Who needs Congress when we have bureaucrats to make the laws
What is the point of Congress passing laws when the bureaucrats can waive them at the slightest whim?
If you thought the more than 200 waivers granted to companies that failed to provide the minimum health insurance required under ObamaCare was flippant, wait till you get a gander at today’s New York Times story about companies allowed to deal with blacklisted countries. You know, the ones that need to be sanctioned because they support terrorism.
The number of waivers granted: 10,000. (see list) Bad terrorists, bad.
When the trade sanction law was passed, the Timesmen tell us, a couple of exemptions were made for humanitarian reasons. A branch of the Treasury Department can simply license a deal.
“Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions,” the Times reports. “But the law, pushed by the farm lobby and other industry groups, was written so broadly that allowable humanitarian aid has included cigarettes, Wrigley’s gum, Louisiana hot sauce, weight-loss remedies, body-building supplements and sports rehabilitation equipment sold to the institute that trains Iran’s Olympic athletes.”
Oh, the humanity, depriving even terrorists of their Louisiana hot sauce violates the precepts embodied in the Eighth Amendment. Life may be possible without gumbo, but is it worth living?
In one case, according to the Times, an American company was allowed to bid on a project to build a natural gas pipeline from Iran to Europe, a project the U.S. opposed. In another, a politician — doubtlessly not in the least bit influenced by a first-time-ever campaign contribution — pulled strings. It is not what you know, but who.
One executive told the newspaper he doubted Iranian soldiers would be taking his microwavable popcorn into battle.
If the bureaucrats can decide what the law really means, why bother with Congress in the first place?
Besides, do we really want our enemies to get their hands on weapons-grade hot sauce?
