Editor, Manteca Bulletin, 

Barack Obama has done something no other president has ever done. He has created law. The U.S. Constitution does not grant the president that authority. Only congress can make laws and the president only has the authority to sign or veto that law. Obama knew this. When he was asked by immigration advocates about granting amnesty to illegal aliens, Obama stated in 2013, “This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency. The problem is that I’m the President of the United States; I’m not the Emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.” 

Three years earlier, when Obama was asked why he could not act on his own, he said, “The notion that somehow I can just change the laws unilaterally is just not true.” So what happened? The laws and the U.S. Constitution are still the same. Obama took an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution. 

In 2011, Obama stated, “I know some people want me to bypass congress and change the (immigration law) on my own. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written.” Obama knew he was not an emperor and that he could not change the law; but now he justifies breaking the law, violating the U.S. Constitution, and his oath of office by claiming “congress failed to act”? No, congress did not fail to act. There are laws already in place that the Obama administration has ignored and failed to enforce simply because Obama does not agree with the law. Still, even if congress did fail to act, he does not have the Constitutional authority to change the law, by several of his own admissions.

How many other presidents may have wanted to change a law, but respected the Constitution? I’m sure President Abraham Lincoln could have tried to executive fiat to preserve the nation during the Civil War, but he knew and respected the Constitution.

I noticed Obama and the Democrats are trying to excuse this unconstitutional abuse of power by referencing President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 executive action. But President Reagan’s executive order was a direct extension of an existing amnesty law called the Simpson-Mazzoli Act passed by congress and signed by President Reagan on Nov. 6, 1986. It was not a departure from a law or an executive action on its own as Obama has done.

The U.S. Constitution was made to prevent a president from becoming an emperor or king by providing checks and balances to hold the executive, legislative, and judicial branches responsible to each other as co-equal branches of government. 

Obama admittedly knew he was not an emperor until he made himself Emperor Obama.

Frank Aquila

President, South San Joaquin Republicans

mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com