Thursday, October 29, 2009

Obama the ever-expanding executive

During the Bush years, the left cried executive overreach every time President Bush went forward with NSA wiretaps or the Patriot Act. They went on and on about Nixon, the slippery slope, and the end of the Constitution. However, now that President Obama has expanded the Executive Branch into just about every part of our lives the left has gone quiet.

President Obama has rightly supported the same NSA wiretaps Bush did and has thankfully not tried to water down the Patriot Act. Obama has also wrongly appointed unaccountable czars, deepened our involvement in the banking system and the automakers, he has tried to reach into our energy sector with cap and trade, our heath care system with his health care reforms and he also wants to take away some of our economic freedom with has planed tax increases.

Then there is the bullying the left always claimed that President Bush was trying to silence his critics, it fit into the whole Nixon theme, but Obama is the one who has gone after the health insurance companies after they become critics of the current health care bills in Congress even though they had at first supported the President. The same can be said for the Chamber of Commerce who even though they supported President Obama on the stimulus and the bailouts, were called out by the President for daring to oppose President Obama on cap and trade and health care.

Then there is Fox News, the only media outlet who gives President Obama’s critics a voice, well providing shows filled with balanced news coverage. It is not as if President Obama does not have news outlets that push his point of view, still Obama wants to spend the White House’s time delegitimizing Fox.

The whole question of delegitimizing a news channel is an odd thing for the President to take part in. As ABC’s Jake Tapper pointed out who is the White House to decide what a “real” news channel is” seriously who is any president to decide what a true news network is?

The president is not trying to debate Fox News he is delegitimizing them he wants other media not to follow stories they start. Obama is doing everything he legally can do in order to quiet his critics. This is unbecoming of a president, and a little worrisome a president has the right to answer his critics but he should not use the Executive Branch to undermine them.

ACLU types on the left should be standing up against this, no president should use the power of the executive to intimidate his critics. This president is expanding his power, If the left, believes in what they claimed they stand for. They should want at least one media network that asks hard questions.

He is using all types of emergencies to grow his power the “crisis” of the weather with a warmer planet to give him executive power over private companies. The “crisis” of our heath care to give him executive power over private insurance. Using fear to grow the executive exactly what the left claimed Bush was doing.

Then there is the issue of the czars. The czars our unaccountable to Congress and President Obama has used this fact to appoint some radical people. The Pay Czar gets to decide the pay of executives that that have gotten bailout money. Now that is fine but the czar can do this without the approval of Congress, Is that not the exact same thing that the left said Bush was doing?

President Obama has pushed to expand the Executive Branch more than Bush ever did. He has used fear to justify the government’s bigger role in our economy. He is the executive that the left complained about for years. He is the one who is trying to quiet any opponent by delegitimizing them.

The left want on and on about the slippery slope of the NSA wiretaps but what about the slippery slope of the cap and trade or of unaccountable czars.

The left only talks about the need to contain the Executive Branch when it comes to the nation’s security but when it comes to the economy all is well the executive can grow as much as it want.

When it comes to an overreaching executive, Obama is whom the left and we all should fear.