"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."
Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said in a telephone interview.-Carl Tobias, Law Professor at University of Richmond
That's a rather shocking claim. I'm quite certain that the entirety of federal legislative power is given to the Congress:
All legislative powers herein shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives-Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States
I don't mean to single Obama out. Every president since Teddy Roosevelt has used executive orders... but it's never too late to go back on a precedent that violates the Constitution.
I don't really know why I was hoping that Obama might reverse this shameful Progressive legacy, but it appears as though he won't. It's precisely during times when a President is wildly popular with the public that we must keep the closest of eyes on him (need we look any further back than Bush circa 2003?).
If I can ever find the book I want to use a source, I'm working on a piece entitled: "The Bush Presidency and the Failure of the Theodore Roosevelt Legacy". I hope it will shed some more light on the dangers of the expansionist presidency.
4 comments:
i saw a booktv on cspan with this book which was pretty interesting. The author points out that the most popular presidents according to historians have been some of the most egregious offenders of the Constitution. His primary examples are Lincoln and Wilson. He also is a Harding apologist because Harding released Wilson's political prisoners. Might be worth reading a review or two of to see if it fits what you need:
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=&pid=1441383
Come on Connor. If I wanted to read this horseshit I could just spend a few minutes on Brad Leake's facebook page. Spare us
Also, this blog is titled sox & cocks for a reason. Let's try to keep it sports-themed.
How about those ranked Gamecocks, huh!?!?!?
First of all, it's not horseshit. If we don't govern within the constraints of the document on which our government is found, why should we even bother? And I think if you read the whole post, you would have noticed that its critical tone was bipartisan in nature.
Also, I found it funny that the day after I wrote this the NYT breaks with a story about Bush making executive orders to launch military strikes in a bunch of different countries, which constitutes an overstepping of the president into the legislative AND war-making power of the Congress.
Of course, at no point the fact that it wasn't constitutional enter the discourse in the media.
That said, I am going to start up another blog to mollify those who can't handle the extent of my correctness: modernliberty.blogspot.com/
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