Sam1911 has clearly stated how the law and government works. I'm just not sure it works that way anymore.
-Accelerated govt borrowing/printing produces nearly no inflation ("official" inflation)
-Indicators of economic health now move in the same direction as jobles figures (lower jobless trends now reflect people leaving the workforce)
-Bond yields have been at record lows throughout the entire "panic" (QE-inf has made these safe-havens worthless for
generating interest for investors)
-Massively unpopular, controversial, and nebulous healthcare and banking legislation passed all three govt branches (despite being unreadable, unknowable, and unwanted)
-An unpopular President saddled with a terrible recession was firmly re-elected (most economic figures indicated him being thrown out on his ear)
-A highly publicized and partisan election during a bad econommy yielded suprisingly low turnout for challengers (opposition party was unable to generate cohesive support despite widesprea dissatisfaction with the leadership party)
-Numerous leaks and scandals that previously made for juicy headlines and ruined administrations, now disappear from public interest in weeks (F&F, Benghazi, firing of multiple generals simultaneously, enormous green energy corruption, auto-bailout shareholder shafting, auto-bailout bungling of Opel sale, etc.)
I wouldn't count on "the conventional wisdom" to predict the future in these times. That said, we do still have a thing called the rule of law in this country, which severly curtails the potential actions of our powerful politicians.
Sam1911 said:
Those things do illustrate a tendency toward executive overreach
Honestly, that's kinda the Prez's job; to exert as much authority as his post legally allows, in competition with other branches and the States. The problem is when the Congress, courts, and Exectutive get too cozy and decide to roll over for eachother. It should have hacked off congress-critters of both parties when Obama declared his people would no longer enforce some of Congress' laws; instead, they circled wagons along party lines, and lost just a little bit more authority. When Congress is unable to function for protracted periods, necessity dictates the important decisions in government
will still get made, leaving the Houses irrelevant. The SCOTUS rarely overturns itself, for each time it does so, it damages it's credibility (which is really the only power it possesses).
TCB