I wonder whether most people truly understand the scope and import of Obama's lawless order to halt deportations and allow work permits for up to 5 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.
Do they understand that he doesn't have the constitutional authority to do this? Do they understand that he admitted not having the constitutional authority to do this? Do they understand that Congress considered and rejected such action when it declined to pass the DREAM Act? Do they understand that under Obama's rule, these immigrants will be eligible for Social Security payments and even receive credit, in some instances, for sums they paid into the Social Security system while using fraudulent Social Security numbers?
How much contempt for the law can a chief executive officer of the United States government demonstrate?
The Daily Caller is reporting that a Congressional Research Service memo provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee states that "under the November 20, 2014, policy memorandum, foreign nationals who receive deferred action status may be eligible for work authorization. As a result, a foreign national who receives deferred action status may be able to have all of his or her Social Security-covered earnings count toward qualifying for a Social Security benefit (all earnings from authorized and unauthorized work)."
This means that these immigrants will profit from their double wrongdoing -- being here illegally and using a fraudulent Social Security number -- at the hands of the very government that instituted those laws and whose duty it is to enforce them. These earnings could count toward their retirement, disability and survivor benefits.
I guess it will be as if it never happened. Under Obama's executive fiats, these immigrants will receive new Social Security numbers. New number, clean slate; stroke of the pen, law of the land.
As your friendly therapist might ask you, "how does that make you feel?"
Adding insult to injury -- and aggravation to anarchy -- Obama's White House is playing fast and loose with the truth on this matter. Shocker.
In November, an administration official told reporters that these immigrants would not be eligible for Social Security benefits. But as The Daily Caller notes, the White House changed its tune in December, saying the official had misspoken in November and that immigrants protected under Obama's action will be eligible for those benefits.
Who really believes that the administration official misspoke in November, as opposed to misrepresenting the facts to soften the blow of this already-outrageous executive action? Sen. Jeff Sessions wasn't buying it, and one of his spokesmen pointed out that this new eligibility "is an attack on working families (because) the amnestied illegal immigrants are largely older, lower-wage and lower-skilled and will draw billions more in benefits than they will pay in."
Seriously, how much more bad news could there be with this executive action?
It's funny you should ask. In fact, there is more to consider. Indeed, I must add more questions to my list at the beginning of this column. Do people truly realize that our entitlement programs, including Social Security, are in dire straits? Do they understand that at some point in the near future, entitlement benefits will consume 100 percent of federal tax revenues, such that there will be no money left over for discretionary spending? Do they realize that the president who is unduly burdening our fiscal condition is the same man who just exacerbated the pressures on that system by making these immigrants eligible for benefits?
More importantly, do they realize he's the primary person standing in the way of structural entitlement reform, which is necessary to avert the inevitable federal fiscal calamity? This is the same man who wants us to alter our entire way of life, block the Keystone XL pipeline and further burden us with quixotic spending on fantastic "green" projects because he sees global warming as the greatest threat to this nation and the world. So we have a tangible, undeniable fiscal crisis looming over our heads -- it will most likely materialize within 20 years -- and he chooses to ignore it while demanding radical action on global warming, which wouldn't make an appreciable difference in global temperature in a century, even if you believe the alarmism underlying this hysteria. But I digress.
Just in case you thought there are no further outrages to report here, I must inform you that the Justice Department filed an emergency motion last week asking a federal appeals court to suspend the injunction issued by a U.S. District Court in Texas against Obama's lawless amnesty order. In its motion, the highhanded DOJ characterized the District Court's injunction as "interfering with immigration enforcement." That would make George Orwell proud, for in fact, the District Court is doing just the opposite; it is trying to make the administration enforce the existing law, not the illegal one that Obama whisked into existence with his pen and phone.
The DOJ motion also argued, speciously, that the District Court injunction "offends basic separation-of-powers and federalism principles and impinges on core Executive functions." You've got to admit that these people have chutzpah. Again, their words are wholly at odds with the facts. Obama is the one who has grossly offended separation of powers and federalism principles and has exceeded his executive authority.
What a colossal, disgraceful nightmare we're experiencing.