President Obama has spent much of the period since the November elections honing his strategy for squeezing out Congress, as evidenced by his administration’s push to move forward on a nuclear deal with Iran and a climate pact with China — neither of which he intends to submit for congressional approval.
Obama is essentially telling Congress to stand down as he works with international partners to implement his agenda, even though lawmakers say their input is required.
Team Obama Tuesday extended yet another self-imposed deadline for nuclear negotiations with Iran, laying the foundation to continue talks through June and fend off new congressional sanctions on Tehran as long as possible.
The administration also submitted to the United Nations its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent by 2025, another matter where Obama argues that lawmakers don’t need to get involved.
Taken together, the actions represent the latest step in Obama’s quest to sidestep Congress after taking unilateral action on domestic matters like immigration and healthcare reform.
On both Iran and climate change, Obama says his actions are legally sound because neither deal represents a binding treaty.
Some legal experts, however, counter that Obama is more concerned with scoring political victories than ensuring he doesn’t overstep his executive authority.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said David Rivkin, a constitutional litigator who served in the White House counsel’s office in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. “Obama is not just a presidential power aggrandizer. He is totally expedient about this. When it suits him to transfer executive power to Congress, like the AUMF [requesting war powers to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], he’s happy to do it.”
Critics say that Obama is using international agreements to justify controversial domestic policies.
In cracking down on carbon emissions, for example, the White House now says the only way it can meet its commitment to slash greenhouse gases by nearly a third is through unilateral action imposing restrictions on power plants.
“The application across the board is straightforward, consistent with past practice and done in a way to provide flexibility within our economy to achieve these goals,” Obama senior adviser Brian Deese said Tuesday, adding that White House officials feel “quite confident” in the legal rationale behind the president’s actions.
The legality of the president’s unprecedented regulations on power plants will ultimately be decided by the courts, as will his unilateral action deferring deportations for up to 5 million illegal immigrants and subsidies central to the sustainability of Obamacare.
If Obama’s approach to Iran and the U.N. climate deal appears similar, so too does the Republican response.
GOP leaders took heat for a letter authored by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., warning Iranian leaders that Congress could undo any nuclear deal signed by Obama.
Undeterred by such criticisms, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., put international leaders on notice Tuesday ahead of their attempts to finalize a climate deal in December.
“Even if the job-killing and likely illegal Clean Power Plan were fully implemented, the United States could not meet the targets laid out in this proposed new plan,” McConnell said. “Considering that two-thirds of the U.S. federal government hasn’t even signed off on the Clean Power Plan and 13 states have already pledged to fight it, our international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal.”
And critics say the Iran and climate deals are designed in a way that the most painful elements of their implementation won’t be felt until after Obama leaves office. Obama can claim that he kept Iran from building a nuclear weapon and put the U.S. on a more environmentally friendly path without having to pay a political price for the tradeoffs.
However, the White House may not be able to deter Congress much longer.
Lawmakers, including a handful of Democrats, are approaching veto-proof majorities on bills to either require congressional approval of any Iran deal or implement new sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation if talks fall apart.
Aware of that reality, the White House on Tuesday claimed it wasn’t shutting Congress out of the nuclear negotiations.
“Our case to Congress has been and always will be that Congress should — will have an opportunity if a deal is reached, to evaluate that agreement. And they should do so on the merits,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. “There will be ample opportunity for members of Congress, for our allies, for our partners, and even for the American people, to evaluate the wisdom of this deal, if a deal is reached.”
