Where Obama’s Agenda is Being Defeated

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By USDR.

Republican attorneys general are the “scourge of President Obama” according to The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes. “They drive the Environmental Protection Agency crazy. They’ve beaten the best lawyers at the Justice Department numerous times,” Barnes writes.

Key excerpts are included below or read the full story here.

“In the past few years Republican attorneys general have become a growing force in national affairs.

“In effect, the administration has been put on notice: If you adopt policies inconsistent with constitutional limits and the rule of law, Republican attorneys general will come after you. “We have a network and we’re always on alert,” says Alabama AG Luther Strange. In Oklahoma, [RAGA Chairman Scott] Pruitt has created a special federalism unit to track federal policies that may infringe on the authority of states. Obama “should know we’re not going to back down,” says Florida AG Pam Bondi.

“The Obamacare suits are the best-known challenge to the president’s agenda, but not the only important one. The attorneys general—that’s the awkward but proper plural—blocked EPA from overreaching on water and air pollution enforcement. They forced federal mining authorities to abandon an effort to seize control of mining permits from state authorities. They intervened on behalf of Boeing to halt the National Labor Relations Board from barring the airline manufacturer from assembling 787s in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.”

“The AGs are committed—“ruthlessly committed” is how Pruitt puts it—to obstructing the expansion of the federal government at the expense of the states. They are champions of federalism, the Tenth Amendment, states’ rights, and a defanged federal government.”

According to a statement, “The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is the largest caucus of Republican state leaders in the country and the only national organization whose mission is to elect down-ballot, state-level Republican officeholders. Since 2002, the RSLC has been working to elect candidates to the office of lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state legislator. The RSLC has more than 100,000 donors in all 50 states. In the 2011-2012 election cycle, the RSLC invested in 42 states, breaking previous fundraising and political spending records, set in 2009-2010, with an increase in fundraising by 28 percent to $39 million and an increase in direct political spending by 35 percent to $27 million. This cycle’s effort picked up six new legislative chambers, saw a net gain in over 30 chambers, created or expanded 16 Republican supermajorities and picked up two new attorneys general. Additionally, the RSLC successfully launched the Future Majority Project, spending more than $5 million in direct support of Republican candidates of Hispanic descent and women, and investing to expand digital outreach efforts to millennial voters.”