New Executive Order: Regulation of Commerce?

Will the Obama shenanigans never end? With everyone all atwitter about Obamacare, here is one that slipped by unreported by the MSM. On June 25, 2012, President Barack Hussein Obama signed an executive order (EO) entitled “Highly Enriched Uranium.” The full text of the executive order can be found here.

Obama, in the executive order, said:

… the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Russian Federation continues to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

Section 5 (a) is, from our perspective, the most interesting section:

The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Energy, and, as appropriate, other agencies, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their statutory authority to carry out the provisions of this order.

What, you ask, is this IEEPA that the executive order cites? IEEPA is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, enacted in 1977, and it authorizes the President to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source.

By itself, his latest EO would be bad enough, especially if he actually tried to regulate commerce. But, when seen in the light of two other EOs he has recently signed, there may indeed by cause for, if not alarm, then concern. He signed EO 13575 on June 9, 2011, and EO 13603 on March 22, 2012.

EO 13575, Establishment of the White House Rural Council: It authorizes a Rural Council to exert control over “agricultural organizations, small businesses, education and training institutions, health-care providers, telecommunications services providers, research and land grant institutions, law enforcement, State, local, and tribal governments, and nongovernmental organizations regarding the needs of rural America.”

EO 13603, National Defense Resources Preparedness: In peacetime or times of national emergency, heads of Agriculture, Energy, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Defense and Commerce can take food, livestock, fertilizer, farm equipment, all forms of energy, water resources, all forms of civil transportation and any other materials, including construction materials from wherever they are available.

Are we beginning to see a pattern emerge here? Were EOs 13575 and 13606 setting the ground work for his latest EO, the one that declares a national emergency? Is this the first step to Obama declaring martial law and using that as an excuse for suspending elections? Or am I just a conspiracist?

But that’s just my opinion.

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