Democrats Constitutionally Ignorant In ObamaCare Feud

IBD ^ | Sept 25, 2013 | By BETSY MCCAUGHEY

[Jim Robinson]

Displaying their ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, Democratic bigwigs are excoriating Republican members of the House of Representatives for attaching a condition — no ObamaCare — to a stopgap bill to fund the government.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "extortion." Sen. Steny Hoyer labeled it "hostage-taking." Rep. Nancy Pelosi termed it "legislative arson."

In truth, what the House Republicans are doing is not blackmail. It's checks and balances in action. Congress has always had the power to attach almost any condition — including repealing or changing a law — to appropriations. The framers wrote the Constitution that way for good reason.

The nation's first plan of government, the Articles of Confederation, had no president. When the framers gathered in 1787 to write a second, more effective plan, they reluctantly created the presidency.

Reluctantly, because the founders worried that a president would accumulate power and spend flagrantly as they had seen the despotic kings of Europe do. Founders' Checks

To prevent that, the founders created checks and balances. In the words of James Madison, the Constitution's chief architect, each branch of government is "effectually checked and restrained by the others." Congress was given power over the purse — the power to appropriate money and to borrow it or raise it through taxes, because locating the power in Congress would force the president to constantly negotiate with Congress.

Fast forward 226 years to last Friday. President Obama called Speaker of the House John Boehner to say "he will not negotiate" with Congress on raising the U.S. government's borrowing authority. The president, who claims to be a constitutional scholar, needs a refresher course.

[douginthearmy]

What if the government decides to make us pay a fine if we don’t buy a solar panel?

Call it a tax and it is absolutely 100% constitutional according to John Roberts.

[TBP]

Not that they care about the Constitution anyway. The “progressive” mission has been to undermine and destroy the Constitution and the system the Founders set up.