Thursday, January 17, 2013

Rand Paul Grandstanding on Nullification of President Obama's Executive Orders?

Is Senator Rand Paul going to run for President as he panders to the hard right?

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Thursday took on comments from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who said he will introduce legislation to nullify President Barack Obama's executive actions on guns in an interview on CNN:
 
Must admit that Virginia voters sent a reasoned man, Tim Kaine, to the Senate who understands how far hard right some of the Republicans in the Senate have become and is willing to speak out for what is right.  

When I saw what Rand Paul had to say about the President, all I could think of was the fact that I was against Rand Paul being elected in Kentucky even when a good friend wanted me to help out his campaign.  I had a bad feeling he would regret helping Paul and he does.  His wife tried to tell him he shouldn't get involved but the voices of two women didn't matter.  Now he wants to work against McConnell's election after taking his blinders off.  He sent me the link to the Rand Paul story at Talking Points Memo which is excerpted below:
Paul plans to debut the proposal on Wednesday’s edition of Hannity on Fox. Details of the plan shared with TPM Wednesday show Paul plans to say the executive actions violate the Second Amendment and the powers given to the Congress in the Constitution, facts he says allow Congress to declare them “null and void.” 
“We only have descriptions of the executive actions, yet many could be construed to describe an attempt by the executive to make laws in violation of the Article 1, Sec. 8 of the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment,” reads the one-page summary of the Paul plan shared with TPM by his staff. 
Paul’s bill will set out to nullify Obama’s executive actions, deny any federal funding for their implementation, and allow members of Congress and state officials 
Was looking for what Paul had to say on Hannity and found this at Huffington Post:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is proposing legislation to nullify President Obama's executive actions on gun policy, claiming that the president's actions are a breach of constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. 
During a Wednesday appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," the Republican senator outlined his plan to challenge Obama's anti-gun violence package. 
"Our founding fathers were very concerned about us having separation of powers. They didn't want to let the president become a king." Paul said. "In this bill, we will nullify anything the president does that smacks of legislation." 
Paul continued: "I'm afraid that President Obama may have this king complex sort of developing ... I think there's a history of this arrogance."
Talking Points Memo was able to obtain a proposed copy of the bill that Rand Paul intends to submit to the Senate which has zero chance of passing.  How many other Republicans will sign on to this action?  This is a slippery slope for the Republican Party when you realize how few of Executive Orders the President has signed compared to other Presidents and the fact President Obama is surrounded by constitutional lawyers who all previewed what was being via the Executive Order route.  None of the constitutional lawyers last night on the cable news shows (not Fox) thought Paul had any standing.

More wasting of taxpayers on bills that will never see the light of day.  At least we know now that Paul most likely is going to run for President with this stunt.  Now we know in Paul's mind that the 2nd amendment trumps the Presidential powers.  I read his proposed bill at TPM and couldn't believe what I was reading.  Will keep tabs to see if this bill does get submitted and compared it to what it says on TPM.
 
Decided to look into Executive Orders and see how many President Obama has signed since an email purporting he had signed 900 was debunked by Fact Check.org who also had this to say:
Executive orders originated under George Washington, and their use stems from interpretations of Article II of the Constitution — which created the executive branch — and from presidential precedent. 
Obama has not issued 900 executive orders. He has signed slightly fewer orders than President George W. Bush during this point in his first term, according to the University of California, Santa Barbara, which tracks executive orders. Obama has issued 139 executive orders as of Sept. 25. (The U.C. website listed 138 orders on Sept. 25, the same day Obama signed order 139). Bush issued 160 executive orders through Sept. 20, 2004, a comparable amount of time.
The viral email that claims Obama has signed 900 executive orders lists 13 orders as evidence, all of which previous presidents signed in the 1960s and 1970s. 
Presidents number their executive orders consecutively. The first executive order that President Obama signed was EO-13489, which dealt with presidential records. Obama’s predecessors signed any executive order with a number lower than 13489. 
The first executive order the email lists and attributes to Obama is 10990, which John F. Kennedy signed in 1962. The order reestablished a council to oversee safety of civilian federal employees. It did not — as the email claims — allow a government takeover of the nation’s seaports, highways and other modes of transportation.
Imagine that -- Republicans including a member of the House from Texas, Kay Granger, sent this email around with the information there were 900 EO's signed by Obama.  All she had to do was check it out but in today's GOP it is the narrative not the facts that matter.  After the facts were pointed out, she removed it from her website.  

Shows how some of today's GOP will believe anything that is against this President.  Doesn't say a whole lot about the honesty and integrity of some Republicans in Congress and at the RNC along with State organizations of the Republican Party where in Red States, the State Chairs have become extremely arrogant.  More on that later.

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