This fall, President Barack Obama faces a rerun of Republic extortion tactics.

Republicans remain determined to destroy his signature achievement–ensuring health insurance for all Americans.  As a result, major Republican leaders are urging their members to vote against any year-end government-funding bill that includes money for “Obamacare.”

Faced with such extortion demands in 2011, Obama could have faced down his enemies in two ways:

1. Prosecuting them under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and/or the USA Patriot Act; and/or
2. Addressing the Nation as President John F. Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis and warning his fellow citizens that the Nation faced a moment of supreme danger.

Unfortunately, he chose to cave in to extortion and agree to the “sequester,” by which billions of dollars in Federal revenues were chopped across the board.

In Part Six of this series, I outlined how the President could apply the RICO Act and/or the USA Patriot Act to hold Republican extortionists criminally accountable.

In this part, I will outline his second option (which can be coupled with criminal prosecution).

Declare a National Crisis and Call for His Country’s Support

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy rallied his countrymen by warning them of the impending threat from a foreign enemy–Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

President Obama can attain the same result–by calling on his countrymen to rally against a threat from a domestic enemy: The extortionists of the Republican Party.

During such a national address, President Obama can reveal such blunt truths as:

• Republicans have adopted the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” stance as Adolf Hitler.
• Like the Nazis, they are determined to gain absolute power–or destroy the Nation they claim to love.
• They raised the debt ceiling seven times during the eight-year Presidency of George W. Bush.
• But now that a Democrat holds the White House, raising the debt ceiling is unacceptable.
• Despite Republican lies, we cannot revitalize the economy by slashing taxes on the wealthy and on cash-hoarding corporations while cutting benefits for millions of average Americans.
• We will need both tax increases and sensible entitlement cuts to regain our economic strength.

Finally, President Obama can end his speech by directly calling for the active support of his countrymen.  Something like this:

“My fellow Americans, I have taken an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’

“But I cannot do this on my own. As citizens of a Republic, each of us carries that burden. We must each do our part to protect the land and the liberties we love.

“Tonight, I’m asking for your help.

“We stand on the edge of economic disaster.  Therefore, I am asking each of you to stand up for America tonight–by demanding the recall of the entire membership of the Republican Party.

“As President John F. Kennedy said:

‘In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.’

“This is the moment when each of us must decide–whether we will survive as a Republic, or allow ruthless political fanatics to destroy what has lasted and thrived for more than 200 years.”

President Obama has taken forceful action against America’s foreign enemies—most notably Osama bin Laden.

If the Nation is to survive, he must now act just as forcefully against America’s domestic enemies.

Fortunately, there is still time for him to do so. The fact that a prosecutor chooses to not indict on one occasion doesn’t prevent him from doing so on another.

In doing so, he may find history repeating itself.

Joachim C. Fest, author of Hitler (l973), writes of the surprise that awaited Allied soldiers occupying Nazi Germany in 1945:

“Almost without transition, virtually from one moment to the next, Nazism vanished after the death of Hitler and the surrender.  It was as if National Socialism had been nothing but the motion, the state of intoxication and the catastrophe it had caused….

“Hitler’s propaganda specialists had talked constantly of invincible Alpine redoubts, nests of resistance, and swelling werewolf units, and had predicted a war beyond the war. But there was no sign of this.

“Once again it became plain that National Socialism, like Fascism in general, was dependent to the core on superior force, arrogance, triumph, and by its nature had no resources in the moment of defeat.”

With luck, the same will prove true for the extortionists and blackmailers of the Republican Party.

With the United States teetering on the brink of national bankruptcy in 2011, President Obama faced three choices:

1. Counter Republican extortion attempts via RICO–the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
2. Make a “Cuban Missile Crisis”-style address to the American people, seeking to rally them against a criminal threat to the financial security of the Nation.
3. Cave in to Republican demands.

Unfortunately for Obama and the Nation, he chose Number Three.

As a result, the Nation now faces a rerun of Republican extortion tactics.

Republicans remain committed to defeating President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act–otherwise known as Obamacare–which provides health insurance to all Americans, and not simply the wealthiest 1%.

Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Uta are urging their party to vote against any year-end bill to fund the government–unless funding is stripped from the President’s health care law.

Parts of the federal government would shut down on October 1 if Congress doesn’t approve a short-term funding bill before then.

During an August 9, 2013 press conference, Obama bluntly stated why Republicans are so determined to kill this program:

“The one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don’t have health care and, presumably, repealing all those benefits I just mentioned — kids staying on their parents’ plan; seniors getting discounts on their prescription drugs….

“The idea that you would shut down the government unless you prevent 30 million people from getting health care is a bad idea.”

Even though President Obama refused to stand up to Republican extortion demands in 2011, he still has the opportunity to do so now.

Here is how he can do so.

Option 1: Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act

RICO has been applied to not only the Mafia but to individuals, businesses, political protest groups, and terrorist organizations.  In short, a RICO claim can arise in almost any context.

Such as the one President Barack Obama faced last summer when Republicans threatened to destroy the credit rating of the United States unless their budgetary demands were met.

RICO opens with a series of definitions of “racketeering activity” which can be prosecuted by Justice Department attorneys.  Among those crimes: Extortion.

Extortion is defined as “a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion.”

The RICO Act defines “a pattern of racketeering activity” as “at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years…after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity.”

And if President Obama had believed that RICO was not sufficient to deal with extortionate behavior, he could have relied on the USA Patriot Act of 2001, passed in the wake of 9/11.

In Section 802, the Act defines domestic terrorism.  Among the behavior that is defined as criminal:

“Activities that…appear to be intended…to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion [and]…occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”

The remedies for punishing such criminal behavior are now legally in place.  President Obama need only direct the Justice Department to apply them.

• President Obama could direct Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether actions by Republican Congressman—and their Tea Party cohorts—broke Federal anti-racketeering and/or anti-terrorism laws.
• Holder, in turn, could order the FBI to conduct that investigation.
• If the FBI finds sufficient evidence that these laws had been violated, Holder could empanel criminal grand juries to indict those violators.

The fact that members of Congress would be criminally investigated and possibly indicted would not violate the separation-of-powers principle.  Congressmen have in the past been investigated, indicted and convicted for various criminal offenses.

Such indictments and prosecutions–and especially convictions–would serve notice on current and future members of Congress that the lives and fortunes of American citizens may not be held hostage as part of a negotiated settlement.

Option 2: Declare a National Crisis and Call for His Country’s Support

President John F. Kennedy did just that during the most dangerous crisis of his administration–and scored victory, nationally and internationally.

Addressing the Nation on October 22, 1962, Kennedy shocked his fellow citizens by revealing that the Soviet Union had installed offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba.

John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis

After outlining a series of steps he had taken to end the crisis, Kennedy sought to reassure and inspire his audience. His words are worth remembering today:

“The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are, but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world.

“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.”

President Obama can send that same message to the extortionists of the Republican Party.