{"id":19483,"date":"2014-01-15T08:53:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T15:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=19483"},"modified":"2014-12-27T11:54:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-27T18:54:28","slug":"obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama: ‘I’ve Got a Pen and I’ve Got a Phone and I’m Not Waiting for Legislation’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a \u201cpolice action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyndon Johnson put the cherry on top with the not only undeclared war of Vietnam, but by lying to both Congress and the American people about the cause of that war. Since then, presidents very rarely consult Congress before they take this nation to war. They just more or less get up one fine morning and decide that, hey, we\u2019ve been at peace for, say, 30 or 40 minutes, and it\u2019s time to gin up another war.<\/p>\n

Sad to say, the war-making dictatorship which American presidents have taken onto themselves is truly nothing compared to the way they have gradually set aside the lawmaking powers of Congress.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how we got President Obama\u2019s very excellent HHS Mandate and its attack on (read that destruction of) religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Each president, every single one of them without regard to political party or theory of government, has advanced the presidency into new elected dictator territory.<\/p>\n

Now, President Obama has called a press conference to announce that he no longer needs Congress to enact laws at all. He has, he tells us, \u201ca pen and a phone\u201d and that\u2019s all he needs to de facto enact gun control, immigration reform and God only knows what else.<\/p>\n

Congress could, if it got its collective head out of endless and useless sniping and fighting with itself, assert its rightful authority and take back these powers from the Prez. After all, presidents didn\u2019t just reach out and snatch power away from Congress against Congress\u2019 will. Congress gave it to them.<\/p>\n

Presidential fiat is a direct consequence of the utter and complete will-less-ness of Congress. I think that members of Congress are secretly glad when the President acts in their stead. They\u2019re glad, because a president running amuck and making law with his mighty pen removes the necessity of taking the hard votes off their shoulders. While the president does their job of lawmaking they are free to go to receptions, raise money for their outlandishly expensive campaigns and take pot shots at members of the opposite party in an attempt to achieve the only thing that matters to them: Control of one House of Congress or the other for their political party.<\/p>\n

I keep paraphrasing Lily Tomlin when I write about this stuff. I can\u2019t help doing it. It just fits. So let me say it again.<\/p>\n

I try to be cynical about American politics, but I can\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n

The President of the United States made the bold announcement that he\u2019s all through waiting for Congress to pass legislation and he is anointing himself both Congress and President in one mighty, pen-wielding man.<\/p>\n

Do you remember the 1950s movie The Ten Commandments? It\u2019s was good movie stuff when Yul Brynner, who played Ramses, gazed off with that incredible screen presence of his and intoned in that resonating Yul Brynner voice, \u201cSo let it be written. So let it be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was walloping great theater.<\/p>\n

However, when a president of the United States starts channeling his inner Ramses and doing essentially the same thing, it\u2019s not theater. It is an overstepping and trammeling of the Constitutional separation of powers that has helped keep Americans free these past 200 plus years.<\/p>\n

President Obama didn\u2019t start this process of elected dictators sitting in the White House, and sadly, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to be the end of it. So long as Congress only cares about getting re-elected and making sure that their political party either takes or holds power, the presidency will continue to become more imperial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a pen, and I\u2019ve got a phone,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

Who knew that\u2019s all it took.<\/p>\n

From Reuters<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

WASHINGTON (Reuters) \u2013 President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would not wait for Congress to pass legislation to advance his policy priorities this year and said he was \u201cgetting close\u201d to finishing a review of U.S. surveillance practices \u2013 to be unveiled on Friday.<\/p>\n

Obama, speaking to reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House, foreshadowed his upcoming State of the Union address and what appeared to be a new messaging strategy by emphasizing his ability to take executive actions without approval from lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we\u2019re providing Americans the kind of help that they need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a pen, and I\u2019ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions \u2026 and I\u2019ve got a phone that allows me to convene Americans from every walk of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a \u201cpolice action.\u201d Lyndon Johnson put the cherry on top with the not only undeclared war of Vietnam, but by lying to both Congress and the American people about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,199,8,41,1],"tags":[3476,2014,1787,7843,296],"class_list":["post-19483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-first-amendment","category-hhs-mandate","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-elected-dictators","tag-executive-orders","tag-gun-control","tag-hhs-mandate","tag-obama"],"yoast_head":"\nObama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-15T15:53:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-27T18:54:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/\",\"name\":\"Obama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-15T15:53:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-27T18:54:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Obama: ‘I’ve Got a Pen and I’ve Got a Phone and I’m Not Waiting for Legislation’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'","description":"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'","og_description":"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2014-01-15T15:53:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-27T18:54:28+00:00","author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/","name":"Obama: 'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone and I'm Not Waiting for Legislation'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-15T15:53:20+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-27T18:54:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"The presidency has been lurching toward elected dictator-ism ever since Harry Truman took us down the path of our first undeclared war in the guise of a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone-and-im-not-waiting-for-legislation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Obama: ‘I’ve Got a Pen and I’ve Got a Phone and I’m Not Waiting for Legislation’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19483"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19486,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions\/19486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}