The Executive Branch Takes Firm Control

If anyone has any doubt that the executive branch of the US Government does not really care about the results of the most recent election, all they have to do is survey some of the following items. This branch of government is attempting to make the other branches of the US Government, as well as, state and local governments irrelevant in their quest to centralize power.

The following is a just a sample of what this administration is doing to create their socialist utopia. It is important to realize that they do not care who controls the congress or the state legislatures. They plan to use all their powers to achieve their agendas.

White House Presses Businesses to Quit the Chamber ofCommerce

The dispute between the White House and the Chamber of Commerce came out into the open in the Spring of 2010 over the president's healthcare plan. But, it reached a level that a government should never reach when it asked corporate executives to drop their membership in the chamber. And, though the Chamber of Commerce has not publicly accused the White House of pressuring the chamber for resignations, rumblings suggest that it did occur.

Several companies quit the chamber during that period, citing differences with the organization over the issue of climate change. They included PNM, Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Apple. Nike remained in the chamber, but stepped down from its board of directors. Asked about the resignations at the time, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, "I think it's wonderful."

Labor Department to Implement Anti-Business Agenda

While the Center for American Progress issues a list of executive orders to circumvent the congress, the Labor Department is already working its plan. It will increasingly use the courts to rather than fines to enforce compliance and "identify and pursue test cases" that could stretch the meaning of the law. It plans to target multiple worksites of the same company and use OSHA and other divisions at the same time to increase pressure.

Placing Gun-Control Advocates in Positions of Power

The administration is putting gun-control advocates into important government positions. Andrew Traver is their nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Not only is Traver to advocate gun control but done much to make clearly inaccurate claims about so-called "assault weapons".

EPA End-Runs Congress

Operating through permitting authority asserted under auspices of its Clean Air Act, the agency will now have a major say in the design of every major project in which fossil fuel is combusted or CO2 emissions are released, including electrical power generation, refineries, iron and steel mills, pulp and paper mills and cement production.

Effective July 1, 2011, any new source of greenhouse gas emissions that exceeds 100,000 tons of CO2 per year or plant modification adding 75,000 tons annually, will be subject to permit approval based upon undefined case-by-case "best available control technology" assessments. Under proposed new rules of the Prevention and Significant Deterioration program, EPA has expanded its regulatory reach way beyond mobile emissions authorized by the 2007 Supreme Court decision to control permitting of stationary sources as well.

If the EPA can regulate all of these industries, who will stop it from moving down the chain to regulating smaller business, hospitals, and even agricultural and lawn maintenance equipment. It's clear that the EPA no longer regards congressional approval necessary for anything it does.

Dictating Fair Profits for Insurance Companies

The administration recently announced rules dictating what constitutes a fair profit for insurance companies. Under regulations released by and Human Services, insurance companies must spend at least 80 cents of each premium dollar on medical care (85 cents for plans covering 51 people or more). Violators must give consumers a rebate.

This smacks once again of culture of elitism and is clearly socialist policy coming from this administration. In their quest for control they believe that they can 'one size fit all' insurance companies and force them either out of business or to make them into public utilities. Of course, if you play politics with them they will provide waivers exempting you from other mandates.

FCC Suggests to Control Broadcast News

Yet another member of the administration's team, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, wants more control in Washington. Speaking at Columbia University he suggested that a "public value test" should determine who holds broadcast licenses for television and radio.

Copps suggested that broadcasters "Prove they have made a meaningful commitment to public affairs and news programming, prove they are committed to diversity programming, report more to the government about which shows they plan to air, require greater disclosure about who funds political ads and devote 25% of their prime-time coverage to local news."

Who decides whether or not these conditions are being met? The federal government or some appointed board who reports to the federal government will. Most likely the FCC will write the rules and regulations. This is another example of an executive branch that will stop at nothing to gain the power and control they seek.

Conclusion

This is just a small sample of what is going on. This doesn't include the reinstatement of the off-shore drilling ban or allowing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve uranium mine licenses in to transfer to a Russian company. Nor does it include the recent EPA mandate to increase the ethanol blend in gasoline from 10 to 15 percent, despite all the negatives associated with it. The list goes on and on, but it all boils down to the same thing: centralizing power with the executive branch of the federal government.

As long as the MSM refuses to stay on top of these stories and in many cases are complicit in promoting them, most people won't have a clue as to what is going on. As long as state and local governments allow this encroachment to continue at break-neck pace, it will never cease.

The president will say all the right things in the next two years leading up to the 2012 election, but the executive branch will continue to seize power and control as many aspects of our economy (and our life) as they can because they are making congress irrelevant and 'we the people' are not stopping them.