{"id":10851,"date":"2013-11-15T17:35:46","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T17:35:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-11-15T17:35:46","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T17:35:46","slug":"the_debate_over_obama_s_legal_authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/11\/15\/the_debate_over_obama_s_legal_authority\/","title":{"rendered":"The Debate Over Obama\u2019s Legal Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I marvel, everybody\u2019s getting caught up now in the horse race, the political back-and-forth of this. Did Obama have the power to do what he did. F. Chuck Todd at NBC (paraphrasing), “Come on, everybody, pipe down. Obama doesn\u2019t have the power to do what he did.” Well, what did he do? You know what the Regime is saying? By the way, let me go back to Upton for a moment. This is the Republican bill being voted on today, and I guess it\u2019s gonna pass. (interruption) Oh, maybe not now? Really? The Democrats are pulling out of this thing? A-ha. A-ha. Well, now, that is fascinating \u2019cause the Democrats, earlier in the week there were reportedly plenty of Democrats willing to sign on to the Upton bill, which basically just says what Obama said yesterday, but it doesn\u2019t. <\/line><\/p>\n

See, that\u2019s the thing. The Regime was asked yesterday in the press conference — I didn\u2019t learn any of this until I got home last night. I wasn\u2019t able to actually look at and read — that press conference was so loaded yesterday, it\u2019s a shame. I wish I would have been able to figure it out during the program, \u2019cause it was loaded with stuff yesterday. It was absolutely loaded and one of the things Obama was asked, “Well, what legal authority do you have to change the law?” And they cited some obscure court case from the mid-eighties and the FDA, which said that the courts have held — I\u2019m paraphrasing here — the courts have held that federal agencies can arbitrarily choose to enforce or not enforce certain things whenever they want to, all the way back to the eighties, and they simply cited that. Now, that\u2019s really a brief, brief overview. <\/p>\n

So what the Regime is saying is, “We didn\u2019t change the law. We didn\u2019t change anything. We\u2019re just not gonna enforce one aspect of it for a year. So don\u2019t start talking to me about throwing away the Constitution. We\u2019re not changing any law. We\u2019re just not gonna enforce for one more year the fact that you gotta get rid of your plan.” Now, if we want we can go back and recover, talk about again the idea you were never going to be able to keep your plan. I mean, the scope of that lie remains huge, fraudulent. If the political winds were different, it would be impeachable. <\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s huge, that lie, the scope of that lie, the depth and extent of that fraud, because everybody knew you weren\u2019t gonna be able to keep your plan. You couldn\u2019t. I mean, existing plans had to go if Obamacare exists. Obama\u2019s it\u2019s own law. The plan that you had that you liked was illegal. Your plan was illegal and everybody knew this. Obama knew it. It\u2019s in the Federal Register. They knew that 93 million Americans were gonna lose their plans. <\/line><\/p>\n

So now where we are is the Regime is essentially saying, “We didn\u2019t change anything. We\u2019re just like we stood down on the Defense of Marriage Act. We decided we\u2019re not gonna defend that anymore. We\u2019re not gonna defend aspects of the DREAM Act. So we\u2019re just not gonna enforce this for a year, and there is nothing you can do about it.” And that\u2019s why Obama\u2019s threatening to veto Upton<\/a>, because Upton would actually change the law. And Obama didn\u2019t. By his own answer to his question yesterday, by virtue of what I have since deduced, they didn\u2019t change any law here. This is Obama not playing dictator. “We\u2019re not gonna enforce the fact that you gotta get rid of your plan for one more year. We\u2019re just gonna stand down.” And they cite again a court case from the eighties involving the FDA. <\/p>\n

Now, the FDA case involved — it was a much, much smaller scope than this, and it\u2019s not certain that that precedent would hold in this case. But again, all of that is irrelevant if nobody is going to take action against this. Obama can do whatever he\u2019s gonna do if nobody\u2019s gonna stop him. Any president can. Any president can do whatever they want to do if nobody\u2019s gonna stand up to try stop him, including the media or the opposition party or public protests by the citizenry or what have you. So Obama, trying to head people off at the pass, is saying, “I\u2019m not gonna enforce it.” <\/p>\n

Now, Jonathan Adler writes at the Volokh Conspiracy blog<\/a>. He says this: “In other words, the administration is not changing the law. It\u00c2\u2019s just announcing it will not enforce federal law (while simultaneously threatening to veto legislation that would authorize the step the President has decided to take).” That\u2019s the Upton bill. “Does this make the renewal of non-compliant policies legal? No. The legal requirement remains on the books so the relevant health insurance plans remain illegal under federal law. The president\u00c2\u2019s decision does not change relevant state laws either. <\/p>\n

“So insurers will still need to obtain approval from state insurance commissioners. This typically requires submitting rates and plan specifications for approval. This can take some time, and is disruptive because most insurance companies have already set their offerings for the next year. It\u00c2\u2019s no wonder that some insurance commissioners have already indicated they have no plans to approve non-compliant plans.” Meaning your plan that you like, they\u2019re not gonna bring \u2019em back. A lot of insurance companies are not gonna bring it back which is fine with Obama. Obama doesn\u2019t care. All Obama cares about is that you heard him say you get to keep your plan if you want it. <\/line>