Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and his first idea is merging six sprawling trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama will call on Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office. The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers. The deal would entitle him to an...

Leadership: A spokesman says the president "can't wait for Congress to act" and promised that he's "going to take action." This is the president who was "ready to rule" in 2008. Is he an elected chief executive or an emperor? In November 2008, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of his transition team, appeared on "Meet the Press." She told host Tom Brokaw that "Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one." Shouldn't someone who had reached the political heights that Jarrett had reached know that kings rule but presidents are...

President Obama today made an unprecedented “recess” appointment even though the Senate is not in recess – “a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). It turns out that the action not only contradicts long-standing practice, but also the view of the administration itself. In 2010, Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to the Supreme Court the Obama administration’s view that recess appointments are only permissible when Congress is in recess for...

President Obama, introducing his controversial recess appointment to a crowd of Pennsylvania supporters, explained that he would not "take no for an answer" from the U.S. Senate -- especially the Republicans, that refused to confirm his nominee to the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau. "I refuse to take no for an answer," Obama said at a campaign-style event. "I'm not going to stand by while a minority in the senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposes the nomination because the CFPB "is subject to none of the...

President Obama will challenge Senate Republican foes of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by naming Richard Cordray as its director while Congress is out of town, according to a senior administration official. Testifying before Congress in September, Mr. Cordray said he would make judicious use of lawsuits to enforce financial regulations. That would allow the agency to establish new regulations over financial institutions, putting into effect elements of the financial regulatory overhaul that was one of the administration’s main achievements in Congress. Mr. Obama’s exercise of constitutional powers to name top officials without Senate confirmation while Congress is...

Congressional officials said President Obama has used his recess appointment powers Wednesday to name a head for the controversial new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a move Republican lawmakers said amounted to an unconstitutional power grab. Mr. Obama made the appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray even though the Senate, which has the power to confirm nominees, considers itself still in session. But the White House argues Republican senators stonewalled the nominee for so long that Mr. Obama had no choice but to circumvent them. In making the appointment, Mr. Obama rejected the precedent set by former President...

If historians and political scientists could describe one moment as the portent of the 2011 Wisconsin political environment, it had to be what happened one year ago this week. The then-outgoing majority of Assembly Democrats — as lame a duck as the term could ever possibly apply — sprung Chippewa Falls Assemblyman Jeff Wood from his jail cell, so he could be the decisive vote in a mad rush by state public employee unions to have new contracts approved by outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle before incoming Gov. Scott Walker could be sworn in. At the time he was freed temporarily...

Bill Clinton: Let presidents serve three terms By: Tim Mak November 8, 2011 08:48 AM EST Three times could be a charm - but not for him. Former president Bill Clinton said Tuesday that presidents should be able to run for a third term so long as they take off some time after their second term. “I’ve always though that should be the rule,” he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “I think as a practical matter, you couldn’t apply this to anyone who has already served, but going forward I personally believe that should be the rule.” Clinton made the...

With his latest pseudo-compassionate expansion of the student loan program, President Obama reminds us why we ask whether he is simply unable to learn from history or he is indifferent to government waste incurred in pursuit of "good intentions." Back when Obama was trolling for illusory savings to manipulate Congressional Budget Office scorekeepers into decreeing that Obamacare would be revenue-neutral, he proposed the ingenious scheme whereby the federal government would subsume 100 percent of the student loan industry and eliminate evil private-sector profits going to "middlemen." The plan was a smorgasbord for big-government enthusiasts because it envisioned whacking private business,...

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

On Monday, the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules were finally published in the Federal Register, starting a 60-day shot clock to kill the rules before they become law on November 20. Net Neutrality, which regulates how service providers manage network data, represents the government’s first major foray into micromanaging the Internet. And, as we’ve pointed out before, the FCC approved the rules without showing of consumer harm or legal justification. Already, the U.S. House has passed a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 37) that would nullify the regulations. The Senate now has 60 days to send the measure to President Obama’s desk....

The Federal Register’s publication of The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s illegal Net Neutrality regulations happened this week. That is the final step towards their illegal implementation on November 20th. The Federal Communications Commission on December 21st illegally voted themselves – in 3-2 Democrat Party-line fashion – Internet Overlords with their unauthorized imposition of the job-killing regulatory nightmare that is Network Neutrality. The opposition to this unauthorized power grab was nearly universal. The D.C. Circuit Court had already unanimously ruled that the FCC had no authority to do it. The House of Representatives almost immediately passed to overturn the order a...

On June 2, 2011, Judicial Watch released documents that show the Obama FCC’s collusion with a radical leftist organization to seize control over the Internet. This investigation caught the eye of congressional leaders, and now it appears a congressional probe of the matter is in the offing. ... The documents we uncovered show that the Obama FCC was deeply involved in discussions with the radical leftist organization Free Press in the run up to the December 2010 FCC vote. How deep? Free Press reached out to the FCC to invite FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to write an op-ed for the...

Which brings us to the FCC’s next opportunity to illegally create law under the guise of “conditions” – the spectrum bandwidth auctions. Quick definition: Spectrum is the allocated airwaves. Used by broadcast radio and television (not cable TV), satellite radio and TV, cell phones – and even Bluetooth headsets, garage door openers and car key fobs ... And we’re running out of free-for-use spectrum. ... So we need Congressional legislation to create the next round of spectrum bandwidth auctions. (Which is further fomenting a great and growing prospective battle between the radio and TV broadcasters – who have spectrum aplenty,...

AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION: Amendment requires that the rules of engagement allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protect their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions. AMENDMENT PURPOSE: An amendment numbered 38 printed in House Report 112-88 to require that the rules of engagement allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protects their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions. On agreeing to the Mica amendment (A018) Agreed to by recorded...

The Federal Communications Commission has stopped its 180-day review “shot clock” for AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile, saying it needs more time to evaluate new information AT&T promises to deliver to the commission later this month.

Executive Order--Regulation and Independent Regulatory Agencies By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve regulation and regulatory review, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. (a) Wise regulatory decisions depend on public participation and on careful analysis of the likely consequences of regulation. Such decisions are informed and improved by allowing interested members of the public to have a meaningful opportunity to participate in rulemaking. To the extent permitted by law, such decisions should be made only after consideration of their...

Steven Crowder finally delivers his long-awaited video on Net Neutrality — and it’s worth the wait. Steven traveled to Austin for the annual SxSW convention to hear the arguments for government intervention in Internet bandwidth allocations, and comes away less than impressed. It’s a debate drenched in technobabble, but the basic principles are clear and unmistakable. Who gets to control the operation of private networks — those who own them, or the government? This is a debate drenched not only in technobabble, but analogies as well. That’s because it’s difficult for most people to grasp the technical details, and so...

John Donne famously said no man is an island. He didn’t live to see the Media Marxists and their absurd policy positions. These Leftist alleged media “reformers” incessantly demand massive government insertion into and interference with every free market-media nook and cranny. Insertion and interference in which almost no one else has any interest. Save, of course, for the other forces of Big Government – Big Government being always interested in expanding its authoritarian sway. We have noted this previously. For instance, the Media Marxists have all along been strident proponents of Network Neutrality – a government takeover of the...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday offered a strong defense of his agency’s new Internet traffic regulations, telling skeptical Republican lawmakers that existing laws were not strong enough to police the large firms that operate the Web’s infrastructure.. “In my view, while critically important, antitrust laws alone would not adequately preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet,” the FCC chief told a House Judiciary subcommittee on the hot-button issue of “net neutrality.”