There was a time when a President broke his campaign promises he had the decency to do it in person. That time honored tradition, it seems, is just the latest casualty in the “hope and change” era of this White House. But not everyone is so quick to accept the legitimacy of President phone-in’s latest stunt.
The Hill gives us a quick sneak and peek at this story:
Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is questioning President Obama’s use of an autopen in signing an extension of the Patriot Act.
In a letter Friday, Graves asks Obama to confirm that he saw the law prior to its autopen signing.
“Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed into law,” Graves wrote.
Obama signed the bill into law late Thursday night. The autopen was used because the president was in France, meeting with G8 leaders, and the bill’s provisions expired at midnight.
Graves cited Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution, which says that the president must sign a bill to approve it into law.
Our personal advice would be for Mr. Graves to try a different tact. It’s no good threatening the man with The Constitution. He has no respect for it. It would be far better to enlist the help of Michelle and Teleprompter. Obama is mortified of those two. And we seriously doubt either of them is very happy about giving up any of their control to Autopen.
– Written by Kip Hooker at TheVitaminPress.com
Source: The Hill
This post was last modified on November 10, 2021
View Comments (12)
Auto-pen?!?!?? Just wait until that thing becomes self aware and gets a sense of humor.......or has it happened already?!??!!!!??? Obama-care anyone??
I thought about it more and I think that the Presidency (of any country) should be one of those jobs where it is not acceptable to phone it in or to telecommute. I find that apprehensible. It is very disquieting to telecommute the job. I understand that sometimes you cannot speak to someone else face to face, that is fine, but reviewing and signing of documents and other things is not acceptable for him to not be present. I have a feeling he may have not cared to read the whole thing and had someone give him a summary. That is seriously pathetic. I think the same was done with the Obamacare, although I think he was present when he signed it.
So you are saying we will find out what it is all about *after* it is put in to law? The people in the US government would *never* do that! :P
And I agree. The Auto Pen is an ugly ugly idea that should be tossed.
With the Autopen and the Teleprompter plugged in there is no need for Obama to be physically present in the Oval Office. He's now free to work on improving his golf game and planning ever longer vacations. This is a win-win situation for the President and the nation; the more time Obama spends on the links or Martha's Vinyard the less damage is done to the republic.
This SHOULD be illegal and it is his fault for not timing things correctly.
I agree.
At least I do know tha signing the patriot act (No matter how he "signed" it) has made a few liberals I know livid. That is certainly a plus :)
I had the same gripe as soon as I saw this story a few days ago. I just don't see how it can be legal for a piece of legislation to be signed by autopen. It would be too easy for someone to sign Obummer's name to all sorts of stuff, and as corrupt as our government is, I don't think it would be much of a stretch to think that there is a real potential for abuse here. Absurd.
That should be the biggest concern. Who has control of this thing - Obama? Biden? The SCOTUS? Pelosi?
What's to stop anyone from putting ANY piece of legislation into it to be signed? Does anyone know?
And if this thing is allowed to stay on, look for the Democrats to call for it to be removed as soon as a Republican administration gets voted in.
Have you ever noticed that "SCOTUS" is only two letter changes away from spelling "SCROTUM"? Maybe this will give you a clue as to who keeps getting elected to take care of our business.
True dat.
Oh, and thank you for your service. I raise a glass in your general direction and extend my hand to you.
I think this is something that should be illegal. I don't care if it saves time or what not, the President should physically sign any bill he is passing with witnesses. Besides in this day and age who is the say his "signing" can't be hacked?
Hell, I would rather have this thing as president than Obozo. It's just as smart as he is, it can even sign it's own name.