President Barack Obama visited Texas last week for some fundraisers and a speech at Austin’s Paramount Theater.
Gov. Rick Perry, apparently making another run for the GOP presidential nomination, pointedly turned down the idea of welcoming the current president in Austin with a “quick handshake on the tarmac.”
Instead he asked for a face-to-face meeting. His purpose, besides seeking national media attention, was to urge Obama to do more to cope with the huge influx of Central American kids flooding across Mexico into Texas.
Fine, said Obama, who had asked Congress to appropriate $3.7 billion for that purpose. He invited Perry to a round-table discussion with faith leaders and Dallas local and federal officials and to join him on the presidential chopper from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Love Field.
Then he basically put the border issue back in Perry’s lap.
Perry earlier had accused Obama of not caring about the flood of young undocumented immigrants.
“I don’t believe he particularly cares whether or not the border of the United States is secure,” Perry had said on the ABC TV talk show This Week the previous Sunday. “And that’s the reason there’s been this lack of effort.”
In June, Perry accused Obama of actually encouraging the Central American children to illegally enter Texas. “We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they’re in on this somehow or another,” Perry told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean, how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?”
Obama had turned down suggestions from Republican politicians like Perry and also from Democrats, including gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis, that he go see the human flood firsthand.
Other Democrats disagreed.
U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego of Alpine said a presidential visit would “divert … law enforcement and other resources at a critical time.”
“There’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on,” Obama told reporters in Dallas after his meeting on July 9. “I’m not interested in photo ops; I’m interested in solving a problem.
“And those who say I should visit the border, when you ask them what should we be doing, they’re giving us suggestions that are embodied in legislation that I’ve already sent to Congress,” he added.
Obama said he and Perry seemed to be on the same page on most border issues.
“The bottom line is, actually, that there’s nothing that the governor indicated he’d like to see that I have a philosophical objection to,” the president said. “The challenge is, is Congress prepared to act to put the resources in place to get this done.”
Obama said Perry could help lobby Congress.
“I urged the governor to talk to the Texas delegation, which is … at the heart of the Republican caucus in the House and has great influence in the caucus in the Senate,” he said. If the Texas delegation would help, “this thing can get done next week.
“And we can have more Border Patrol agents on the border, as the governor has requested,” Obama said. “We can shorten the timetables for processing these children or adults with children, as the governor thinks is important.
“We can make sure that some of the public health issues … are addressed,” Obama said, “so that we’ve got enough folks vaccinating and checking on the health status of these children to make sure that not only are they safe, but also our communities are safe.”
He might even send National Guard troops to the border, especially if that’s what it takes to get the Texas congressional delegation to approve the funds.
“As far as I could tell,” Obama said, “the only disagreement I had with Gov. Perry is that he wanted me to go ahead and do it without Congress having to do anything.”
Perry wasn’t swayed by Obama’s plea for help. Brit Hume, on Fox News Sunday summed up Perry’s attitude:
“In other words, Governor, you don’t particularly support the bill, and you’re not encouraging your delegation to pass this,” Hume said. “Is that a fair assessment?”
“I think you have distilled the correct answer,” Perry replied.
Veteran political reporter Dave McNeely can be reached at davemcneely111@gmail.com.
A List of Obama’s Constitutional Violations
Obama took the Presidential Oath, swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” but has:
• Used Executive Privilege in regards to Fast & Furious gun running scandal. When Government misconduct is the concern Executive privilege is negated.
• 23 Executive Orders on gun control – infringement of the 2nd Amendment
• Executive Order bypassing Congress on immigration – Article 1 Section 1, ALL Legislative power held by Congress
• NDAA – Section 1021. Due process Rights negated. Violation of 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Amendments.
• Executive Order 13603 NDRP – Government can seize anything
• Executive Order 13524 – Gives INTERPOL jurisdiction on American soil beyond law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
• Executive Order 13636 Infrastructure Cybersecurity – Bypassing Congress Article 1 Section 1, ALL Legislative power held by Congress
• Signed into law the establishment of NO Free Speech zones – noncompliance is a felony. Violation of 1st Amendment.
• Attempt to tax political contributions – 1st Amendment
• DOMA Law – Obama directed DOJ to ignore the Constitution and separation of powers and not enforce the law.
• Dodd-Frank – Due process and separation of powers. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau writing and interpreting law. Article. I. Section. 1
• Drone strikes on American Citizens – 5th Amendment Due process Rights negated
• Bypassed Congress and gave EPA power to advance Cap-n-Trade
• Attempt for Graphic tobacco warnings (under appeal) – 1st Amendment
• Four Exec. appointments – Senate was NOT in recess (Court has ruled unconstitutional yet the appointees still remain)
• Appointing agency czars without the “advice and consent of the Senate.” Violation of Article II, Section 2
• Obama took Chairmanship of UN Security Council – Violation of Section 9.
