Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

SEN. CRUZ QUESTIONS IRS ABOUT DECISION TO AUDIT BREITBART NEWS

This government is becoming bolder and bolder in its attack on entities that disagree with its policies.   This tyranny must stop.   Breitbart news is a conservative news outlet.  The Obama administration, not embarrassed or intimidated by congressional investigations into its one-sided attack on conservative organizations, is at it again, which prompted Sen. Ted Cruz to send the following letter to the IRS:

Dear Commissioner Koskinen:

I write to express deep concern over the recent announcement by Breitbart News that the Internal Revenue Service recently notified the Breitbart News Network, LLC that it would be subject to a far-reaching, burdensome, and open-ended audit.

As you know, the Breitbart News Network LLC is a conservative-leaning press outlet. It has editors and reporters who cover daily political news and regularly breaks stories that are critical of the Obama Administration's policies. To conduct this audit, Breitbart News Network, LLC was asked to provide the IRS with all of its organizational documents, financial records, W-2s, W-4s, 1099s, and K-1s filed, personal income tax returns for each member of the company, payroll tax forms, information regarding properties and assets acquired by the company, bank statements, and array of other records documenting revenues, expenses, and depreciation costs.

This media audit, coupled with the recent proposal of 49 Senate Democrats to amend the Constitution to give Congress plenary power to regulate political speech, paints a disturbing picture of a coordinated assault on the First Amendment.

 

TED CRUZ - THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY OF PRESIDENT OBAMA

Senator Cruz (R- Texas) writes in today's Wall Street Journal that we are saddled with a lawless president who is opening the door for future lawlessness that threatens the liberty of every citizen:

Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the president's persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat. On Monday, Mr. Obama acted unilaterally to raise the minimum wage paid by federal contracts, the first of many executive actions the White House promised would be a theme of his State of the Union address Tuesday night. . .

Rule of law doesn't simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. That no one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."

Yet rather than honor this duty, President Obama has openly defied it by repeatedly suspending, delaying and waiving portions of the laws he is charged to enforce. When Mr. Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

OBAMA CLOSES SCENIC OVERLOOKS

Dictatorial zaniness on display.  From National Review:  (my emphases)

Driving down the George Washington Parkway outside Washington, D.C. today, I noticed that the two scenic overlooks that offer drivers the chance to admire the beauty of the Potomac River below are closed for the government shutdown. These overlooks are just cut-outs from the highway, providing a few parking spaces. That’s it. No little National Park Service kiosk. Nothing. It’s just a parking area that holds maybe 6 cars at a time. 

To close them required someone to come and put up barricades, thus costing taxpayers money. 

Is there anyone in the Obama administration with common sense? Do they not see how petty and over-reaching this makes them look?

From commnts:

 - Here in Idaho they closed down boat ramps by hiring personnel to barricade them. These boat ramps have never had nor ever required any personnel whatsoever.

- They are doing it at scenic turn-outs in the Great Smoky Mountains NP and most likely anywhere a public highway passes through National Park Service Land.

As I said, this represents "dictatorial zaniness."  I don't see how this helps the Obamacrats win the PR war.  It seems their aim is to inflict irresponsible and stupid hardships that make no sense.   These are imperialists who feel no responsibility to serve the people. 

RUSH LIMBAUGH - AMERICA IN THE MIDST OF A COUP D'ETAT

I listened to the first part of Rush Limbaugh's radio program today.  He articulated my own thoughts when he said, 

. . .what's taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a million artistic coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it's being done by the Obama administration. . . .  there is clearly -- somewhere, somehow, in some form or another -- a coup taking place, and there is an assault on privacy, and there are assaults on people because of their politics and their ideology. It is taking place; it's undeniable. Yet many of the people we would hope would be pushing back against this and doing their best to join us and warning everybody say, "Nothing to see here! Don't get all crazy about this. We must be level headed."

RUSH: There was a time when the United States government earned the trust of its people. There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was protecting them. There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was spying on the bad guys, that the United States government was in fact earning the trust of the people. But this current data collection, scanning, whatever you want to call it, unfortunately has to be judged in context: the IRS leaks, the now unquestionable, undeniable, admitted-to-it IRS tactic of suppressing the vote of Tea Party conservatives, denying them their First Amendment rights.

The regime and its tricks with the Associated Press and Fox reporter James Rosen, the Benghazi cover-ups, the Fast and Furious operation, suing the state of Arizona for simply endorsing essentially federal immigration law. You can't just try to be the smartest guy in the room and say, "Well, we must be levelheaded about this and understand that this is just metadata." We cannot take the motives and intelligence guided by experience watching this administration over the last four-and-a-half, five years, and what their express purpose is. . . 

