Obama to Congress: Please Authorize What I'm Already Doing

...but if you don't authorize it, he'll keep doing it anyway.

If there was a single moment in the State of the Union that summed up the state of executive power in the United States today, it was when Barack Obama said this…

whitehouse.gov

For more than a year, America has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL's financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters, and stamp out their vicious ideology. With nearly 10,000 air strikes, we're taking out their leadership, their oil, their training camps, their weapons. We're training, arming, and supporting forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria.

…and then, immediately afterward, said this:

If this Congress is serious about winning this war, and wants to send a message to our troops and the world, you should finally authorize the use of military force against ISIL. Take a vote.

We live in an age when a president can describe the military force he is using against the Islamic State, then blithely suggest that Congress could help by authorizing it. All without a trace of either shame or irony on his face.

Comments

[Winston]

Libertarian Moment!

[Crusty Juggler]

I give you credit for constantly saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I’d pull a Sylvia Plath and stick my head in an oven if I did that, but you seem to have no shame , and that’s admirable.

[Winston]

I hope you have written some nice poetry.

[Winston]

By the way between 1930 and 1932 the Reichstag was circumvented by Presidential decree. Worked out so well…

[The Grinch]

How about authorizing the cessation of funding? I can dream can’t I?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

He’s not even trying anymore huh.

[PapayaSF]

This election cycle is a hoot. Obama is more of a joke than ever, the hilarious Trump is leading the polls, Hillary looks sicker and older by the day, geriatric socialist Sanders is shaking his cane about too many brands of deodorant and high ATM fees, and on and on. It’s going to be the most hilarious presidential election of my lifetime.

I mean, Hillary saying “all sexual assault victims should be believed”? WTF? Was that evidence of stroke damage? Or do her advisors hate her? Talk about an own goal. And she’s going to run on more gun control and more Muslim refugees? Seriously? Those are the hills she wants to die on? Are the Democrats that disconnected from the average American?

And then we have Trump tearing up the GOP establishment. Ha. I know he’s no libertarian, but he’s still better than Hillary or Sanders. And I will keep promoting this idea: libertarians need to put together some targeted policy proposals that can be sold to President Trump and a GOP Congress. A time of chaos is a good time to get things done. There’s common ground here. Let’s close some federal departments, sell some federal assets, close some foreign bases, that sort of thing. Trump’s a business guy, so the efficiency angle should work.

[wareagle]

Are the Democrats that disconnected from the average American?

In a way, yes, but in another way, this is who they are. They count on those who will always vote for the D candidate. Add in the (misguided) belief that the female candidate will have the same impact as the black one – never mind that the black one was a blank slate and few people are more known about than Hillary – and factor in Electoral College math, and being in touch is not necessary.

[DenverJ]

Yeah, the electoral college math is pretty grim for the Republicans, although not hopeless.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, they have no one coming up from the minors. Hell, the front runners, even the one not running, are older than dirt.
Which is unfortunate, because I suspect several decades of a Republican Congress with a Democratic President might do wonders in reigning in Executive power.

[Charles Easterly]

Cogitative, as is so often the case, Mr. Walker.