Dear Leader once again circumvents congressional checks and balances. The Senate is NOT ON RECESS – they have been holding pro forma sessions every few days and are considered to still be in session. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner have both released statements that mildly show their disapproval of this, but sadly, no one is going to stop him.
In a defiant display of executive power, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will buck GOP opposition and name Richard Cordray as the nation’s chief consumer watchdog. Outraged Republican leaders in Congress suggested that courts would determine the appointment was illegal.
With a director in place, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can start overseeing the mortgage companies, payday lenders, debt collectors and other financial companies often blamed for practices that helped tank the economy.
The president planned to highlight just that point during his announcement later Wednesday in Ohio that he was putting Cordray in the job
(via pnj.com | National News | Pensacola News Journal.)
More on Obama CFPB Recess Appointment:
With Cordray, Obama Bypasses Constitution (Heritage)
Obama to make recess appointment
Obama to appoint Cordray to head CFPB
Breaking: National Journal reports Obama to use recess appointment for Cordray (HotAir)
Obama to recess-appoint Cordray to CFPB (MarketWatch)
Obama Installs Cordray at Consumer Bureau (Bloomberg)
Obama to bypass Senate GOP, recess-appoint key nominee (The Hill)
Richard Cordray to be appointed to lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Politico)
Obama to Defy GOP, Pick Cordray (Roll Call)
President Obama to flip-flop on recess appointment? (RedState)
Boehner: Richard Cordray appointment ‘unprecedented power grab’ by Obama
What Democrats Have Said About Obama’s Unprecedented Recess Appointment
Obama to make recess appointment
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Why was it ok for Bush to appoint people using this same executive power yet Obama can’t? Oh that’s right, you tea-baggers are a bunch of hypocrites
It wasn’t OK when Bush did it.
Wasn’t Obama supposed to be totally different than Bush… you know – that whole “change” thing. Obviously no one ever taught Obama “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Now let me ask you a question…
If it wasn’t OK when Bush did it (which it wasn’t) how come it is now OK for Obama to do it??
ESPECIALLY given the fact that Obama campaigned on this very issue – and assured voters that if elected he would return the executive powers to their constitutional constraints. Given that Obama specifically targeted Bush’s overreach to get himself elected and rightly denounced Bush’s abuse of power, isn’t it actually WORSE that Obama would then go on to repeat the same abuses? It is obvious that Obama’s overreach was not accidental or unintentional
There really is no excuse for Bush or Obama, but if you want to get technical, at least when Bush made his RECESS appointments, he actually did it when the Senate was in Recess. Obama didn’t even do that. He just pretended that Article II of the Constitution didn’t apply to him and made his “recess” appointments while the Senate was holding Pro Forma sessions (NOT IN RECESS)
There is a reason that Article II section 2 (Appointments Clause/ Advice and Consent) is part of the US Constitution – it is there to maintain a distinct separation of power between 2 of the 3 coequal branches of our government – in this case, the Legislative and Executive branch.
Our government was intentionally structured to prevent the Executive branch (which unlike the Judicial and Legislative Branch is headed by only one person – the President) from becoming an autocracy like that of the British Crown They knew first hand what it was like to live under the diktats of King George III – they fought a war to be free of such tyranny.