Foul Recess Appointment

Dr. Berwick’s recess appointment is a travesty of Constitutional separation of powers. It is a clear and unacceptable action by the president to circumvent the Advise and Consent responsibility of the Senate.


I understand that by the letter of the Constitution no foul has been committed; however it is insupportable that there has been any effort to block or excessively delay Dr. Berwick’s appointment. It would be more difficult to object to this recess appointment if the Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings.

This position has been vacant since 2006, so there is no justification for an emergency appointment, either in the opinion of the previous administration or during the first 18 months of the current administration. Since term of vacancy isn’t justification, what is?

Dr. Berwick’s stated philosophy of wealth redistribution is not consistent with the Constitution of the United States (COTUS). As a federal employee, Dr. Berwick is required to take a solemn oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the COTUS” as a pre-requisite to being vested with any federal authority. If Dr. Berwick is not willing to renounce his commitment to wealth redistribution, he cannot honestly commit to the prerequisite oath as a federal employee. One purpose of the Senate Confirmation hearings is to resolve egregious conflicts such as this. It would appear that president Obama’s actions have been taken specifically to deny the Senate this critical responsibility.

While it is true that Under 5 U.S.C. § 5503(a), if the position to which the President makes a recess appointment became vacant while the Senate was in session, the recess appointee may not be paid from the Treasury until he or she is confirmed by the Senate, this approach is unlikely to accomplish anything of value though it should be pursued simply to register objection. My recommendation to my Congressman will be to defund the CMS until this presidential usurpation is rectified.

The list of presidential travesties; usurpations of authorities not delegated; extortion of financiers, Chrysler bondholders and BP; subornation of the bankruptcy laws of the US; failure to take care that the laws of the US are faithfully executed (immigration, bankruptcy, voter registration and voter rights etc.); the unmitigated deceit of the healthcare laws; the unjustified interference in the free market; and the utter failure of this president to meet his Constitutional responsibilities; grow more egregious every day.

I do not understand why impeachment proceedings have not been initiated against president Obama. An essential responsibility of the legislative branch is to protect Citizens from usurpation of powers not delegated by the all branches of the federal government. By permitting the unlawful actions of the president to continue unpunished, the Senate is failing to meet it’s lawful and moral responsibilities to the Citizens who have elected them.