Obama Wants To Ingore, Bypass Congress

Okay, here's the situation. During last year's lame-duck session, Congress approved a measure limiting what prisoner transfers Obama can do from Gitmo. That was passed as an amendment to a defense spending bill that was passed and is soon to be signed by PresBo. Specifically, the new law-to-be would do the following:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/us/politics/23gitmo.html

One of its provisions bans using its funds to transfer into the United States any Guantánamo detainee this fiscal year — even for the purpose of prosecution.

A second provision bans the purchase or construction of any facility inside the United States for housing detainees now being held at Guantánamo.

A third provision forbids the transfer of any detainee to another country unless Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signs off on the safety of doing so.

PresBo doesn't like these provisions, because it makes his vow of closing Gitmo harder to keep. But he's unlikely to veto the defense spending bill, and he doesn't have the power to use a line-item veto, so what's a rabid statist like Obama to do?

Why, that's simple. He is toying with the idea of signing the bill, but claiming that his executive powers allows him to ignore this new law and do whatever he wants to do.


Think I'm kidding?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/us/politics/04gitmo.html?_r=1

But the administration is also considering whether he should go further by issuing a signing statement — a formal document recording a president’s interpretation of a new law for the rest of the executive branch to follow — asserting that he has the constitutional power to disregard the restrictions.

Under the latter approach, the president would assert that as the head of the executive branch and commander in chief, his prosecutorial discretion and wartime powers would allow him to lawfully bring detainees into the United States for trial or to transfer them to other countries as he sees fit.

It remained unclear whether the administration would actually carry out a detainee transfer despite the restrictions, or whether it would merely assert, as an abstract matter, that Mr. Obama had the authority to do so.

In other words, Congress can lawfully pass any law they wish, but PresBo wants to be able to ignore them when it's convenient for him.

Either he's doing it to be symbolic, to make a point, or he's doing it because he thinks he can get away with it. Look, Congress unquestionably has the authority to do this, and there is nothing that PresBo can legally do about it. Tough.

But PresBo isn't used to taking no for an answer, so he wants to simply ignore what they say.

Sounds about right, but is that REALLY what we want in a President? Do we REALLY want a President who is willing to ignore Congress and the Constitution whenever he wants to?

I can't answer for you, of course... but I certainly don't want such a President.