So if the Constitution exists as it is, the country was founded as it was, and an administration comes along and doesn't like that and is doing everything it can to overturn that Constitution without a convention, doing everything it can to change direction of this country, and what's the word, transform it, what's wrong with calling this a coup?

Me:  He's absolutely right.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

On the non-negotiating policy of President Obama, George Gilder writes:

People actually imagine they can negotiate with him. Having high hopes for the second Obama administration is like having great expectations for a second date with Ted Bundy. I mean, it’s just not going to work out.”

A LETTER FROM HOBBY LOBBY CEO

This letter explains how Obama's dictatorial enforcement of abortion practices on private businesses is so unjust and unconstitituional:

Via Red Tracy:

By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God’s word. From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.

We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.

But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.

Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running it’s business according to it’s beliefs. It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief.

So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don’t like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.

My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that’s a choice no American and no American business should have to make.
The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church.

Since you will not see this covered in any of the liberal media, pass this on to all your contacts.

Sincerely,

David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: WHAT OBAMA'S DOING IS A DICTATORS WET DREAM (VIDEO)

I posted Krauthammer's comments on Obama's "Naked Lawlessness" and my comment on Obama assuming dictatorial powers earlier, but Rush's observations add pungency and clarity to the dire situation we face under this President. 

 

From the Rush Limbaugh website via Jim Loft's Gateway Pundit:  (emphasis in the original)

RUSH: So, once again we see which side Obama comes down on in the question of whether this is a country of the rule of law or the rule of man. With Obama, it’s not the rule of law. He is implementing law that the Congress defeated, as in the legalization of the amnesty for 800,000 young illegals. Congress defeated that, the DREAM Act. He said, to hell with it, I’m gonna make it the law, just gonna do it. Obama wants the enforcement of every federal law to hinge upon whether he agrees with it or not. And if he doesn’t agree with the federal law, he’s not gonna enforce it, like the Defense of Marriage Act. It’s the law of the land. The regime announced within the past year that they were no longer going to enforce it. It’s a dictator’s wet dream to do what Obama is doing. If he doesn’t agree with the law, voila, it’s no longer enforced. It may as well not even exist. That’s who he is, folks…

…Yeah, there’s no way Obama would ever not enforce immigration law. There’s no way Obama would ignore the Constitution and just write a health care law that basically pees all over it. No way, Obama wouldn’t do any of that, Democrat Party, no, they respect the rule, they wouldn’t do anything like that. No, of course they wouldn’t. Why should civil rights laws be enforced? Once you start cherry-picking these things and once the laws you enforce or don’t enforce strictly because whether you like ‘em or not, what if we started obeying laws on that basis or not? If the president of the United States can choose to enforce or not enforce law because he likes them or doesn’t like them, what about us?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER ON OBAMA's AMNESTY-BY-FIAT: "NAKED LAWLESSNESS"

Krauthammer's astute observations can be found here.   

My question:  How can Congress and the courts allow Obama's actions to stand?  The Constitution protects us against Dictatorship.  If the Chief Executive is allowed to promulgate and execute laws on his own -- laws which Congress has refused to pass -- then this Republic has turned into a Dictatorship.  Obama's action must be challenged.   As Krauthammer explains:

Imagine: A Republican president submits to Congress a bill abolishing the capital gains tax. Congress rejects it. The president then orders the IRS to stop collecting capital gains taxes and declares that anyone refusing to pay them will suffer no fine, no penalty, no sanction whatsoever. . . .  It would be a scandal, a constitutional crisis, a cause for impeachment. . .  Capital gains is straightforward tax law. Just as Obama’s bombshell amnesty-by-fiat is a subversion of straightforward immigration law.

Sure it's smart politics.  But smart politics does not justify assuming Dictatorial powers over the People.  I agree with Krauthammer's further point:

The case for compassion and fairness is hardly as clear-cut as advertised. What about those who languish for years in godforsaken countries awaiting legal admission to America? Their scrupulousness about the law could easily cost their children the American future that illegal immigrants will have secured for theirs.

What about them indeed?  Krauthammer again:

But whatever our honest and honorable disagreements about the policy, what holds us together is a shared allegiance to our constitutional order. That’s the fundamental issue here. As Obama himself argued in rejecting the executive action he has now undertaken, “America is a nation of laws, which means I, as the president, am obligated to enforce the law. I don’t have a choice about that.”

Except, apparently, when violating that solemn obligation serves his reelection needs.