Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Corker Bill Allowed Obama to Bypass U.S. Constitution



Democrats contend the Constitution is a living and breathing document.  To put it more succinctly, the law of the land is nothing more than a living and breathing suggestion.  They’ll make it up as they go along; the end justifies the means.

We expect conservatives to have more respect for the law.  So it was disconcerting when republicans introduced and passed legislation that allowed both the Senate and the President of the United States to forgo the Constitution which requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass a treaty. 

Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) crafted a bill that circumvented the constitutional process.  Their contention, along with others, is that this law was required to ensure Obama didn’t make a secret agreement with the Iranians.  That is completely preposterous.  Worse, this law set a precedent.

Advocates for this Iranian agreement state this is not a treaty.  Well, what in the hell do you call an agreement between two countries?  I believe that is called a treaty!  Bastardization of the English language continues!

Andrew McCarthy wrote in National Review the premise of the Corker Bill was completely and utterly absurd.  Here is an excerpt:

 As I’ve pointed out before, most recently in replying last evening to the dissent from my column, there was no merit to the claim that it was necessary to enact the Corker bill in order to ensure that Obama could not cut a secret deal with Iran. To begin with, the Corker bill does not deliver the transparency its sponsors suggest – it expressly anticipates and implicitly approves the classification of sections of the deal. More to the point, Congress has many constitutional powers at its disposal to pressure presidents into revealing the terms of international pacts – there was no need for lawmakers to compromise their powers over international agreements and international commerce, as they have done by enacting the Corker bill, in order to force the president to surrender a copy of a proposed deal with a foreign power.


We can expect future presidents to bypass the two-thirds treaty provision in the U.S. Constitution based on the presumption that agreements between nations aren’t treaties.  The geniuses who crafted this legislation reversed rolls.  Now, lawmakers have to override an executive veto by a two-thirds majority vote!

All hail, that living and breathing suggestion called the U.S. Constitution.

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