This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” April 28, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The American people have come together in recent months to speak out against the radical agenda being pursued by President Obama and his allies in Congress. And my next guests say they have strong evidence that the most controversial aspects of that agenda are, in fact, unconstitutional and could be struck down in a court of law.
Now whether it’s his trillion-dollar health care plan that requires Americans to buy insurance or his efforts to circumvent the Senate confirmation process by appointing controversial “czars”, or even his steps that he’s willing to take to push an amnesty bill through Congress.
Well, the brand-new book is called “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency and the Keys to Getting It All Overturned.”
The authors of the book, Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski are with us.
Guys, welcome on board. Let’s go over the title of the book. “Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency.” What do you mean by that, Ken?
KEN BLACKWELL, “THE BLUEPRINT” AUTHOR: This Constitution is the big boulder in the road that prevents Barack Obama from growing our government at an alarming rate, changing our governing philosophy from one of individual liberty to one of collective well-being which would necessitate, you know, growing government and taking decision-making —
HANNITY: What do you mean — define terms. What do you mean by an imperial presidency?
BLACKWELL: Well, I mean that he is attempting to shift the power, and it’s a very delicate balance of power between the legislature, the executive branch and the courts. He is trying to favor in terms of a strong executive.
HANNITY: But much stronger executive.
BLACKWELL: Much stronger executive. He’s centralizing power inside the beltway, taking power and decision-making from families, from individuals and as a consequence what he’s doing is building an unchecked executive which is by definition an imperial president.
HANNITY: You go into this in great specificity detail. “Czars”, the courts, the health care bill. You talked about the unchecked president. Explain how that would result in what Ken is describing?
KEN KLUKOWSKI, “THE BLUEPRINT” AUTHOR: That’s exactly right, Sean. What’s going on with this is that the constitutional is splitting the powers between Congress, the president and the courts.
HANNITY: Co-equal branches of government?
KLUKOWSKI: That’s exactly right, with each having the check over the other. The Constitution does not allow the federal government to order people that they have to buy health insurance.
It doesn’t allow the president to make laws such as cap-and-trade or card check without going through Congress. It doesn’t allow the president to run the government out of the White House with “czars” instead of people who have to sit for Senate confirmation and are accountable to congressional oversight.
HANNITY: So you’re saying basically the president has not upheld his constitutional oath?
BLACKWELL: I mean he’s going way beyond his constitutional powers assigned to the executive branch. And one of the things he’s going to try to do is he’s going to try to pack the courts to interpret his moves as being constitution.
He wants to move away from an originalist interpretation of the Constitution to an activism from the bench which would basically say that our Constitution is not the supreme law of the land. It is something that is — that’s a hindrance to his power grab.
HANNITY: You talk about when law making becomes law breaking. And we don’t — I mean the book goes into great specificity about the economy, about “czars”, about health care, how health care is unconstitutional.
So you have all those specifics. So I want to ask you, because you think this can be stopped. And I think it can only be stopped through elections, through the ballot box, through victory at the ballot box. You think there’s another way?
BLACKWELL: No, I think — there are two ways. It can be stopped by the courts. It can be stopped by the ballot box. And the reason that we put this out is to say to people and the reason people should buy and read the book is that if you like making decisions at your kitchen table as opposed to having Washington make decisions for you, if you like working through your health challenges with your doctors as opposed to having your health care rationed, you need get to the polls and vote.
HANNITY: Do you worry that — you see, I think we need to return to constitutional government. I think they shredded the Constitution, especially during the health care debate. I agree with what you wrote about “czars” for the most part. All these controversial figures, they’re unaccountable. This has not been done, you know, on this level by any president in history.
The question is, how much damage do you think is going to be done? And, you know, how do we get back the power once he’s grabbed it?
KLUKOWSKI: Well, Sean, that’s — as we talk about in the book, there are things that we can stop in court, if we move in the courts before he has a chance to remake the courts in his image.
There are things that he cannot do without Congress, which is where the 2010 elections that you’ve been talking about are so critically important. But then there are, unfortunately, as you say, some things that we discuss in the book that are things that, once they’re done, it’s lasting damage. And those are things that can’t even be stopped until we get to 2012 and have an opportunity to retake the White House and go with the new administration.
HANNITY: They can defund health care, for example, but they can’t rescind it as long as he’s president. I don’t think — I don’t think 2010 is, in the best, the rosiest-case scenario, is going to be where they can override a presidential veto.
So guys, a fascinating book, read. Thank you both for being with us. Good to see you.
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