Obama Circumvents Senate and the Constitution

Today, Dictator Obama took it upon himself to issue a recess appointment to the Consumer Protection agency, by naming Richard Cordray as head of the agency.



With a director in place, Obama said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can start overseeing the mortgage companies, payday lenders, debt collectors and other financial operations often blamed for practices that helped undermine the economy.


But of course it wasn’t them who undermined the economy, but the federal government, as we all know.


In political terms, the recess appointment during the congressional break raised the level of confrontation for a president, one who is seeking re-election

Senate Republicans had halted Cordray's nomination because they think the consumer agency is too powerful and unaccountable.


The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, accused Obama of an unprecedented power grab that "arrogantly circumvented the American people."


And House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio weighed in "It's clear the president would rather trample our system of separation of powers than work with Republicans to move the country forward. This action goes beyond the president's authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."


"I'm not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people we were elected to serve," Obama said.


Obama has constitutional power to make appointments during a congressional recess.


However and to expressly to keep this and other appointments from happening, Republicans in the Senate have had the Senate running in "pro forma" sessions, meaning open for business in name with no actual business planned.


Each day Senate republicans gavel in the Senate to conduct, or not, business.


The Senate held such a session on Tuesday and planned another one on Friday. Republicans contend Obama cannot make a recess appointment during such a break of less than three days, based on years of precedent, and they point to comments by Obama's own Justice Department echoing that view.


Regardless, the Obama Whitehouse now contends such an approach is a gimmick.
Gimmick? The President of the United States call the Constitution is a gimmick.

With Obama’s action today, in making this appointment, he certainly has violated the Constitution once again. 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.


But the Senate is still technically in session