Pre-Obama American Founding Father’s Political Reality:

During a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, Obama was asked what had changed since he made comments in 2013 that he was “not king” and “not the emperor” in response to questions about stopping deportations and providing temporary legal status to undocumented workers — much as he is now contemplating.

Obama replied that his “position hasn’t changed” and that the questions then were about him unilaterally enacting comprehensive immigration changes similar to the Senate bill that passed in 2013, but stalled in the House. But those questions in early 2013 weren’t about a comprehensive immigration overhaul, they were about Obama taking the kinds of executive actions he is now mulling.

Here’s how the question was raised in Australia on Nov. 16:

Jim Avila of ABC News, Nov. 16: Following up on immigration — in 2010, when asked by immigration reform advocates to stop deportations and act alone on providing legal status for the undocumented, you said, “I’m President, I’m not king. I can’t do these things just by myself.” In 2013, you said, “I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.” Mr. President, what has changed since then? And since you’ve now had a chance to talk since July with your legal advisors, what do you now believe are your limits so that you can continue to act as president and not as emperor or king?

Obama: Well, actually, my position hasn’t changed. When I was talking to the advocates, their interest was in me, through executive action, duplicating the legislation that was stalled in Congress. And getting a comprehensive deal of the sort that is in the Senate legislation, for example, does extend beyond my legal authorities. There are certain things I cannot do. There are certain limits to what falls within the realm of prosecutorial discretion in terms of how we apply existing immigration laws.

But the questions posed to Obama earlier were very specific. They asked the president whether he had the authority to do the very kinds of things he is considering now. For weeks, Obama has been saying that if Congress fails to act on immigration, he will “do everything I can lawfully with my executive authority to make sure that we don’t keep on making the system worse.” According to the New York Times, Obama plans to lift the threat of deportation from as many as 5 million immigrants in the country illegally — mainly the relatives of people already in the country legally — and to offer many of them work permits.
Obama’s action would not permanently change a person’s immigration status and would not provide a pathway to citizenship, as was proposed in the Senate immigration bill that stalled. Obama is correct that that kind of lasting, comprehensive immigration overhaul has to come through Congress. But that’s not what was asked of him in the interviews back in early 2013.

The “I’m not a king” comment came during an interview of Obama on Univision on Jan. 30, 2013.

Maria Elena Salinas of Univision: Now I know that you have reduced, this is another concern on Twitter, the number of deportations of non-criminals. However, in 2012 more than 184,000 non-criminals were deported. In the spirit of your push for immigration reform, would you consider a moratorium on deportations of non-criminals? Remember, these are your words: “This is not about policy. It’s about people.”

Obama: Well, I think it is important to remind everybody that, as I said I think previously, and I’m not a king. I am the head of the executive branch of government. I’m required to follow the law. And that’s what we’ve done. But what I’ve also said is, let’s make sure that we’re applying the law in a way that takes into account people’s humanity. That’s the reason that we moved forward on deferred action. Within the confines of the law we said, we have some discretion in terms of how we apply this law. The same is true with respect to the kinds of the length of time that people have to spend outside of the country when their spouses are already here for example.

The “I’m not the emperor of the United States” comment came during a Google Hangout interview two weeks later, on Feb. 14, 2013, (starting at the 18:42 mark).

Jacky Guerrero of California: Your administration has deported a record high number of 1.5 million undocumented immigrants, more than your predecessor. And I know your administration took some steps last year to protect unintended undocumented immigrants from being deported. However many people say that those efforts weren’t enough. What I’d like to know is what you’re going to do now until the time immigration reform is passed, to insure that more people aren’t being deported and families aren’t being broken apart.

Obama: Well, look Jacky, this is something that I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency. The problem is that, you know, I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed, and Congress right now has not changed what I consider to be a broken immigration system.

And what that means is is that we have certain obligations to enforce the laws that are in place, even if we think that in many cases the results may be tragic. And what we have been able to do is to make sure that we’re focusing our enforcement resources on criminals, as opposed to somebody who’s here just trying to work and look after their families.

What we have tried to do is administratively reduce the burdens and hardships on families being separated. And what we’ve done is, obviously, pass the deferred action which made sure that the DREAMers, young people who were brought here and think of themselves as Americans, are American except for their papers, that they’re not deported.

Having said all that, we’ve kind of stretched our administrative flexibility as much as we can. And that’s why making sure we get comprehensive immigration reform done is so important.

