The Patriot Post® · Obama Lecture on Playing by the Rules is Utter Hypocrisy

In a recent weekly address, Barack Obama uttered ten words which every conservative in the nation immediately recognized as absolute truth in a constitutional republic which provides for separation of powers among the branches and levels of government. To quote, Obama stated, “You don’t get to pick which rules you play by.”

His statement was made regarding the growing trend of “inversion,” whereby U.S. multinational corporations merge with foreign companies and move their headquarters overseas in order to avoid the double taxation that the United States levies on its companies, a burden suffered by the corporations of no other industrialized nation, which therefore puts American businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

The irony of those words, coming from THAT man, should be lost on no one with an IQ above room temperature.

Obama, more than any president in American history, has shown complete and utter contempt for any constitutional restrictions on his power, and openly mocks and taunts those that express deep concerns for his brazen disregard for the tradition of compromise (as ugly as the process is to get to that end point) that has guided our government for more than two centuries.

Obama talks about having “a phone and a pen,” a reference to his numerous Executive Orders which often bleed over into powers reserved for the other branches of government. Obama has repeatedly claimed this year that he will act unilaterally when Congress refuses to give him his way, and when Congress protests such abuse of power, he glibly responds, “Sue me!”

Obama’s lecturing of American businesses, who are following the law even as they seek to minimize exposure to the oppressive taxes under which they suffer (the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate of all industrialized nations), is especially galling considering the blatant disregard for the law which Obama has shown while in office.

Today, we have a growing crisis on our southern border, with tens of thousands of illegals flooding into the border states, and bringing with them in many cases crime and disease. Obama and the Democrats claim this is a result of gang violence in Mexico and Central America, but there has been such violence in these countries for more than three decades, so that can’t possibly explain the exponential increase of border jumpers seen this year. It is much more likely (indeed, the illegals themselves admit as much) that they were encouraged to make the dangerous trek because they knew that Obama would not deport them if they made it here.

Even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, they could not muster the votes to pass the DREAM Act, which would have granted permanent residency, and in all likelihood eventual citizenship, to children of illegals who went to U.S. high schools. When Congress, even the Congress controlled by his own party, failed to pass the law, Obama enacted a de facto version by declaring entire categories of illegals exempt from deportation. With this knowledge, tens of thousands more made the trip to our southern border, risking death, kidnapping, and being sold into the sex slave trade, all because Obama refuses to enforce the law as written.

Of course, immigration is not the only area where Obama has shown contempt for the law. Obamacare, his signature achievement, was passed on a strictly party-line vote, without the approval of a single Republican in either house. The bill only passed through the use of bribes for reluctant Democrats, and threats and strong-arming for those that still refused to get on board. He knowingly lied about the cost, and knowingly lied to the American people when he told us we’d be able to keep our doctors and policies if we like them.

When, shortly after the bill’s passage, it became evident to everyone that Obamacare was going to cause health care costs to skyrocket, Obama granted more than a thousand waivers to labor unions and businesses which had supported Democrats, an action for which there was no legal authority. With the 2012 elections on the horizon and the health care law more unpopular than ever, Obama delayed implementation of numerous provisions of the law in order to keep those costs from hitting voters before the election, an action which was also unlawful.

Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has crushed private property rights under the rubric of environmental regulations, and it has enacted pollution standards which are impossible to meet on a large scale with current technology, which now threatens brownouts and blackouts this winter in the Northeastern United States. Dozens of coal plants are being shut down, just as Obama promised.

Obama made appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate remained in pro forma session, declaring he had the right to determine whether the Senate, the upper chamber of the Legislative branch of government and therefore outside of his power to dictate to, was still in session. For this he received a 9-0 rebuke from the Supreme Court.

Tossing a bone to his deadbeat constituents, Obama unilaterally and illegally gutted the work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform law passed by Republicans and signed by Democrat president Bill Clinton.

In 2011, without bothering to even consult Congress, Obama launched a war against Libya, a nation that had voluntarily given up its WMD following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and a nation which constituted absolutely no threat to the United States or U.S. interests. As a result, Libya has gone from being a country ruled by a despicable tyrant who posed no threat to us, to a nation immersed in a bloody civil war.

Just a few months ago, Obama negotiated a trade for Army Corporal Bowe Bergdahl, by all accounts a deserter, in exchange for five top Taliban terrorists. He failed to give Congress prior notice as required by law and, as a result, Americans are once again at greater risk of a terrorist attack.

We could write a book about all of the unconstitutional abuses of power engaged in by King Barack, and indeed many have already been written. So egregious have been these violations that even Jonathan Turley, constitutional law professor at Georgetown University and self-avowed liberal who agrees with Obama’s policy aims, has warned that Obama is undermining the very foundation of our constitutional form of government, declaring, “The danger is quite severe. The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. That is the concentration of power in every single branch.”

For once, I absolutely agree with the tin-horned tyrant Obama. We DON’T get to pick which rules we play by. Therefore, he needs to start enforcing the laws as written and respecting the limits of his power.