By Bill Wilson — Barack Obama has once again reminded the American people that he has no reservation at all about dictating to his subjects what they must do and when they must do it.
Take his most recent power grab. Whether one agrees with the use of contraception or not, forcing religious institutions to pay for a practice that violates their own doctrines is a gross misuse of government power and a violation of the First Amendment.
This policy was not even a part of the health care law that Congress voted on, it was a regulation issued from on high by the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House. It initially applies to religious-affiliated institutions like hospitals, colleges and charities, but if it stands, there will be nothing in the way to also force it onto churches and houses of worship in the future.
Obama is tearing down the constitutional firewalls between state and church, and imposing his will alone.
But it’s even worse than that. This is a consistent pattern of ignoring and twisting the law to enact his political agenda — no matter what the cost. What is revealed are the actions of a man concerned primarily with the acquisition of raw power.
Obama has pretended congressional recesses into existence to make radical appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
His Federal Housing Finance Administration arbitrarily allowed Fannie and Freddie mortgages that are 25 percent higher than market value to be refinanced when the law placing the GSEs in conservatorship never allowed it. The law explicitly stated that the refi’s shall “not exceed 90 percent of the appraised value of the property to which such mortgage relates.”
He ordered an attack on Libya without so much as consulting with Congress.
His Justice Department has taken on the role of a court and declared the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional when its role is to defend the law whether it agrees with it or not.
When a federal judge in Louisiana struck down Obama’s moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, Obama defied it and just reissued the same moratorium.
When another federal judge, this time in Florida, struck down the entirety of Obamacare as unconstitutional, the Obama Justice Department continued to implement regulations pursuant to the law, not waiting for the judge to stay his decision.
His EPA arbitrarily declared carbon dioxide, a gas essential to life itself, to be a “harmful pollutant” covered under the Clean Air Act.
His NLRB and National Mediation Board are busy implementing administrative rules changes to make unionizing that much easier for labor bosses.
His Federal Reserve printed $1.25 trillion out of thin air to buy back dodgy securities from banks that bet poorly on U.S. housing, including $442.7 billion that was given to foreign banks.
Then there’s everything that Congress assisted Obama with under the Pelosi-Reid reign, creating even more occasion for arbitrary executive actions. The individual mandate under Obamacare will allow faceless bureaucrats to funnel tens of millions of Americans from their private health plans into government-run health plans.
The Dodd-Frank financial takeover created a permanent bailout-takeover fund, giving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation nearly limitless powers to levy assessments on bank holding and insurance companies, and to seize, liquidate, and redistribute whatever companies the government deems to be “systemically risky”.
Obama has told the American people that he’s not waiting for Congress, that he will just act. He was not kidding. But that does not make his actions any less dictatorial. Forcing religious institutions to pay for the privilege of violating their doctrines is just the latest in his long train of abuses and usurpations.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.
