It’s been one helluva weekend for President Obama. Last Friday, he received two separate smackdowns via the Judicial Branch of government, and by Sunday, everyone was talking about his dismal polling results as his approval rating dropped below 40% for the first time. Whether he realizes it yet or not, what this weekend really showed was that the Constitution matters. Trampling this founding document as he has done for over two and a half years triggered that precious parchment’s checks and balances, and it caused the citizens of the country to express their disapproval of his performance.
On Friday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutional Obamcare’s individual mandate, ruling that it represented an overreach of Congress’s authority. The court stated the health care law was “breathtaking in its expansive scope.” Further, it wrote:
“The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life. This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power.”
Although the fate of Obamacare ultimately will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 decision (with one of the two ruling against the law a Clinton appointee), is an early harbinger of the Judicial Branch’s view of the matter. The Constitution’s system of checks and balances – hopefully – will ensure the Legislative and Executive Branches of government are kept in check when our nation’s highest court weighs in.
In an unrelated, but equally important matter, the U.S. District Court in Wyoming on Friday rejected an Obama administration policy that had required more extensive environmental review of some oil drilling permits. The Interior Department “had no authority” to adopt the policy last year “without public notice and an opportunity for comment,” Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal wrote. She ruled in favor of an industry group and vacated the policy nationwide.
This ruling is an indictment of the administration’s regulatory zeal. Between multiple Czars and Executive Branch departments, there’s been a frenzy over the past two and a half years to introduce policy by fiat, thereby circumventing the legislative process. The net result of all the excessive rules has been a stranglehold on America’s business and prosperity. The Wyoming court’s ruling is an attempt to snap the leash back on the Executive Branch, to remind it that it does not have unbridled authority over the citizens of the United States.
Finally, President Obama’s latest poll numbers suggest he’s lost the halo shine that hope and change once brought him from a mesmerized citizenry. According to Gallup, over the weekend his approval rating dropped to 39%, while his disapproval rating was at 54%. The voting public is exercising its free speech rights and sending a message to the President that it is exasperated with his poor performance.
It’s about jobs. It’s about an economy that shows no signs of real recovery. It’s about a President who wants to blame everyone and everything (to include a tsunami) instead of shouldering responsibility like a real leader should. Most importantly, it’s about the Constitution. The American people are tired of the big government suffocation in their lives, their loss of individual freedoms, and their sense of hopelessness. Just like the check and balance we’ve seen the Judicial Branch of government exercise in these recent court decisions, the American people are telling the President (and Congress) that we will exercise Constitutionally-protected rights in the near future. We will vote.
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