[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H1439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THIS IS AMERICA, NOT BURGER KING

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the State of the Union is tonight, but 
the President has already said that he would ignore Congress if he 
doesn't have his way. He is going to rule by pen and phone: the pen to 
write down laws and executive orders, bypassing Congress; the phone to 
call lower-level operatives I suppose, like the EPA, the IRS, NSA, and 
impose new rules and, thus, again, bypassing Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, nowhere in the Constitution is the phrase ``executive 
order.'' It is not in this Constitution. This is not an imperial 
kingdom where the ruler makes his own rules as he goes along.
  We all learned in ninth-grade civics that Congress makes the law, and 
the President can approve or disapprove it. It is in the Constitution.
  Rather than rule by pen and phone, the President should be bound by 
the law and rule by the Constitution and by his oath, but the 
Constitution seems to be a mere suggestion to this administration.
  Madam Speaker, this is America; it is not Burger King. The President 
cannot always have it his way.
  And that's just the way it is.

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