Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Heh, So Much for Federalism!”

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May 8, 2009

Heh, So Much for Federalism!

Hatched by Dafydd

According to the Los Angeles Times, the administration of President Barack H. "Lucky Leftie" Obama -- in particular, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius -- has in effect vetoed California's budget deal, worked out between the Democrat dominated state legislature and RINO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: He has ordered the state to restore the wage cut it made to home healthcare workers who are members of either the Service Employees International Union or the United Domestic Workers union.

(Do we detect a pattern here? Once again, as with the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies, we see the president personally intervening to tip the scales in favor of unions and against creditors, shareholders, and now, the entire citizenry of the largest state in the United States.)

But evidently, the president had no legal grounds to issue such an order to the state. How do we know this? Because he did not issue an executive order, nor did he ask Solicitor General Elena Kagan to file for an injunction in federal court. He didn't even ask Sebelius to issue an administrative ruling.

Nope; Obama has chosen a method more suited to his powers as Capo di Tutti Capi... extortion: He has threatened to take back California's $6.9 billion in "stimulus" money unless the California legislature restore the wage cut:

The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget....

The cut was highly contentious during last winter's budget talks. Republican lawmakers insisted that the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar state program, In Home Supportive Services, be scaled back significantly.

Democrats fought major reductions in the program, which they say is a cost-effective alternative to nursing-home care, but ultimately compromised.

So in addition to the president's other crimes against the Constitution, we can add "overturning the last remnants of federalism" to the list.

However, he may or may not win this time; to reverse that element of the budget deal, the legislature must vote by a 2/3rds majority. That would require a minimum of two Republicans in the state Senate and three Republicans in the Assembly voting to do so -- assuming (as we should) that the entire Democratic caucus in the legislature will roll over and pay protection money to the goodfellas of Barack Obama. If the GOP holds together ("heh" again), they can block it... and see if the president is really willing to piss off two Democratic United States senators (Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, 100%, and Barbara Boxer, D-CA, 100%) and 34 (!) Democratic United States representatives in the House... votes even Lucky Lefty cannot do without in many cases.

Of course, given how spineless the Republican conference in the legislature has been since, oh, about 1970, if I were betting at one of the president's bookie joints, I would put my money on the Capo -- and federalism be damned: He'll get his way, as usual, and another debtor state will meekly pay the squeeze and say, "thank you, Don Obama; may I kiss your -- ring, now?"

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, May 8, 2009, at the time of 1:51 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman

Be nice to see him called on this and then have to fold OR pull about 7 Billion out of a heavily Democratic State, the home of the person 3rd in the Presidential succession?

The above hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman at May 8, 2009 2:23 PM

The following hissed in response by: GW

lol . . . Lucky Lefty . . . how apropos. All of this really puts into context the lefts claims during the Bush administration that he was "shredding" the Constitution. It made for a great meme, regardless that it lacked even a patina of reality. Now we have Lucky Lefty - and the Constitution really is being shredded. This cannot lead to a good outcome.

The above hissed in response by: GW at May 8, 2009 9:50 PM

The following hissed in response by: BlueNight

I heard a right-wing radio talk-show host respond to a caller's call for impeachment with the statement that the President has not broken any actual laws yet. (I think it was Boortz or Medved.)

How about RICO?

The above hissed in response by: BlueNight at May 14, 2009 12:25 AM