Imperial Presidency

Why Obama is talking about domestic policy at a press conference which is part of an international economic summit meeting sort of escapes me, and it particularly surprises me that he would be discussing the one economic area in which the other six nations are so clearly superior to us. But there he was, discussing a decision made by his executive branch pursuant to health care legislation and telling us, no less, that it was such an exercise in excellence that the Supreme Court should not even have agreed to hear a challenge to it.

He’s not limiting himself to telling the highest court in the land how it should rule. That would not sufficiently demonstrate his concept of the power of the presidency. He says that a challenge to a decision made by his executive branch, “Frankly, probably should not even have been taken up,"  by a coequal branch of government which is charged in the constitution with the specific responsibility of serving as a “check and balance”  on the other two branches.

Obama is giving us a new definition of the “imperial presidency.”  Bush said that if a person threatened us he could imprison them without trial; Obama says he can simply order that person executed. He does not need permission from Congress before engaging in acts of war upon other sovereign nations, and now he is saying that decisions made by his executive branch should not be questioned by the Supreme Court.