Senate Bypassed Again

The Senate was intentionally bypassed and again made irrelevant by President Obama as he used a ploy known as a recess appointment to place Don Berwick as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The appointment is consitutional, but it was not necessary to be done this way - especially with a person as powerful as Berwick could be. If the healthcare bill is not repealed or seriously revised, Berwick is the one who will decide who gets care and who doesn't. He favors rationing and intends to use it.

All Americans, not just the Senators, should be outraged at this tactic. The President seems to run a very tactical game as skirting the checks and balances provided by the Congress.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entreprenuers, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

16 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Sales Trainer/Coach, Sales Books Author, Photographer • July 18 2010 01:11PM

Obama Eclipses Congress - Again

President Obama and the Congress need to be tutored in the Constitution. He continues to legislate, and Congress continues to let him.

This time, the BP oil spill let him make a major power grab that Congress simply applauded.

In 1986, Congress created the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund which stipulated that no more than $75 million in liability could be assessed against an oil company for the damages that a spill might cause to inviduals, businesses, or the government - not counting costs directly associated with the stoppage of the spill and cleanup.

The Fund had no monies until after the Valez incient. In 1990, the Oil Pollution Act provided that oil companies would contribue 8 cents per barrel on everything they produced - domestic or imported.

So there's already this Trust Fund set up to pay up to $75 million in damages, and BP would replenish the Fund.

That was, until today.

There has been a lot of talk and speculation about raising or suspending the liability cap, and this would have required Congressional action since they originally created it.

Not to worry, Obama in a closed door meeting got BP to agree to fund a $20 billion escrow fund that supercedes any action of Congress and makes all such talk moot.

Not only that, his handpicked pay csar gets to administer this fund. This amount is almost 267 times higher than Congress approved - and it may not be the final figure. Why even have the Pollution Fund which now stands at $1,6 billion? Let the oil companies keep their 8 cents a barrel and pass it along to us.

Can't anyone put a stop to the President's trampling of the Constitution?

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

22 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Sales Trainer/Coach, Sales Books Author, Photographer • June 16 2010 07:01PM