August 14, 2013
By Jon N. Hall

When the law no longer commands respect, one can pretty well write off a nation that pretends to be a constitutional republic. But how can The People respect the law when the government doesn't? President Obama seems to regard the law as a mere inconvenience.

In his must-read August 5 article "The Front Man" at National Review, Kevin Williamson sums up our Harvard Law School president's taste for lawlessness: "He has spent the past five years methodically testing the limits of what he can get away with, like one of those crafty velociraptors testing the electric fence in Jurassic Park."

With a compliant Congress in his first two years, and a divided, gridlocked Congress thereafter, Mr. Obama has been able to "get away with" an awful lot. One of the ways the president flouts the law is by not enforcing it, such as in his recent "decision" to delay enforcing the employer mandate of ObamaCare. Where does the president get off thinking he has the authority to refuse to enforce a law? The president doesn't seem to understand his job.

Also, under Obama the executive branch just makes up law, a task generally reserved for the legislative branch. Williamson reports that "although the IRS has no statutory power to collect Affordable Care Act -- related fines in states that have not voluntarily set up health-care exchanges, Obama's managers there have announced that they will do so anyway."

That announcement brings to mind a provision in the ACA concerning enforcement of the individual mandate: "In the case of any failure by a taxpayer to timely pay any penalty imposed by this section, such taxpayer shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure. [Sec. 5000A(g)(2)(A), page 249]" With regard to this prohibition, it remains to be seen whether Obama's minions at the IRS will announce "that they will do so anyway"?

The president might also conclude that the $95 penalty in 2014 for noncompliance with the individual mandate isn't nearly enough to offset what government is going to be spending on ObamaCare. Obama might then "decide" to raise the penalty himself, and deliver his usual spiel: "If Congress won't act, I will."

Along with his extra-constitutional decisions to ignore or vacate the law, Obama also unilaterally exempts his friends from the law. Williamson: "Neither does the law empower him arbitrarily to exempt millions of his donors and allies in organized labor from the law, but he has done that too." Obama has been granting waivers from the ACA mandates since 2011. The latest is his exemption of Congress and its staff from the mandate. Obama is buying off Congress.

To read more about the "legal gymnastics" involved in this exemption, read the August 7 article "Members Only" in the Wall Street Journal. Obama is turning the law upside down in order to bail out Congress. So the taxpayer will continue to pay for the Cadillac health insurance plans of Congress. "Illegal dispensations for the ruling class, different rules for the hoi polloi."

The law is not the law if it doesn't apply to everyone. Obama's arbitrary exceptions from the ACA for his friends are utterly corrosive; they breed contempt for all law. We cannot have contempt for law if we are to remain a constitutional republic. If laws are foisted upon the citizenry against their wishes, as was the case with ObamaCare, the government invites massive noncompliance at the very least.

SNIP

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/08/p...ts_so_cool.html

*edited by admin to add link.

It wouldn't let me post the link. The article was retrieved from American Thinker.

Rev...any ideas why I can't post links?

Yeah nic - I get the same message when I tried to post something.

Anyway I had read that article - and its a good one!

Very thought provoking and reveals just how much trouble we're in.

Rev,

I got a "You are allowed 0 links" or something like that. So then the post wouldn't go through since the post was referencing a news link.

conservagramma, I sure do hope people start smelling the coffee. The clock is ticking and we're about 5 min. away from detonation.

Rev...thanks again for fixing it. I was getting same problem as what gramma was saying, "you're authorized to post 0 links" (something like that). But all fixed now. ty again!