In both cases, the president was asked about executive actions to remove the threat of deportations from a much larger group, to prevent the breakup of families — the very thing Obama is proposing to do now. Then, Obama said, “[W]e’ve kind of stretched our administrative flexibility as much as we can.” Now, he believes he has the legal authority to do it.
In a similar analysis of Obama’s claim that his “position hasn’t changed,” Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler noted two other instances in which Obama previously claimed he lacked the authority to extend a freeze of deportations to a larger class of immigrants in the country illegally, or to grant temporary status.
The first came in a Univision town hall meeting on March 28, 2011, in which Obama was asked if he could “grant temporary protective status, TPS, to undocumented students.” Obama said that he could not.

Obama, 2011: With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed — and I know that everybody here at Bell is studying hard so you know that we’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws.

There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.

The other example cited by Kessler was an interview with Noticias Telemundo on Sept. 17, 2013, during which Obama was specifically asked if he would “at least consider unilaterally freezing the deportations for parents of deferred-action kids.” Again, Obama said he could not.

Obama, Sept. 17, 2013: My job in the executive branch is supposed to be to carry out the laws that are passed. Congress has said, here’s the law when it comes to those who are undocumented, and they allocate a whole bunch of money for enforcement.

Obama continued to say that he had made the legal argument that the government did not have the resources to deport so-called DREAMers — people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children. But he didn’t think it was legally possible to extend that policy beyond DREAMers.

“But if we start broadening that, then essentially I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally,” Obama said. “So that’s not an option. I do get a little worried that advocates of immigration reform start losing heart and immediately thinking, well, somehow there’s an out here — if Congress doesn’t act, we will just have the president sign something and that will take care of it, and we won’t have to worry about it. What I have said is that there is a path to get this done and that is through Congress.”

According to the New York Times, White House officials insist the evolution of Obama’s comments reflects a change in emphasis, rather than a change in opinion, and that at the time Obama was focused on convincing Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.
We take no position on whether Obama has the legal authority to enact the kinds of immigration changes he is considering via executive authority. Ultimately, that may have to be decided in federal courts (as Republicans have threatened a legal challenge). But then, Obama said he lacked the legal authority to suspend deportation of family members. Now, he says he has just such legal authority.

Source: factcheck.org – Robert Farley

OBAMA: We had a yearlong debate, Ed. I mean, go back and look at your stories. The one thing we can’t say is that we did not have a lengthy debate about health care in the United States of America or that it was not adequately covered. I mean, I would just advise all of… every press outlet here, go back and pull up every clip, every story, and I think it’ll — it’s fair to say that there was not a — a provision in the health care law that was not extensively debated, and was fully transparent.

Pelosi’s was out there saying, “You’ve got pass the bill to find out what’s in it.”  Nothing about this bill was transparent. Everything about the bill was hidden. The people that wrote the bill didn’t know what it said. It was 2,000 or 2,200 pages.

“I didn’t know about this! I just heard about this! I’m as mad about this as you are. I’m gonna get to the bottom of this,”

… blah, blah.

EXAMPLES:   March 2009 through November 2014.

OBAMA, GRUBER, 11/17/14: Uhhh, I just heard about this… [S]ome advisor who never worked on our staff, uhh, expressed an opinion that, uhh, I completely disagree with …

OBAMA, IRS SCANDAL, 05/13/13: I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.

OBAMA, IRS SCANDAL, 05/15/13: Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it.

OBAMA, OBAMACARE ROLLOUT, 10/21/13: Nobody’s madder than me!

OBAMA, FAST & FURIOUS, 10/14/11: I heard on the news about this.

OBAMA, FAST & FURIOUS, 10/18/11: It’s very upsetting to me, that somebody showed such bad judgment.

OBAMA, SECRET SERVICE SCANDAL, 04/15/12: If it turns out some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course I’ll be angry.

OBAMA, IRS SCANDAL, 05/13/13: I’ve got no patience with it! I will not tolerate it!

OBAMA BP GULF OIL DISASTER, 06/03/10: I am furious at this entire situation.

OBAMA IRS SCANDAL, 05/15/13: We’re going to hold the responsible parties accountable.

OBAMA, IRS SCANDAL, 05/16/13:I certainly did not know anything about the IG Report before the IG Report had been leaked through the press.

OBAMA, IRS SCANDAL, 05/16/13:  The minute I found out about it, then my main focus is making sure that we get the thing fixed.

OBAMA, WALL STREET BONUSES, 03/18/09:People are right to be angry. I’m angry!

OBAMA, AIR FORCE ONE BUZZING MANHATTAN, 04/28/09: It was something, we found out, about along with all of you.

OBAMA, VA SCANDAL, 05/21/2014: I will not stand for it, not as commander-in-chief! None of us should. It is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it. Period.

All of those, Obama claimed he knew nothing about until you knew.

Gruber, MIT Professor, in all of the sound bites, is telling everybody else how to do this. He is teaching here! He’s not bragging how he did it, or not just bragging. That he is instructing. He’s telling other people how they can get this done in their own walks of life. So he is encouraging this kind of thing for everybody else, and using it as a teachable moment for like-minded people.

