Thank you for contacting me. It's always a pleasure to hear from constituents, and I'm honored to have the chance to serve you in Washington.
This country was founded on the fundamental belief that government should serve the people and not dictate policy onto them. Our founding fathers created a government separated between three branches with checks and balances on each other, to limit its ability to hinder the individual rights of the American people.
According to the Constitution, the power to make laws is clearly defined as within the jurisdiction of Legislative Branch while the responsibility to enforce these laws is laid upon the Executive Branch. When the President seeks to sidestep this constitutional order and govern by fiat [executive orders], he has overstepped his role of enforcing the laws.
It's certainly no secret that the use of Executive Orders has become a major tool of the presidency to circumvent the will of Congress, and President Obama has certainly been excessive in using this power. His signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has been unilaterally amended numerous times by the President, waiving the individual insurance mandate for only certain people and delaying the employer mandate. All of these actions occurred while the President completely ignored the constitutional requirement that Congress participate in these exchanges.
With the stroke of his pen, the President has changed, ignored and amended laws without the authorization of Congress. He has even gone so far as to refuse to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders, endangering our national security.
The separation of powers was designed to ensure that no branch of the government could overstep its boundaries and infringe upon the rights of the American people.
Our democracy depends on engaged and thoughtful people like you, and I hope to hear from you in the future. If you should have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office by calling 202-225-5861 or by visiting my website http://www.cook.house.gov.
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Member of Congress
Replies
I am not sure how to respond to this. He agrees, but isn't doing anything about it?????
Tammy,
I think they have a play book. My PA US congressman Charles Dent did the same thing to me after I had three face to face meeting with him on BO's ineligibility. At the last meeting we had the lead detective form the cold case posse Michael Zullo on the phone for thirty minutes and the congressman still will not touch the issue.
Save you breath go on to those that will listen.
Form letters - don't they just LOVE their form letters? That is all I get when I e-mail or write so I make sure I call as well. 'Course, all you get is some wet-behind-the-ears clerk but at least you get to hear a voice!!! I've really let some of them have it and some I am on first-name basis with I've called so often - specifically Adrian Smith's office.
Your letter was better than the one I got back from John Cornyn, it was so generic I wanted to hurl.