
refuses to act in a way that hurts our economy and puts people at risk,
I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them”
On the surface this sounds ok. But when you really dig into it, he’s stating what he appears to believe, that the President, not Congress, is in charge of the country. He says will “work with Congress” but circumvents congress when they don’t do it his way. He stated he has “an obligation as president to do what I can without them [Congress]” when referring to them not following his desires.
But that’s just the point, he isn’t the king, he’s only the President. He is supposed to uphold the law and be the prime example of America, not break the laws and twist them to his desires.
To put in business terms, President Obama is the Chief Operating Officer, and *not* the Chief Executive Officer of the country. We the people are the shareholders/owners of this great country. We are the employers.
Mr Obama, you are the civil servant. We are not your citizen servants. We, the American People, are in charge. The Congress is our representative in the board room. They, not you, have final say.
Wake up America! Obama is arrogantly strutting around as if he owns the place, when he is really just a hired hand.
Further Reading:
Obama bucks Republicans by making unprecedented recess appointment – Washington Times
Obama to recess appoint Cordray as consumer bureau director – CNN Money Jan. 4, 2012
Bucking GOP, Obama Will Recess Appoint Consumer Agency Chief : The Two-Way : NPR
Recess appointment – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The question is: why were Republicans blocking this nomination? There’s no good answer for that, other than to try to make Obama fail. That type of behavior is bad for our country, but the only thing Republicans care about is regaining power.
The motives, whether you agree or disagree, of the Republicans is not the point. My point is why does Obama circumvent the will of the people via their representatives?
Why are Republicans blocking the will of the people by filibustering all nominations and bills? We elected Obama to revive the economy, so why are Republicans blocking all efforts to do so?
Roy, Obama is far from the first president to make recess appointments. And I have to agree with Ben, the Republicans are doing more against the will of the people through their continued adherence to a party-first position rather than looking at the needs of the broader country especially the much larger middle class.
Well if the GOP are going to keep an agency designed to benefit the average, everyday consumer by blocking its director’s appointment then they need to give a valid reason. It’d be different if they had something substantive to explain their opposition but as it stands it only one more thing to be fight against Obama for the sake of fighting against him.
It will be interesting to see what kind of defense they will have for these actions because it comes across as one more example of the party fighting against help for the middle class just like the fight over the middle class tax cuts extension last month.
It seems the GOP are showing their true colors in this case.
Again, this is not the point of this post. I would ask the same question of a Republican president circumventing Congress is the tables were turned. I’m not asking why are the Republicans blocking Obama’s nomination, that’s another topic for another day. My question is why does no one care that our President is seeing each of us as underlings and not for who we truely are, his employers?