Change by Executive Order

[mscelina]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081110/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_26


WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.

"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."


This should be an interesting topic to discuss. We've had healthy debates on executive orders in the past. Should the new President implement his intiatives by decree, bypassing the Democrat-controlled Congress?

[Bravo]

so he plans on reversing the executive orders of bush?

[mscelina]

The article addresses a single executive order--first established by Reagan and supported by Bush Sr, then lifted by Clinton and reinstated by Bush Jr. --the overseas restriction on abortion in order to receive US aid that Obama is likely to overturn. There's nothing about a blanket reversal of all of Bush's executive orders.

[Duncan J Macdonald]

The article addresses a single executive order--first established by Reagan and supported by Bush Sr, then lifted by Clinton and reinstated by Bush Jr. --the overseas restriction on abortion in order to receive US aid that Obama is likely to overturn. There's nothing about a blanket reversal of all of Bush's executive orders.
It's a legitimate use of Executive power. Go for it.

[mscelina]

It's a legitimate use of Executive power. Go for it.

So speed is of the essence then? Okay.

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN09399152

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The economic crisis will not stop President-elect Barack Obama from expanding health care, overhauling education and energy policy, and passing a middle-class tax cut soon after he takes office in January, senior aides said on Sunday.

Meanwhile the U.S. Congress should act to ease the pain of an economy sliding into recession by extending unemployment benefits and boosting aid to states struggling to meet their health-care obligations, they said.

Obama's transitional team has outlined an ambitious agenda for the next several months as it scrambles to assemble an administration in the face of what is widely viewed as the worst economic slump since the Great
Depression.

The economic crisis will not prevent Obama from pursuing the priorities he outlined on the campaign trail, said John Podesta, co-chair of Obama's transition team.


So how far should executive order be used to accomplish these ambitious plans?

[AncientEagle]

So speed is of the essence then? Okay.

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN09399152



So how far should executive order be used to accomplish these ambitious plans?

I'd think, pretty far, if that's what it takes to get some significant things done fast, those key moves that have been part of his program all along. Whatever isn't done fast is likely to bog down as soon as the lovefest ends and members of Congress, of both parties, begin to react to their own agendas again.

[astonwest]

Hell, why wait for January...maybe he should just get started tomorrow.

[emeraldcite]

Executive Orders have been used by both sides to get things done while bypassing Congress. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Obama is going to do it as well.

Perhaps the real surprise is that Obama is talking about it, rather than doing it quietly.

[gasp!]

[semi-]Transparent Government.

What shall we do!

You can check out Executive Orders here (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html).

[Duncan J Macdonald]

So speed is of the essence then? Okay.

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN09399152

So how far should executive order be used to accomplish these ambitious plans?
Considering that Executive Orders do not have the force of law, very little, actually.

Executive Orders are directive to Federal Agencies (parts of the Executive Branch) on how to execute the laws that affect their agencies.

The President can't legislate by Executive Order -- Truman found that out when he tried to nationalize the steel industry (Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952))-- so the new administration is severly limited in what they can do without Congress first.

[Christine N.]

The article specifically points to those things that a POTUS can do without Congress. These are merely policies Bush either put in place or kept from before that Obama doesn't agree with. Like stem cell research.

Bush put 'em in place without Congress, and that's how they'll go out.

[Duncan J Macdonald]

The article specifically points to those things that a POTUS can do without Congress. These are merely policies Bush either put in place or kept from before that Obama doesn't agree with. Like stem cell research.

Bush put 'em in place without Congress, and that's how they'll go out.
The article pointed to two things ... the stem cell E.O. and the oil-drilling E.O., that can be affected immediately with amending or cancelling E.O.s.
Everything else in the article requires Congress first.

[Don]

If Obama were serious about Change and a Constitutional government, he'd give back most of the power that GWB and Presidents before him have siezed by using Executive Orders, and negate the executive's position above the law by refuting all the signing statements Bush issued.

My money says there's no way in hell that will happen.