Washington Post columnist George Will declared President Barack Obama has in some ways made the White House briefing room its own part of the legislative branch.
As Will explained on this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Obama has shown a willingness to bypass the legislative process and alter laws when needed which makes the press room its own part of Congress.
“Well, I think Republicans have offered serious alternatives all along,” Will said. “But right now — no, I mean, the president, his name is on it. He did it without any other votes, so live with it. One Republican put it brazenly, Scalise of Louisiana — congressman. He said the president is like a man who burns your house down and then shows up with an empty water bucket, and then delivers a lecture on how bad your house was before he burned it down. That’s an untenable position for the president to be in.”
“It was nine months ago, an official of the Centers on Medicaid and Medicare Services told a conference, what we want to avoid [is] a third-world experience. And we’ve had the third world experience. And what Judy rather delicately calls the president’s accommodation looks to a great many of us to be illegal. What we’re told in grade school when we study civics is that in that building behind you are the two legislative chambers of the federal government, Senate and the House. It turns out there is a third, it’s called the White House press room, into which the president can, on a whim, sashay and rewrite laws. It’s an extraordinary civics lesson.”
(h/t RCP Video)