Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama, during a visit to Monticello on Monday, February 10, said, "That's the good thing as a President, I can do whatever I want." That statement, made to French President Francois Hollande and Monticello Foundation president Leslie Bowman, was presumably a joke. Key word: presumably. With Obama, you never can tell.

Obama's own recent statements suggest that what he said at Monticello is what he truly feels.

Speaking to House Democrats on Saturday, February 15, 2014, Obama said:

I want to work with Congress to make that happen. But, I'm not going to wait, because there's too much to do. And America does not believe in standing still.

In his State of the Union show on January 28, he said:

But America does not stand still -- and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do.

[Congress dysfunction]... prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy -- when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States -- then we are not doing right by the American people.

In January 2014, Obama, during his first 2014 Cabinet meeting, said:

I've got a phone that allows me to convene Americans from every walk of life -- nonprofits, businesses, the private sector, universities -- to try to bring more and more Americans together around what I think is a unifying theme: making sure that this is a country where if you work hard, you can make it.

We're not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing Americans the kind of help they need. I've got a pen and I've got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward in helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating. [emphases mine]

He also made it abundantly clear that he intends to ignore Congress by streamlining (what he says are) key infrastructure projects' bureaucracy. He said "I'll act on my own." On gun control, Obama will attempt, "... with or without Congress to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans."

Notice that only he gets to define a tragedy. What's really sad is that the MSM goes along with him.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, on December 3, 2013, before a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "The President's Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws," said of Obama: "He's becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid." During that hearing, Turley also cited the "'radical expansion of presidential powers,' the rise of what he termed the 'fourth branch' of government -- massive federal departments and agencies that can write regulations that have the effect of law written by unelected bureaucrats," and the concept of "The Imperial Presidency."

Obama's reason for bypassing Congress? He deems it, in his opinion, to be "dysfunctional." And, he's been saying that since (at least) 2011.

Obama's attitude is not new. In January 2012, Obama said:

I have advised Congress that I will not construe these provisions [Congress' actions] as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient.

That statement can be interpreted as: "Congress may pass laws, but I decide which of its laws are constitutional and which I can simply choose to ignore." Or, if Congress does something I don't like they can go to hell!

And, in October 2011, Obama himself (despite historical evidence of what his administration has failed to do) said:

Without a doubt, the most urgent challenge that we face right now is getting our economy to grow faster and to create more jobs... ...we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won't act, I will.

We are fast reaching the point of no return. In June 2012, Judge Andrew Napolitano said of Obama:

I think the president is dangerously close to totalitarianism. A few months ago he was saying, 'The Congress doesn't count, the Congress doesn't mean anything, I am going to rule by decree and by administrative regulation.' Now he's basically saying the Supreme Court doesn't count. It doesn't matter what they think. They can't review our legislation. That would leave just him as the only branch of government standing.

What does the future portend? More of the same. Obama "...will aggressively use his control of federal agencies to impose his progressive agenda on the economy and society throughout 2014."

Yes, this is the same Obama who, as a presidential candidate in 2008, said that he would never bypass Congress:

You know I taught constitutional law for 10 years, I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we're facing right now had to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all, and that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States of America. [emphasis mine]

As Dr. Michael Widlanski says, "There are few candid pictures in the Obama White House, and there are even fewer candid moments."

Joke? Obama's recent (and not so recent) actions cause me to think that what he said, "I can do whatever I want," was not a joke. It was a candid moment.

But that's just my opinion.

Dr. Warren Beatty (not the liberal actor) earned a Ph.D. in quantitative management and statistics from Florida State University. He was a (very conservative) professor of quantitative management specializing in using statistics to assist/support decision-making. He has been a consultant to many small businesses and is now retired. Dr. Beatty is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years. He blogs at rwno.limewebs.com.