Obama's executive orders skirt rule of law

Among the things that have long set the United States of America apart from many of the countries of the world is that we are "a nation of laws, not of men."

That is to say, any of us may hold whatever view we wish on a particular law, but so long as the law was duly enacted by our representative government, it is binding on everyone -- up to and including the president.

So it is disturbing that President Barack Obama, in his frustration that Congress will not enact some of the legislation he wants, intends to bypass lawmakers and use executive orders to impose those policies.

His administration is calling this troubling tactic the "We can't wait" campaign.

Throughout the rest of this year, the president intends to issue at least one such Congress-skirting "initiative" every week.

"The president will continue to pressure congressional Republicans to ... pass the American Jobs Act, but he believes we cannot wait, so he will act where they won't," Dan Pfeiffer, communications director for the president, said in The New York Times.

Among other things, the president is altering the terms of college graduates' repayment of federal education loans, and he is issuing new rules to reduce foreclosures among homeowners who have no equity in their homes.

These latest moves come on top of the administration's decision, in effect, to set free potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who were already in our legal system, awaiting processing for deportation to their homelands. Not only that, but illegal aliens who have committed no additional crimes since coming to this country will be allowed to seek work permits here!

The administration also has simply waived portions of the federal No Child Left Behind education law for a number of states -- so long as those states meet different standards that the administration has devised on its own.

You may agree or disagree with the president's views. But in this situation, what he personally thinks about a particular issue is almost beside the point.

Congress has not enacted laws permitting him to impose the policies that he seeks. In fact, on the subject of illegal immigration, Congress has repeatedly declined to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.

Without appropriate congressional authorization, the president has no business putting those policies into effect.

His policies are not passing in Congress because they have been attempted previously and failed -- sometimes with extremely costly results.

The administration says it "can't wait" for Congress to act.

But the United States "can't afford" to have a president who imposes policies that have been rejected by our elected members of Congress. That is a dangerous seizing of power by the executive branch of the government.

And it is just one more reason why the American people should vote Obama out of office in the 2012 election.

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