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Ron Paul See other Ron Paul Articles Title: Dismantling the Fourth Branch of Government Dismantling the Fourth Branch of Government By Jon Dougherty on December 22, 2013 The Sunday Read President Obama's plans for John Podesta demonstrates once again how the Executive Branch uses the massive federal bureaucracy to usurp power and unconstitutionally expand the power of the presidency. Every president since the founding of the country has appointed political friends and allies to high office. That much isn’t news. But President Obama’s hiring of longtime lobbyist and former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta is particularly disturbing not simply because of the reason why he was hired, but also because of the constitutionally unbalanced nature of American government in the 21st century. Podesta, like a number of Obama’s appointees, is an old Washington fixture and a Democratic Party hack. Podesta’s primary function is much more political than it is policy related; yes, he was brought in to help Obama advance his agenda, but he’s not interested in forming a consensus with Republicans, whom he has already compared to the deadly cult of Jim Jones. Podesta won’t be advising the president on how he can work within our constitutional system of government in order to advance his policy priorities. He will be advising the president on how he can advance his policies by going around Congress – and in doing so, bypassing the American people – to impose a radical leftist, game-changing agenda on the country. Remember, this is a president who seeks a fundamental transformation, and Podesta was brought in to help Obama make good on his pledge before he really becomes a lame duck. Now, can the president, at Podesta’s urging, simply resort to imperial rule? No – and yes. There there are some limitations to what he can mandate by fiat, but because of the bastardization of our governing process over the past century, there is much Obama can do, and is prepared to do, to achieve his objectives. To paraphrase Bill Clinton's administration, "It's the bureaucracy, stupid." The Fourth Branch of Government As head of the Executive Branch, the president controls the vast and powerful “fourth branch” of government – the bureaucracy – which consists of an army of faceless, unelected career government managers and agency heads established through various legislation over the years. This bureaucracy is answerable to the Oval Office, not the American people. Through executive orders, the president can wield more authority via the fourth branch than his office was ever meant to possess, effectively bypassing the checks and balances that were supposed to prevent this sort of concentrated power. And it is in this realm that Podesta will operate. Obama is on record for saying that this is “not how our system works,” yet he has already committed serial violations of our “system.” Not only has the president changed, twisted, contorted and essentially rewritten huge swaths of his signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordble Care Act, Obama’s previous congressional end-runs include executive action regarding mortgages and immigration. (In the former, Obama “a "major overhaul" of the government's underused refinance program for federally guaranteed mortgages,” CBS News reported. In the latter, the president ordered that certain undocumented youth be able to stay in the country legally, in violation of U.S. law.) And, as the feckless Republican Establishment attempts to work with Democrats to formalize the president’s unconstitutional immigration (amnesty) end-run, Obama and Podesta have already set their sights on the next target: Strict new job-killing, energy industry-crippling, consumer damaging environmental regulations, a favorite of radical Left-wing statists, as The Hill reports: The centerpiece of Obama’s push is a set of regulations to limit greenhouse gas pollution from new and existing power plants, the source of about 40 percent of carbon emissions. Obama announced the steps in June, as part of a wide-ranging plan to counter the effects of global warming at a time when legislative efforts lack traction in Congress. Republicans and industry groups contend the rules will raise prices on home energy bills and at the gas pump, and warn the coal country, unable to meet the new standards, could be put out of business. They're also upset that the administration is sidestepping Congress. These abuses of presidential power would be nearly impossible to carry out, were it not for the fact that successive congresses, for nearly a century, created the massive fourth branch that presidents now use to impose their will when they cannot get what they want by working with the Legislative Branch. Over the years administrations have regularly employed this army of bureaucracy to accomplish big policy goals, as well as micromanage virtually every aspect of our lives. It’s top-down control from Washington which runs afoul of the constitutional system our founders created, and Obama - with Podesta's help - is about to expand that control even more. Worse, complain as they may about this usurpation, most members of Congress apparently aren’t interested in restraining it because few truly support defunding that fourth branch or rolling back its power through legislation. That's why it has expanded during both Democratic and Republican congressional majorities; during six years of GOP control under President Bush, the fourth branch grew by leaps and bounds (as the corresponding rise in the budget deficit attests). A Sea Change Coming? After a century of big government progressivism and daily harassment by the fourth branch, are we about to experience a sea change among the American electorate? Could it be could it be that Americans are tiring of this big government bureaucratic monster – and are increasingly nervous about it? I think so, and I think the disaster that is Obamacare was the turning point. The punitive, one-size-fits-all, wealth redistributionist nature of the Affordable Care Act has finally shed enough light on the power and oppressiveness of the fourth branch. A new Gallup poll last week would seem to indicate as much; Gallup found that 72 percent of Americans now believe “big government” is a greater threat to the country than big business or big labor. And this represents a golden opportunity for conservatives. By making the disaster of big government he political issue moving forward, conservatives will resonate with most Americans regardless of party affiliation (or no affiliation). The message is simple: If you want your liberty back, follow us. Pledges to cut the size of the federal bureaucracy, restore the proper constitutional balance between the Legislative and Executive branches and in doing so free the people from the ravages of the bureaucratic state, should be backed up with credible candidates who can inspire voters and challenge the GOP Establishment. And the more Obama and Podesta shred the Constitution to impose radical Left-wing political issues - perhaps even with Republican Establishment acquiescence - the more appealing such candidates will become. That said, every successful political strategy should be multi-faceted; there is another way to effect the transformation back to smaller, less intrusive government - the Article V state convention process. Keep up with the latest developments here. As Gallup and other polling firms have shown, a sizable portion of the American people are already prepared to fight for less intrusive, less powerful central government. I believe there is another large group of Americans who are merely waiting for someone, some party, to "lead them out of the darkness." A conservative/libertarian Republican Party is the answer, and it must be committed to ridding us of the unelected, unconstitutional fourth branch of government. Poster Comment: The bureaucracy has become a millstone around our necks. 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#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
The bureaucracy is the executive branch, which includes anyone hired by the president.
#2. To: ratcat (#1)
That includes all of the flunkies who pose as some sort of watchdog of the public interest. A case in point, some woman came here from HHS and started to ask me about guns, I told her, "There are no guns here. I don't own any guns." I asked her why she was asking. She said that shooting happened out near Denver. I told her, "Denver is a long way from here. Why are you coming here asking about this?" She wouldn't say, but I hear she has called my place of employment asking about this also. As I said, the bureaucracy has become a millstone around our necks. ;)
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