What蘑菇视频 a Kommandant-in-Chef?
President Obama has gone too far (they say). They claim he’s become a “Kommandant-in-chef.” (Whatever that is.) That they, by the way, is a group of Republicans who seem to have something against higher wages for workers under government contracts.
During last week’s State of the Union message, Obama announced any company that wants to do business with the U.S. government had better pay their workers at least $10.10 an hour — or they need not apply. Oh, the humanity.
Republicans, believing the president has now revealed himself as the second coming of Josef Stalin, have ruthlessly pounced on the notion that he can unilaterally improve the lives of tens of thousands of low-wage workers, as if he’d just mandated an end to flu shots.
Iowa’s U.S. Rep. Steve King, who resides in the Twilight Zone wing of the Republican Party, claims, “I think it’s a constitutional violation. We have a minimum wage. Congress has set it. For the president to simply declare ‘I’m going to change this law that Congress has passed’ is unconstitutional.”
Steve King, as you might have figured out, is certainly no constitutional scholar. There’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents any president from setting the terms of future contracts.
Certainly, if Obama had mandated that current contractors have to pay their workers higher wages — that, indeed, would have constitutional implications. Obama isn’t doing that.
It’s been four years since Congress approved a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. (July 24, 2009) Since then, there has been a growing chorus, especially among Democrats (and people who happen not to be Republicans) to raise it again.
In fact, since the 2013 legislative session, 23 states and the District of Columbia have introduced bills that would boost the minimum wage. While California, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York have new, higher minimum wage laws on the books.
But even the notion that the president is about to take action to help one group of Americans has set off a furious call for his demise.
That “Kommandant-in-chef” (he meant chief) crack was a tweet sent out by Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) during the State of the Union speech. He also called the president a “socialist dictator.”
Weber, like many Republicans, sees that the president has moved into an area that’s quite popular among middle-class America (more than 70 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $10.10) — so they’ve fallen back on that dusty old charge that Obama has become an “imperial president” — against the will of the American people. And they point to his “excessive” use of executive orders as the prime example.
Excuse me while I share some facts.
Since WWII, Obama has issued more executive orders — than only one president. He’s issued 168 executive orders. That’s two more than George H.W. Bush (166) did. But that’s fewer than Gerald Ford (169), John Kennedy (214), George W. Bush (291), Jimmy Carter (320), Lyndon Johnson (325), Ronald Reagan (381), Dwight Eisenhower (484) and Franklin Roosevelt (3,522).
If Obama is an “imperial president,” based on his use of executive orders, then we must’ve had 10 imperial presidents in a row. I don’t think so.
Still, there are even murmurs about impeachment. That, of course, would require real facts and a certain degree of courage.
Talk, as they say, is cheap. Completely halting the people’s business, when there’s no real evidence to support an impeachment trial, would be expensive. But some Republicans talk anyway.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose cheap talk has reached where no cheap talk has gone before (Remember his non-filibuster? The one that lasted 21 hours and helped lead to a government shut-down), is certainly no fan of Obama’s executive orders.
According to Cruz, Obama is exhibiting a “persistent pattern of lawlessness” by showing his “willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat.” TRANSLATION: We realize the president has the backing of the American people on this one. Since we can’t do anything about it, let’s just treat him like he’s a political “thug.”
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.