Regime Rule: How Obama Wields Power

His imperial regime acts unilaterally without regard to the constitution.  He has centralized power, trampled religious freedom and favored foreigners over natives.  He has taken over the health care system.  Critics are branded disloyal and are subject to intimidation.

Yet the leader has a cult-like following and the palace media shields him from scrutiny in his own country while lionizing the autocrat as a near deity.

All those words have been written about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.  But they could have just as well been used to describe the presidency of Barrack Obama.  Democratic loyalists may protest the characterization, but the facts reveal Obama has governed more like a totalitarian than a president.

Since his election, Obama has abused the power of his office in a breathtaking manner that has no parallel in the history of the country. He has ignored constitutional limitations, created crises to subvert congressional authority, while smearing and bullying opponents of his agenda.

Here is just a partial list of the president's disregard for the constitution and the legislative process:

• The president unveiled 23 proposed executive orders last week on gun control.  During his four years in office, Obama issued 144 orders, according to the National Archives.  Many have been incompatible with the expressed will of Congress, which constitutional scholars view as an abuse of executive orders.  
• The president has usurped the powers of Congress by altering immigration laws.  Obama has circumvented the legislative process to relax immigration policy not once, but on at least two occasions since he became president, the latest on January 2.  The changes impact enforcement of a 1996 immigration law approved by Congress.  
• The president has made so-called "recess" appointments when the Senate was not legally recessed.  It has happened several times during the Obama presidency, most recently with the appointment of the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• The president has ignored the 1921 federal law that calls for the executive to submit an annual budget. During his first term, the Senate passed a budget on April 29, 2009.  Not a single budget has been approved by the Senate since then. Obama has submitted only one annual budget and it was defeated 99-0 in the Senate and 414-0 in the House. 
• The president has presided over a regulatory regime that has issued more new federal rules than any recent White House occupant.  New regulations have averaged 17,212 per year under Obama, according to Mercatus Center.  That is twice the number of the last Democrat President Bill Clinton. Today's regulatory costs amount to $2.2 trillion annually, estimates the Mercatus Center.   
• The president brushed aside constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom to require religious organizations to violate their own beliefs to supply contraceptives and abortion pills to their employees under Obamacare. He made the decision after vowing he would never force religious organizations to be subjected to the mandate.  

Obama's excuse for aborting the established legislative process is that he "can't wait for Congress" to act.  The truth is that the president is unwilling to compromise with lawmakers.  Instead of working with Congress, he issues executive orders and unleashes a torrent of regulations that carry the impact of law but are never submitted for legislative approval. 

Now Obama is threatening to raise the nation's debt ceiling without Congressional approval, although most constitutional experts agree he lacks the authority.  That hasn't stopped Obama in the past from ruling by executive fiat.   An obeisant media looks the other way at Obama's heavy-handiness.

Obama's overstepping of constitutional bounds can no longer be ignored.  Unless Republicans grow a spine and challenge this perversion of established precedent, the president's power will grow unchecked.  Soon Americans may be unable to recognize the democracy created by the founders.