“…at their peril“:
“Lockheed Martin will give into the administration and ignore the law at their peril,” Graham warned. I asked what happens if the president attempts to reimburse them? “If he tries to go through Congress, well, that’ll never happen.” And if he tries to reallocate funds? “We would shut that down. The Constitution has a balance of powers for a reason. Congressional law cannot be unilaterally discarded by the executive branch.” Indeed, congressional Republicans will perhaps have an easier time controlling the purse strings than they have in reversing the White House’s course. In August, the Democratic senate voted down an effort led by Graham to force defense contractors to comply with the law, when the senate’s Appropriations Committee rejected by 17-13 an amendment that would have overruled the Labor Department’s advisory.
This is the most outrageous flouting of the law yet. It is shameful that Lockheed Martin is being put in this position, but if I were them, I’d obey the law. Morality aside, they can’t count on this administration coming to their rescue later. It’s clear that it, and the Democrat Party in general, has zero integrity.
The OMB analysis — which holds that as the law might change, there is no need for businesses to comply with it — is “absurd on its face,” the senator told me
That sounds very similar to arguments I’ve heard for Congress and the Administration ignoring the Launch Services Purchase Act — which, to the best of my knowledge, is still on the books.
The law might change is justification for ignoring it? Since when?
I’m glad Democrats are protecting the interest of workers and unions over the corporation.
Although, I must admit, I find it shameful that Lockheed Martin will not comply with the law. I’ve been a LockMart employee during a layoff period. I didn’t lose my job, but I knew many that did. What amazed me was how well informed I was that the layoff was coming by just reading the news. Well informed compared to many of my coworkers in complete denial of basic evidence. That denial really did cause unnecessary hardships, which this law is meant to prevent. Some of these people are planning family vacations and already preparing for the Holiday season. Plans that would be altered if they knew their job was going away at the start of the next year. Alas, we have the most transparent administration in history demanding corporation be obtuse.
This is the definition of tyranny. Laws for thee but not for me.
And rule by men instead of rule by law.
But look on the bright side. Once Obama sets this precedent, Romney can exempt all Republicans from paying federal income tax. 🙂
Ya know… Romney could be the speartip of an alien invasion that will be revealed after the election. Amazing. With a choice between Obama and an alien invasion; I’ve got to go with the invasion.
Well, I could see a strong argument from the Administration that these laws are mere whims written by men, and not nearly as binding as something like the prohibition against insulting Muhammed.
But more seriously, the Administration is definitely suborning the commission of a crime. Suborning perjury is clearly definied in criminal statutes, but I don’t know where suborning is covered more generally.
A good lawyer could dance on 18 U.S.C. § 201 for a while, but I’m not sure it’s a very good fit, since in this case it’s the public official trying to induce the commission of a crime, and they’re not taking personal money to ignore their official duties. They just suborning someone else to commit a crime with the reassurance that they’ll ignore their official duties in prosecuting that crime.
Maybe someone should ask the Office of Government Ethics
Oh yeah!?! Well Romney put his dog on the roof of his car! So there!
Two can play this game, Sen. Graham.
Just let it be privately known to LockMart CEO and BoD that if they go along with the WH extortion, no budget line item containing any money for any LockMart federal contract of any sort will ever get through the House again. Ever.
That ought to do it.
Except that the squishy RINOs have no idea how to play hardball. They aren’t even aware of the game.
If Lock-Mart is taking Obama at his word about not having to pay the fines, they should remember that every Obama promise has an expiration date. If they think Obama will win reelection, they just might chance it. They know that whole Obama’s promises come and go, his grudges last forever.
I forgot to add that Lock-Mart may be playing the odds that the lame duck Congress will pass some last-minute deal to prevent sequestration. The odds of that are pretty good.
I agree. Is there any reason why Congress would actually go through with sequestration?
While the contractors and GOP are obviously using the WARN act for political gain, the administration’s wrong to tell contractors to ignore it. They should have seen this coming when they agreed to sequestration in the first place, but they didn’t, so they should take their lumps.
Still, it’s funny to see the GOP rallying around the WARN Act, a law they’d love to repeal.
They’re not rallying around the WARN Act, they’re rallying around the rule of law, something that this administration clearly doesn’t give a damn about when it finds the law politically inconvenient to its agenda.
Congress will go through with sequestration because it is what the Democrats want. A $500b cut to defense is a Democrat wet dream and the other programs to be cut are not Democrat sacred cows but they do present the opportunity to continue throw grandma off the cliff attacks.
There is no incentive for the Democrats to compromise.
I don’t see what is “funny.”
I mean, suppose the Republicans do love to repeal the WARN Act. Maybe by calling out Mr. Obama on this, they are complaining of “WARN Act for me but not for thee”, that is, they are calling the President out for hypocrisy.
So I don’t get the logic or the humor of any of this. If the Repubs are against the WARN act, they should say, “Hooray, the President is engaged in Executive Nullification of a law we don’t like either”? The usual reaction when a political opponent doesn’t want to apply an unpopular law to himself is to make political hay out it. Is there something I am not following here?
I don’t agree with Rand on many things too, but there are some things offered contra-Rand that I simply don’t get.
Um, so does an absence of defenders of the Administration on this topic indicate an absence of a valid defense?
If LockMart doesn’t give out the notices, would it open them to a huge set of employee lawsuits? If Obama loses, will he grant LockMart some kind of Presidential pardon (can that even be done for civil suits against a corporation?) or will he throw them under the bus?
The last thing any big corporation wants to do is offend anyone especially Lockmart and more especially a political figure. CEO Bobby will get a meeting with Senator Graham and explain that “I asked for guidance and the labor dept. provided it, what was I supposed to do? I agree that it was sleazy but my hands were tied, now come on be reasonable. BTW, here’s the number for Mr. Smith who’s the president of an important PAC, give him a call I think he said something about making a big donation to your reelection fund”
Even if the same sleazy stuff happens in the rest of the corporate world it’s worse when it happens in the aerospace business because the money for the business is taken by force from other Americans.
Add “Corporate Death Penalty” as a verdict.
1) Bankruptcy to break all the contracts with the executives.
2) Attempt clawbacks on all of them. (-attempt-)
3) Fire the executive tier.
4) The AT&T breakup.
The reason that LockMart caved is very simple: Their overbudget, underperforming disaster of a “fighter”, the F-35, is a real target for cancellation. LM was read the Riot Act recently, and came to the conclusion that when the Obama administration says “Jump!”, they had better do so.
Romney of course will increase the funding for this piece of junk, but I suspect that LM’s senior management has come to the logical conclusion that Mitty is not going to be the next president, and are acting accordingly.
After last nights debate, I expect some reevaluations are going on this morning.