Obama also knows his history. No matter what John Boehner claims, Obama lags far behind other presidents in his use of executive authority. According to the American Presidency Project, he’s signed only 184 executive orders so far, compared to 291 for George W. Bush and 364 for Bill Clinton. FDR holds the record, with 3,728. Nor has Obama employed executive orders for such weighty matters as his predecessors. By executive action only, FDR ordered creation of internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II and established the WPA; Harry Truman integrated the military and nationalized steel mills; George W. Bush authorized the use of torture. By comparison, Obama’s actions to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors and delay the health-care mandate for employers seem almost timid. Finally, Obama must act because Congress won’t. Problems don’t go away just because Congress is gridlocked. They only fester and get worse. So any president has an obligation to act, and there are two areas where Obama’s planning to do so. First is immigration. Only Congress can pass necessary comprehensive immigration reform. But the president’s expected to expand the 2012 Dream Act, allowing people under 30 who came to the United States before the age of 16 to escape deportation, while also easing deportation on undocumented immigrants who don’t have a criminal history. Obama’s also indicated he’s preparing an executive order to curtail a practice known as “inversion,” whereby big U.S. firms merge with smaller foreign firms in order to escape American taxes – thereby, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, saving taxpayers $20 billion over the next decade. Those and other executive actions are in the works. They may seem bold, but Obama has no choice. Serious problems demand bold action. And, besides, since House Republicans are going to sue Obama anyway, he might as well give them something to sue about! Read more at wnd/2014/08/executive-orders-obama-has-no-choice/#L8AAbDlBq4eiZwlF.99
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 21:21:33 +0000
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