The Patriot Post Digest 1-14-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-14-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Jan. 14, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” —Thomas Jefferson, 1823

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

What You Need to Know About Tonight’s GOP Debate1

For the Republican candidates, the stakes of tonight’s debate are mounting faster than a Powerball jackpot. It’s the second-to-last scheduled debate2 before the Iowa caucuses Feb. 1 and the third debate before the New Hampshire primary Feb. 9. As with previous debates, expect the sparks to fly. For the likes of Jeb Bush and John Kasich, who have been unremarkable in debates past, it’s now or never to make some waves, to land punches against other candidates in hopes of rising in the polls.

Seven candidates will take the stage: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Bush and Kasich. Duking it out at the Happy Hour debate will be Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul — except Paul declined the invite. He issued a statement3 saying he should have been up on the big stage and he’ll not attend tonight’s undercard debate. Instead, he’ll “double down on his efforts to talk straight to the voters.”

According to the polling data for Iowa4, New Hampshire5 and South Carolina6, Trump could win all three. Cruz and the billionaire are running neck in neck in the Hawkeye State, but Trump is cruising with a 17 point lead in New Hampshire and an 11 point lead in South Carolina, which has its primary on Feb. 20. In Iowa, though, Trump has been feeling the pressure from Cruz, who has become the favorite of value-voting Republicans, so he has finally begun throwing punches7 at the senator.

Fox Business moderators Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo might not let weak rhetoric fly. Red State expects8 that the moderators will highlight the differences between the candidates, focusing on the issues, because Fox News knows its conservative audience. As for the candidates, some of them should be asking if it’s time to politely excuse themselves from the race. There can be only one winner, and that person must be able to unite and excite the broad field of conservatism.

A Way to Slow Executive Overreach9

“Our Founders distributed power between states and branches of government, and expected us to argue, just as they did, fiercely, over the size and shape of government, over commerce and foreign relations, over the meaning of liberty and the imperatives of security,” Barack Obama told us Tuesday night in a civics lesson meant to browbeat everyone into agreeing with him.

So how do we use the separation of powers he mentioned to slow the unilateral advance of his agenda by executive fiat? Genevieve Wood of The Heritage Foundation has a strategy10: “Though Congress has given up much of its power when it comes to using its ‘power of the purse’ to stop executive overreach, there is one power it still holds, and there is absolutely no reason not to use it. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, popularly known as ‘Advice and Consent,’ requires the Senate to approve all presidential appointments of cabinet officials, ambassadors, and federal judges. The day of the Senate ‘consenting’ and following a go-along get-along strategy on such matters should be over.”

While this wouldn’t cause much trouble for judicial appointments — 91% of those seats are filled — there are more than 100 key administration jobs11 being held by an acting deputy if not by an empty chair. (And we all know how much Obama likes empty chairs.) It’s not uncommon for this to happen to some extent in the final year of a president’s second term, but Obama’s vacancies are more numerous than his predecessors'. Republicans shouldn’t hesitate to use any tool at their disposal to make Obama’s final year as unproductive as possible.

Obama Still Working to Close Gitmo12

During his State of the Union remarks13, Barack Obama said that he would continue to make the closing of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center a reality — just like he’s said for the last seven years. “I will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo,” Obama said. “It’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.” Late last year, Obama lost a political fight to close the prison that is holding terrorists and suspected terrorists. He tried to attach a proposal to the defense-spending bill that would authorize a move of Gitmo detainees to a prison in the States — even vetoing14 the bill when it arrived on his desk without his demands. Now, Obama will again use executive action to subvert the will of Congress and U.S. law. His administration has been releasing prisoners, five in trade for Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, and now 10 Yemenis will be shipped off15 to the United Arab Emirates because this administration no longer considers them a threat. But this administration also once argued Iraq was stable enough to leave. While Obama won’t close Gitmo all at once, he will close it one prisoner at a time.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Obama’s State of Delusion13, on Alexander’s customary and comprehensive rebuttal to the State of the Union Address.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here16.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
State of Fundamental Change17

By Allyne Caan

When Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008, he pledged to strengthen the economy, create jobs and restore confidence in America. On Tuesday in his final State of the Union Address13, he tried to convince America that he had succeeded. But after seven years of watching the White House operate outside the realm of reality, no one is fooled.

Obama set the stage by preemptively insulting anyone who would attempt to unravel the spin he was about to spew, stating, “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” Of course, someone who lives in a world of fantasy, where a jump in the national debt from $10.6 trillion in 2009 to $18.8 trillion today is “economic progress,” can hardly be trusted to judge fact and fiction.

In the land of reality, Obama’s economy is a downright failure. First, as The Daily Signal explains18, while Obama touted lower unemployment and more jobs, the fact19 is that the 5% unemployment rate today is worse than the 4.4% rate under George W. Bush in May of 2007. And the unemployment rate doesn’t count the millions who have left the workforce during Obama’s reign. Indeed, the labor participation rate today is the lowest since 1977, standing at just 62.6%. What’s more, the average unemployed worker has been jobless for more than six months, longer than at any time between 1945 and Obama’s inauguration.

As for those new jobs? Job creation has mostly kept pace with population growth. While treading water is better than the alternative, it’s hardly worthy of a medal.

And let’s not forget the $80 billion (per year) in new regulations under Obama that have wreaked financial havoc on business and individuals alike — ObamaCare being the prime example. Obama said Tuesday that “there are outdated regulations that need to be changed, and there’s red tape that needs to be cut,” but under his watch Americans have inherited 184 new major rules. Meanwhile, just 17 federal rules have been scaled back. That red tape seems to be sticking pretty close to Obama.