Obama's Plan To Seize Control Of Our Economy And Our Lives

                     OBAMA'S CREEPY EXECUTIVE ORDER: PERMANENT WAR ECONOMY

                                                                Executive order 13603

President Obama has made clear that he's determined to continue pushing his “progressive” agenda, regardless of constitutional limitations on his power. He aims to have his way by issuing more and more executive orders.

The most ominous sign of possible things to come appeared on March 16, 2012, when President Obama signed executive order 13603 about “National Defense Resources Preparedness.”

This 10-page document is a blueprint for a federal takeover of the economy that would dwarf the looming Obamacare takeover of the health insurance business. Specifically, Obama’s plan involves seizing control of:

* “All commodities and products that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals”

* “All forms of energy”

* “All forms of civil transportation”

* “All usable water from all sources”

* “Health resources – drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment”

* Forced labor ( or “induction” as the executive order delicately refers to military conscription)

The internet is abuzz with alarm about a 5,000-word Executive Order 13603, entitled "National Defense Resources Preparedness" and signed Friday afternnon by President Barack Obama. -- The executive order asserts broad powers both "in peacetime and in times of national emergency" to take command control of the U.S. economy for the "national defense." -- The order asserts the power to "control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in the civilian market" and asserts the federal executive's power to take control of "food resources," "all forms of energy," "health resources," "all forms of civil transportation," "water resources," and "all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials." -- Matthew Rothschild said the order shows that "the entire economy is now in service to the military,"[1], and the order is being called by others a step toward totalitarianism -- But a little learning is a dangerous thing, and such views ignore the fact that there appears to be little in Executive Order 13603 that is new. -- Ed Morrissey noted Sunday that the powers in question were already asserted in 1994 by Executive Order 12919, and earlier versions of them date to the Defense Production Act of 1950. -- In other words, the new order amounts merely to an updating to the present structure of the cabinet. -- Furthermore, it may be recalled that in Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), the Supreme Court held that the president does not have authority to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article Two of the Constitution or statutory authority conferred on him by Congress....

The order relies on a Korean War-era statute, the Defense Production Act of 1950, to further entwine the domestic industrial economy with the military. It talks of fostering “cooperation between the defense and commercial sectors.”

The stated purpose is to strengthen “the domestic industrial and technological base” so as “to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.”

This amounts to putting the economy on permanent war footing, even when there isn’t an emergency.

For instance, the Executive Order talks of the need for the economic base “to satisfy [defense] requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency.” And cabinet officials are authorized to “issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources . . . to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”

It amounts to a sweeping reassertion of Presidential authority. It reasserts the President’s authority “to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders . . . to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders.”

And it then delegates this extraordinary power to cabinet heads.

The Secretary of Agriculture has this authority “with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer.”

The Secretary of Energy has this authority “with respect to all forms of energy.”

The Secretary of Defense has this authority “with respect to water resources.”

The Secretary of Health and Human Services has this authority “with respect to health resources.”

The Secretary of Transportation has it “with respect to all civil transportation.”

And the Secretary of Commerce has it “with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities.”

Perhaps scariest of all, the Executive Order grants to the Secretary of Defense the authority to force a private person to assist in making chemical and biological weapons. Section 204, entitled “Chemical and Biological Warfare, states: “The authority of the President conferred by section 104(b) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2074(b) is delegated to the Secretary of Defense.”

Here is section 104(b):

“No provision of title I of this Act [sections 2071 to 2078 of this Appendix] shall be exercised or interpreted to require action or compliance by any private person to assist in any way in the production of or other involvement in chemical or biological warfare capabilities, unless authorized by the President (or the President's designee who is serving in a position at level I of the Executive Schedule in accordance with section 5312 of title 5, United States Code) without further redelegation.”

So now not only may the President conscript scientists. The Secretary of Defense may, too.

This executive order extends the power of the Presidency along lines similar to those sketched out by George W. Bush in his "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20” of May 2007.

Obama’s executive order, like Bush’s, demonstrates the enormous accretion of power in the Executive Branch.

And Obama’s order, in particular, shows how the entire economy is now in service to the military.

This is the military-industrial complex on steroids, and it's devouring our democracy.