Spokesmen?

Rand Paul does not speak for America. Neither does Texas congressman Stockman. Or John McCain, Lindsay Graham and a host of other narrowly focused conservatives, Republicans and libertarians. Those folks are not main stream speakers of public opinion.

Proof of this? The 2012 election results. Plain and simple.

Executive Orders were common place with George W. Bush. Not so with Obama. He is now considering issuing a few in order to deal with congressional inaction on the debt ceiling, budget impasses and gun controls.

News executives appear to be pandering to the public in who they choose to craft and shape the discussion on several issues. On gun control NBC news and MSNBC, as well as Fox News and others, have selected opinions from wing nuts both right and left, as well as extremists. That is not where the decisions are made in our country, nor is it representative of the opinion of the American people.

Controlling gun sales and ownership is not taking guns away. There are times I wish we could and would. But fairness dictates a middle course. It also demands a conversation not a shouting match complete with unfounded accusations and hyperbole.

Debt ceiling limits? Interesting issue. Why? Simple. Only the House of Representatives has the power of the purse under the constitution. They and they alone decide spending, budget, taxes and debt. To temper their actions the Senate must agree. After that the die is cast. The country and its government implements the decisions. The Executive branch is the doer of the implementation actions.

In the current case, Congress has decided the budget and the spending and the taxes. The President implements those decisions whether he agrees or disagrees. He does have the power to issue checks to pay bills Congress has created. If gthe checking account is empty, he has the authority via the Treasury to print money or borrow it to pay the bills. If Congress disagrees, they should not have authorized the expenditures in the first place. And to solve they problem they should be negotiating with the President, not dictating to him.

No. A leader gets to decide what he will or will not do against his will if it is wrong for the nation. Disagree with that, then the courts get involved.

We have three separate branches of federal government. Legislative (Congress), Judiciary (Supreme Court and all other subsidiary courts) and the Executive (White House and all departments thereunder). They operate best when cooperating and collaborating.

That is not to be since 1992. That was a decision of the Republicans at the time to fight Bill Clinton everywhere they could.  They even made up stuff to fight! They continued during George W’s reign of executive orders and one sided declarations of war. His administration warped the US economy and defied anyone to repair it. That fight continues on in spite of Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency. The Republicans continue their fight, orthodox or not, to strip power from the President.

Obama has merely said recently: Congress has a job to do. If they don’t do it they are to blame for the results. If I can take actions to soften those results, I will do so but I am not required to do so under the powers granted to the president in the constitution.

There it is in a nutshell. Leadership sometimes requires the leader to say no or to sit out the dance dictated by the unworthy. Such is the case today. Speaker Boner pushes his inaction on to the president with hope to tarnish Obama. It has backfired. Mr. Boner should resign and make way for reasonable leaders willing to solve problems.

Same for Mitch McConnell in the senate. Time for him to go. So real work can get done.

January 22, 2013