While President Obama’s frequent use of executive orders to implement his policies has angered many Republicans, his chief of staff is warning Obama has even bigger plans to enact policies without involving Congress.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough had a warning for the nation — in his final year in office, Obama will indulge in “audacious executive action.”
McDonough issued his warning during a breakfast with reporters in Washington D.C., in response to a question about what the president meant when he said he would “go it alone” if Congress wouldn’t back him.
According to National Review, McDonough replied, “We’ll do audacious executive action over the course of the rest of the year, I’m confident of that.” McDonough also said Obama and his team would endeavor to make sure his EOs couldn’t be “undone” by Congress at a later date.
But McDonough hinted that Obama wasn’t going to be constrained by law, Congress, or the Constitution. “McDonough said the White House is considering executive action on any and all issues,” the magazine reported. “And the main question President Obama plans to ask himself is ‘Why not?’”
Conservatives have been denouncing the way the president uses his executive orders (EOs) to force his ideology on the country through his power to affect the business community, environmental regulations, and other sectors of the country. They claim Obama’s use of EOs has been the most extreme of any president.
Liberals counter Obama has not abused the powers of his office because he has actually issued fewer EOs than most other recent presidents. And that’s true, if you go strictly by the numbers.
However, as David Harsanyi notes, it isn’t the number of EOs, but rather what is contained in them, that is cause for concern. Harsanyi says Obama has perpetrated the worst overreach of any executive in history and his EOs have been aimed at far reaching and substantive changes in the American way of life.
While other presidents centered many of their EOs on things that won’t have a significant impact on most people’s, Obama’s EOs are meant to affect large segments of the population and he’s done so fully admitting he is going around the people elected to make these decisions.
You’ll recall his infamous claim he “has a pen” with which he can just write his plans into existence without anyone’s approval. Not Congress, not the courts, and not the voters.
But Obama has even raised the eyebrows of some liberals with his extreme use of the executive order. Late last year, left-winger Bill Maher warned liberals celebrating Obama’s EOs that someday a Republican might emulate Obama’s EO style, so they should be wary of Obama’s use of EOs today.
h/t: The Federalist
