Conservative columnist George Will blames a weak Congress as the reason President Obama has been able to expand his executive branch powers. Will told Fox News channel’s Special Report that “the Congress is at fault here by letting its power be leeched away.”
Obama’s most conspicuous flaunting of his executive power has been his changing and delaying multiple times his own signature healthcare law, The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Despite the executive-driven alterations to Obamacare, there has been deafening silence from the House or the Senate.
Moreover, back in February Obama addressed House Democrats and promised that if Congress fails to act on a number of issues such as immigration and the minimum wage, he is not going to wait around because “America does not believe in standing still.”
Mr. Will contends that our 4th President of the United States, James Madison, believed our system of checks and balances controls the abuse of government and that in order for government to operate effectively there must be “opposite rival interests” to protect ourselves from the “defect of better motives.” In other words, “No matter what the motives are, each institution is supposed to defend itself; they’re supposed to be rivals,” Will said. “The Congress has been a weak rival of the executive, and it’s time [for it] to stand up on its hind legs.”
Watch Mr. Will’s argument below: