OK AG Pruitt: Immigration plan unlawful
Attorney General Scott Pruitt
According to a release sent Thursday by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, the legality of President Obama's Executive Order will be tested in court.
"Tonight, the Administration proved once again that it is willing to mislead the American people about the effects and legality of their policy agenda. As they have admitted with respect to the Affordable Care Act, they think the American people are stupid. The American people are not stupid, and can see right through this blatantly political power grab on the part of the President.
“The President can tell the American people that he is taking this action because of his deep personal convictions about this immigration issue. But if that were true, he would have taken this action as soon as possible, rather than waiting until after the elections, so as to avoid the inevitable backlash from the voters.
“The President can tell the American people that he is simply taking the same kind of executive action that presidents before him have taken. But if that were true, his Office of Legal Counsel would not have needed to spend months preparing lengthy legal memorandums exploring the legality of this unprecedented executive action.
“The President can tell the American people that he has the power to take this action, but if that were true, he wouldn't have told the American people in 2008 while campaigning for president that, ‘there are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President.’
“The President can tell the American people that this action will only be available to those who have been in the country for years. But for that to be true, the federal government would have to possess the power to ascertain when these illegals entered our country – entries that by definition occurred undetected and unbeknownst to the federal government.
“The executive action that the President proposed tonight is ill-advised, unworkable, unlawful, and brazenly political. The administration will be held accountable.”
Why are lies by elected officials important? Why should dishonesty matter?
John Sexton writing for Breitbart.com answers:
Five years ago it was already obvious that the Obama administration and congressional Democrats were engaged in an elaborate deception, a series of them really. But back then most of the media and much of the public didn't seem to believe it. Now things have changed.
America's King George?
A list of administration lies might be a good topic for a book. But to just hit a few of the health care related highlights, we were told that the public option was not a Trojan horse, that it was about choice and competition. This was a bald faced lie. We were told we could keep our plans and doctors period, end of sentence. That was a lie. We were told Obamacare would reduce premiums by $2,500. That was a lie. That Obamacare was not a tax. Lie. That the VA was a model of socialized medicine. True, but not in the way they meant. All of these lies built upon one another, creating a vision of health reform that was all upside and no downside. And the Democrats barely, despite the obvious displeasure of citizens, forced it through, though only just barely.
What followed was several more years of various lies being told to adjust and protect the program. We were told, still incredible, that the White House had no idea what a disaster the launch of the federal exchange was going to be. We were told it was off to a great start, when in fact it only managed to enroll 6 people on the first day. We were told the problem with the site was too many excited customers when in fact the site crashed under just over a thousand users. We were told HHS had no enrollment targets when in fact there was an enrollment target memo. We were told the figures on enrollment were not available when in fact HHS was collecting data from insurers. We were told the rollout was just like the one in Massachusetts when in fact it was not. We were told the rollout was just like Medicare part D when in fact it was not at all. We were not told about a hidden Obamacare exemption that could have applied to almost anyone (it was finally added to the website after a WSJ report about it). On and on the administration and its allies in the media just lied about what was happening.
And slowly, slowly under the weight of all these lies and lies to cover up other lies, people got the message. The government isn't being honest with us. They're just saying whatever they need to say at that moment. And, despite the fact that the major media didn't touch a lot of these individual stories, word still got around as if by osmosis. The President's poll numbers started to go down and Obamacare's numbers went down or, at best, never went up.
And now, with the statement by Jonathan Gruber we may have reached the ne plus ultra of statements confirming this administration's essential dishonesty. Here you have one of the consummate Obamacare insiders--cited 71 times in DNC emails in 2009 alone-- saying on video that the bill was designed to fool stupid voters, in fact to fool them by fooling the non-partisan CBO which is supposed to be an honest broker.
Incredibly, even at this point, there are some, like MSNBC's Ronan Farrow and Washington Post writer Jose DelReal willing to suggest we're just missing the nuance. Somehow this plain admission of dishonesty isn't about what Gruber said or about what it tells us about the administration he worked closely with for years (even on the HHS payroll), it's about missing context.
This is standard operating procedure for the far left but unlike 5 years ago, I don't think many people are buying it these days. It has taken a long time, but Gruber's embarrassing admission may be the last one some people needed to see what has really been going on all along. What his statement shows is that if there's any possible political advantage in doing so, this administration is going to lie to your face. And that applies not just to Obamacare but to everything.