• Obamacare (ACA) mandate – SCOTUS had to make it a tax because there is no Constitutional authority for Congress to force Americans to engage in commerce.
• Contraceptive, abortifacients mandate violation of First Amendment
• Healthcare waivers – No president has dispensing powers
• Refuses to acknowledge state’s 10th Amendment rights to nullify Obamacare
• Going after states (AZ lawsuit) for upholding Federal law (immigration) -10th Amendment.
• Chrysler Bailout -TARP – violated creditors rights and bankruptcy law, as well as Takings and Due Process Clauses – 5th Amendment (G.W. Bush also illegally used TARP funds for bailouts)
• The Independent Payment Advisory Board (appointees by the president). Any decisions by IPAB will instantly become law starting in 2014 – Separation of Powers, Article 1 Section 1.
• Congress did not approve Obama’s war in Libya. Article I, Section 8, First illegal war U.S. has engaged in. Impeachable under Article II, Section 4.
• Obama falsely claims UN can usurp Congressional war powers.
• Obama has acted outside the constitutional power given him – this in itself is unconstitutional.
• With the approval of Obama, the NSA and the FBI are tapping directly into the servers of 9 internet companies to gain access to emails, video/audio, photos, documents, etc. This program is code named PRISM. NSA also collecting data on all phone calls in U.S. – Violation of 4th Amendment.
• Plans to sign U.N. Firearms treaty – 2nd Amendment.
• The Senate/Obama immigration bill (approved by both) raises revenue – Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives;
• Obama refuses to uphold the Business Mandate Law (ACA) for a year. President does not have that authority – Article. I. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States. The president ”shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed” -Article II, Section 3.
A Constitutional law professor (even their students) should know better. The TRUTH is Obama was a speaker not a law professor, and clearly he has not respected or protected the Constitution. Obama has broken his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Article II, Section 1.
The truth is many Americans think that he is the worst president ever.
According to recent polls, Obama is the worst president, I can’t recall which site it was, but the site conducted a study with a moderate group of people, and the majority of the individuals consider Barrack Obama “America’s Worst President of all time”
chris…do your research! Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. hardly just a speaker. as president, executive orders are not unconstitutional and it is a known fact that his predecessor beats the pants off of Obama in executive orders. were you outraged then? what bogus war did Obama start while his cronies profited?
What IS a “community organizer” exactly? Did he get a salary for that? What is the scope of one’s activities as a “community organizer”? Who else in high (national) elected political circles has been a “community organizer”?
Ignorance and racism still alive and well in cowtown…
“Racism” blah blah blah— is a pretty standard and meaningless accusation from the true believers these days when they really can’t answer a neutral question. (gosh I guess it took you 5 whole days to come up with that example of rhetorical brilliance—-LOL) Troll
@Marcie H, when a liberal/democrat cannot respond towards question, or make a comment using concrete evidence, they play the race card…
Alive and well, indeed. “Cowtown” is command central for such things in Texas.
Weird… I am a Hispanic, and I have never met a single racist person in Fort Worth. The city where I have gotten insulted for political views was Austin, and the comments I received included racism….and Democrats call themselves “anti-racist” (which is code for anti-white)
@Anonymous: True. For all of its egalitarian and “easy going” pretensions, Austin is very much the domain of an assortment of con artists, depressed,seriously uptight, unkind, and surly people. It is also curiously expensive to live there and almost impossible to get basic services on a dependable basis. Welcome to north Texas!
But the Austin hill country is beautiful and the natural swimming holes are plentiful. THERE IS NO WHERE TO SWIM IN FORT WORTH!
This article is not particularly flattening to President Obama who was in town for fund raisers, (is that a full time job or what, BTW?) and in spite of the urging of members of his own party including Wendy Davis, Obama refused to go to the border to review the on going crisis. “Then he (Obama) basically put the border issue back in Perry’s lap” to quote the author. According to Gallup and/ or Rasmussen (who have decades of experience in these matters) President Obama has between a 6-10% job disapproval rating. So I guess, McNeely, Gallup and Rasmussen not to mention a majority of Americans including Ms. Davis are all Racists.Or perhaps a more logical conclusion can be reached from the above information. “Sane” and “Roy” might actually try to read the article before they comment (name calling is just childish IMO) in future–just saying.