'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone': Obama's Executive Overreach = Trump's Executive Overreach
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janklow
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'I've Got a Pen and I've Got a Phone': Obama's Executive Overreach Becomes Trump's Executive Overreach
just saying.In December 2007 presidential candidate Barack Obama told The Boston Globe that if he won the 2008 election, he would enter the White House committed to rolling back the sort of overreaching executive power that had characterized the presidency of George W. Bush. "The President is not above the law," Obama insisted.
Once elected, however, President Obama began to sing a different sort of tune. "We're not just going to be waiting for legislation," Obama announced. "I've got a pen and I've got a phone...and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions."
Obama's pen and phone did not sit idle. For example, despite the fact that the Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority "to declare war," Obama unilaterally declared war on Libya in 2011. Similarly, despite the fact that the Constitution requires the Senate to confirm all presidential appointments to high office, except in those limited circumstances in which the Senate is not available to act because it is in recess, Obama unilaterally placed multiple officials in high office without senatorial approval during a period in which the Senate was still in session.
To make matters worse, many of Obama's fervent liberal supporters pretended to see nothing wrong with such obvious abuses of executive power. For example, consider the behavior of the prestigious editorial board of The New York Times. Back in 2006, when George W. Bush had the reins, the Times published an unsigned editorial lambasting Bush for his "grandiose vision of executive power" and his foul scheme to sidestep the Senate and unilaterally install his nominees in high office. "Seizing the opportunity presented by the Congressional holiday break," the Times complained, "Mr. Bush announced 17 recess appointments—a constitutional gimmick."
But guess what the Times had to say a few years later when President Obama had the reins and he utilized the exact same gimmick? "Mr. Obama was entirely justified in using his executive power to keep federal agencies operating," the Times declared in defense of Obama's three illegal appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. (Those three NLRB appointments, incidentally, were ruled unconstitutional by a 9-0 Supreme Court.)
Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this. Once President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office in January 2017, he too will have a pen and a phone at his presidential fingertips. Should Trump grow weary of the constitutional limits placed upon him, and decide instead to ignore the Constitution and wield unilateral executive power, he won't exactly have far to look if he wants to find a recent presidential role model to emulate.
Comments
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I can only imagine what Trump is gonna do with his executive orders. It's gonna be a wild ride next year, I can tell. Let's hope Trump doesn't do something so ? up that the rest of us are hurt in some way by a foreign nation or his own policies. I can see Trump ? off North Korea or Iran in the wrong way and all hell breaking loose.
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which is the point that playmaker88 and raheemclassick seem to miss: it's not about Obama. it's about the fact that granting more and more executive power to Bush or Obama can still be bad even if you LOVED Bush or LOVE Obama as president.kingblaze84 wrote: »I can only imagine what Trump is gonna do with his executive orders. It's gonna be a wild ride next year, I can tell.
don't see NK being THAT much of an issue (beyond short-term havoc they could create) -
which is the point that playmaker88 and raheemclassick seem to miss: it's not about Obama. it's about the fact that granting more and more executive power to Bush or Obama can still be bad even if you LOVED Bush or LOVE Obama as president.kingblaze84 wrote: »I can only imagine what Trump is gonna do with his executive orders. It's gonna be a wild ride next year, I can tell.
don't see NK being THAT much of an issue (beyond short-term havoc they could create)
I see what you're saying. Trump using drones??? BOY OH BOY the Middle East is gonna see some very ? days. And of course, terrorism will increase, worse then now. I said it first. -
Yeah yeah, let's wait to see if this Administration sets up Muslim registries or another Cheney style torture gulag archipelago before we start talking that ? .
"ohhhhhh Obama overreached on overtime regulations! That's just as bad as internment camps!" ? PLEASE -
Obama made the right decisions. Cant get congress to do their job, well because congress didnt do their jobs...unless u mean gutting the budget and shutting down the government and not averting the fiscal cliff...
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i think you're missing the entire point of talking this ? . it's not comparing Obama to Trump. it's saying the acceptance of Obama's executive overreach opens the door for Trump.Swiffness! wrote: »Yeah yeah, let's wait to see if this Administration sets up Muslim registries or another Cheney style torture gulag archipelago before we start talking that ? .
remember when Obama was talking about how they needed to clarify rules for drone usage on the off-chance Romney became president? why did it only matter under someone who wasn't Obama?
again, it's not about the decisions, it's about the methodology.Obama made the right decisions. -
The president didnt declare a war on libya. The war in libya was a response of NATO, not solely the act of the u.s government. It is the presidents job to put the task of better serving the american people first, meaning keeping the government functioning as possible. The difference between the President Obama vs trump or Mr. Romney, is that President Obama is a constitutional lawyer. Both President Obama and Mr. Romney actually served in government and actually know and understand how to ethically execute of the office of commander and chief not as a self-obsorbed, ill tempered 12 yr old boy, without any idea how to hold the highest office in the land. Under trump, twitter will be the vehicle of policy and war..smh!
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The president didnt declare a war on libya. The war in libya was a response of NATO, not solely the act of the u.s government. It is the presidents job to put the task of better serving the american people first, meaning keeping the government functioning as possible. The difference between the President Obama vs trump or Mr. Romney, is that President Obama is a constitutional lawyer. Both President Obama and Mr. Romney actually served in government and actually know and understand how to ethically execute of the office of commander and chief not as a self-obsorbed, ill tempered 12 yr old boy, without any idea how to hold the highest office in the land. Under trump, twitter will be the vehicle of policy and war..smh!
Trump might have the temper of a child, but Obama was quite reckless in his use of drones too. Obama has helped fan the flames of chaos in the region, and Trump likely will continue to fan the flames as well. Shame on Obama for going along with the carnage that took place in Libya. Obama has been war hungry too.