Progressive Liberal Education Mindset Exposed… if your shocked, you haven’t been paying attention.

If the Electorate wanted the Senate and the House to “Compromise” with the President, they would have voted for Democrats.

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois elected a Republican governor on Tuesday night. Massachusetts will have its first Republican governor since Mitt Romney.

Stunning Republican gubernatorial victories came in reliably Democratic states, including those won overwhelmingly by Obama in 2012. Illinois ousted Democrat Pat Quinn in favor of Republican Bruce Rauner, while Maryland voters opted for Republican Larry Hogan over Democrat Anthony Brown. Republican Charlie Baker won a Massachusetts match-up against Martha Coakley, the state attorney general who lost a special Senate election to Scott Brown in 2010.

Republicans also continued their dominance of governors’ mansions when a number of GOP leaders fought off stiff challenges from Democrats…

ABC — Republicans have strengthened their majority control of the House of Representatives. Now, the only question remaining is how big that majority will grow.

As of 12:30 a.m. ET, ABC News had projected that Republicans had won 239 seats in the House to 180 for Democrats, which already gives the GOP a stronger hold than they had in the previous Congress, when they had a 34-seat majority. ABC News projected that by the time the night is over, Republicans will have gained between 14 and 18 seats in the House.

LA Times — Riding a surge of voter discontent, Republicans seized control of the Senate on Tuesday, giving the GOP full command of Congress
Washington (CNN) — South Carolina’s Tim Scott on Tuesday became the first African-American senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction…
Scott’s win also made him the first African-American in U.S. history to be elected to both the House and the Senate.

Image Source: 2014 Wall Street Journal 

Most people are still earning less, adjusted for inflation, than before the recession struck at the end of 2007. Even many who kept their jobs through the recession — or easily found work after being let go — are no better off. The typical family income in current dollars is $52,959, according to Sentier Research. Factoring in inflation, that’s $3,303 less than before the recession — a nearly 6 percent drop.

FEWER FULL-TIME JOBS

Finding a steady full-time job has become harder. There are 27.4 million part-time jobs, representing 18.8 percent of jobs in the U.S. economy, according to the Labor Department. Before the recession, 16.5 percent of all jobs were part time.

BEHIND ON MORTGAGES

Whatever wealth most Americans have is mainly tied up in their homes. But roughly seven years after the housing bust, owning a home has still been a bad investment for many.

Nearly 37 percent of mortgage holders were “effectively underwater” through the first three months of 2014, according to the real estate firm Zillow. That means they either owe more than their homes are worth or a sale wouldn’t generate enough money to cover the closing costs and down payment for a new home.

Just 39 percent of everyone surveyed in June said the economy was improving; 56 percent described it as getting worse. The consumer confidence reading for existing conditions was, negative 14.

CAUTIOUS SHOPPING

Most Americans are still being careful at cash registers and online checkouts. Consumer spending has risen at an average annual pace of just 2.2 percent since the recession ended in mid-2009. That’s far below the 3.4 percent average in the two decades preceding the recession.

Confidence in the economy is still relatively low, suggesting that people are buying what they need instead of what they want. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index was 85.2 in June. In the 20 years preceding the downturn, it averaged nearly 102. 1

So, how is Obama Economics working out for you?

The fundamental reason why all this is happening is the pie that everybody wants a piece of… That’s just the private sector. When the government comes in and absorbs one-sixth of it in the health care takeover called Obamacare, the pie gets smaller.

As government grows, how does it grow?

It has to take money from other people, allocate it to itself to spend it however it wishes. It’s called redistribution; it doesn’t produce anything. The private sector is getting smaller. The pie is all getting smaller, and that’s why there’s less of it to be had for people. You want to talk about why the gap between rich and poor is expanding? It’s because the pie’s getting smaller, and the pie can only get smaller as government grows.

That’s the argument against government expansion in its simplest form. The argument against government expansion is that it shrinks opportunity for everybody who doesn’t work or have anything to do with government.

Now… Lets take a look at President Obama’s view on our Economy:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) July 9, 2014 — President Barack Obama took credit on Wednesday for the U.S. economic rebound after the financial crisis of 2008.

“Thanks to the hard work of you – and some actually smart policies by us, we have come further and recovered faster than almost any other advanced country on Earth,”

Obama said in a campaign-style speech in Denver. Obama trumpeted an agenda of “economic patriotism,” … 2

 Seriously, this man lies to the American Public on a regular basis about a multitude of topics, why should he – after 6 years – start letting facts get in the way??

1 Source: AP: AS US JOB MARKET STRENGTHENS, MANY DON’T FEEL IT
2 Source: MarketWatch: Obama: U.S. economic recovery among fastest on earth