Tag Archives: Republicans

White House Senior Adviser Daniel Pfeiffer blasts Republicans over lawsuit

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Daniel_PfeifferWhite House adviser Daniel Pfeiffer sent out an email blasting Republicans for filing a lawsuit over the illegal use of Executive Orders by the current administration.

Executive orders are not a Constitutional power granted to the President. They are not even mentioned in the Constitution. Executive orders were used first by President George Washington to instruct cabinet members on the manner in which they were to enforce laws passed by Congress. Neither he, nor his successors—until Woodrow Wilson—used executive orders to make laws.

The ability of executive order and bureaucracies to create law was ruled unconstitutional in the decision of Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824). In Paragraph 146 of the decision Chief Justice John Marshall wrote:

…for the power which is exclusively delegated to Congress, can only be exercised by Congress itself, and cannot be sub-delegated by it.

Pfeiffer’s email reads:

The House of Representatives just took a vote — and it wasn’t to raise the minimum wage, put in place equal pay, create jobs, or reform our broken immigration system.

Instead, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives just voted to sue the President for using his executive authority. This lawsuit will waste valuable time and potentially millions of
taxpayer dollars.

This is the least productive Congress in decades. And instead of doing their job, they are suing the
President for doing his.

The President is committed to making a difference for the millions of hardworking Americans trying to do right by their families and communities. While Republicans in Congress continue to waste taxpayer money, this President is going to keep doing his job.

If you’re doing your own job — and you support President Obama doing his — add your name.

President Obama remains ready and willing to work with Republicans in Congress if they decide to get serious and do something for the American people. But he is also committed to acting even as Congress won’t. You’ve seen that time and time again this year — from raising the federal minimum wage on new federal government contracts, to expanding apprenticeship opportunities and making student loan payments more affordable.

The President is not going to back away from his efforts to use his authority to solve problems and help American families. In fact, tomorrow, President Obama will announce his next executive action to crack down on federal contractors who put workers’ safety and hard-earned pay at risk. It’s just the next in a series of steps this Administration will be taking this year to make sure that American workers are getting a fair deal, and he has pledged to take executive action to deal with our broken immigration system in the months ahead.

That’s what this President is focused on. If you want to see it continue, and are sick and tired of stunts like the House Republicans’ lawsuit, then say so:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/doing-his-job

GOP Suing to Keep Third Parties Off Ballot in November

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Gary Johnson

Around the country, the Republican Party is mounting legal challenges to keep third-party candidates off the ballot in November.

Writer Karl Dickey reports in the Examiner that “in recent weeks, with the full support and legal assistance of the Republican Party, [Gary] Johnson’s ballot status has been challenged in Michigan, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Iowa and now Ohio.” Gary Johnson (pictured) is the former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president of the United States. As of this writing, Johnson is on the ballot in 43 states.

On September 1 the Ohio voters challenging Johnson’s appearance on the November ballot officially withdrew their opposition. In the one-page notice filed with the office of Ohio’s secretary of state, Kelly Mills and Cynthia Rees did not explain their decision to drop their protest.

It could be related to the decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision handed down on August 31 dismissing the Ohio state legislature’s appeal of a U.S. district court ruling putting the Libertarian Party on the ballot for 2012.

Read more at The New American

Toll proposal puts the brakes on economic recovery

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By BUSTER JOHNSON
Chairman
Mohave County Board of Supervisors

During the January 10 meeting of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors, we unanimously voted to oppose the state’s proposal to turn a 30-mile segment of Interstate 15 into a toll road. Now, Arizona State Rep. Karen Fann (R-District 1, kfann@azleg.gov, co-sponsored by Republican Russ Jones rjones@azleg.gov) has launched legislation that would open the gates to toll roads throughout the state.

Fann’s House Bill 2358, titled Public-Private Partnership; Toll Facilities, creates regulations for collection of tolls and a variety of punishments for those who do not pay them. Specifically, it allows the suspending or revoking of vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses.

This long-winded bill sets up procedures for toll agencies to track and nail anyone who has “liability for toll nonpayment” throughout the state. HB 2358 is the legal foundation that will be used for the furtherance of toll roads, toll bridges and other toll transportation facilities (read rest stops) in Arizona.

I understand the traditional toll facility proposals. A major bridge or road is built through bonded indebtedness and, when it opens for use, customers pay a toll that eventually pays off the cost of construction. But to establish a precedent of charging tolls to use pre-existing roads and bridges is a terrible wrong turn that Arizona does not need to make.

If our State Legislature passes HB 2358, the gates will be opened for many toll proposals leading to costly trips. Driving Arizona highways will no longer be enjoying the open road. It will be more like traversing a board game with costly detours and, if you avoid a toll booth, an expensive Get Out Of Jail fee. The state slogan will become, “You can’t get there from here.”

Okay, that was a bit facetious, but in an age where we are trying to get business back to health and America back to work, HB 2358 sets up roadblocks to prosperity. Truckers who have to take the highways and interstates will be hit the hardest with new fees. At the end of the line, those costs will be passed on to retail customers. Those same customers will have to pay tolls on the roads bringing their more-expensive purchases home.

We will bring more prosperity and transportation funds to Arizona by removing roadblocks to economic development; not by adding them. This Board of Supervisors opposed the state’s proposal of putting a toll on I-15 and I oppose HB 2358, which would drive more toll proposals and bring economic recovery to a screeching halt.