The Audacity of Arrogance

The news today says it is likely that president Obama will "ratify" the Paris Climate Accords when he is meeting with the president of China this week.  It's an amazing story.  The US Constitution says that any treaty must be approved by a two - thirds vote in the Senate.  The Paris accords have not even been voted on yet, and there is little chance of an approval when that vote comes.  As a result, Obama has decided (apparently) just to ignore the constitutional requirement.  He is going to call this an "executive agreement" rather than a treaty.  The problem for Obama is that an executive agreement does not have the force of law in the USA.  Violations of the Paris Accords will not matter.  Congress will not need to follow the rules in the Paris Accords.  Even the administration will be able to ignore the agreement if it wants.  And Obama will have doomed the Paris Accords in this country when his goal has been to get them passed.  If Trump is elected, he will no doubt announce that the Paris Accords are not an executive agreement and that nothing Obama did changed that.  He will either withdraw from the Accords or send them back to the Senate for approval (where they will die.)  If Hillary is elected, she will be faced with the choice of either pointing out the lie from Obama about the nature of the agreement and asking the Senate for approval, or she will continue with the executive agreement travesty and be left with an unenforceable agreement.

Sometimes, even Obama surprises me with the stupidity of his own arrogance.  Maybe he can call his presidential memoir "The Audacity of Arrogance."