Inside Washington
What happens in the halls of national government – for better or for worse – can dictate the future course of America. Along with your fellow Prayer Team members, you are to be constantly and fervently interceding for all the men and women who serve in Congress, for your military leaders in the Pentagon, and for the President of the United States, his cabinet and administration.
“Inside Washington” will equip you to do just that … with reports on the nation’s leaders and the decisions they’re considering … or have already made. We’ll examine the implications for the nation, and call you to specific prayer for those needs.
Take a look inside what’s happening with the government … then choose to pray with a heart of Godly love and concern for America and the leaders God has placed in authority.
Bypassing Congress
Obama just the latest to utilize executive power to push an agenda
by Bill Noles Jr.
Confronted with Congressional opposition, President Obama is increasingly resorting to executive power to move his policies forward. Recently, Obama exercised his executive power to promote measures that would safeguard veterans and members of the military against unscrupulous college recruiters.
“If Congress refuses to act,” the president said, “I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.” Seeking ways to act without Congress, the Obama administration branded its unilateral efforts “We Can’t Wait.”
“Obama’s not saying he has the right to defy a Congressional statute,” said Richard H. Pildes, a New York University law professor. “But if the legislative path is blocked and he otherwise has the legal authority to issue an executive order on an issue, they are clearly much more willing to do that now than two years ago.”
Many conservatives have denounced the administration’s new approach, but Obama is certainly not the first president, Democrat or Republican, to use this tactic.
“If the president’s abuse of executive authority continues unchecked, it could set a very dangerous precedent for future presidents and seriously weaken our democratic system,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “Unfortunately, it appears that the president has little respect for the laws passed by Congress or the will of the American people.”
Partisan criticism aside, Obama is using executive authority after being rebuffed by a Congress controlled by the other party – like other presidents have done before him. “It’s taken Obama two years to get there, but this has happened throughout history,” said Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration. “You can’t be in that office with all its enormous responsibilities – when things don’t happen, you get blamed for it – and not exercise all the powers that have accrued to it over time.”
Obama’s approach puts him in the company of his recent predecessors:
- President George W. Bush failed to persuade Congress to pass a bill allowing religiously affiliated groups to receive taxpayer grants – and then issued an executive order making the change.
- President Bill Clinton increased White House involvement in agency rule making, using regulations and executive orders to show that he was getting things done despite opposition from a Republican Congress on matters like land conservation, gun control, tobacco advertising and treaties.
- Both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations increased their control over executive agencies to advance a deregulatory agenda, despite opposition from Democratic lawmakers, while also developing legal theories and tactics to increase executive power. One of those tactics is used by the current administration – issuing signing statements more frequently.
What is surprising now to some is that in a 2007 radio interview, Obama said that one of his first moves as president would be to “call in my new attorney general to review every single executive order that’s been issued” by then president George W. Bush.
“President Obama criticized the Bush administration before his election, but he has been quite striking in his unwillingness to give back much of the territory previous presidents, and George W. Bush in particular, captured,” said Garrett Epps, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “I expect that trend to accelerate now that he faces a House even more hostile than the one elected in the GOP landslide of 1994.”
The separation of powers in the United States Constitution was to prevent the chief executive from acting like a king. What has happened since then is that the presidency has gradually gained power through the use of presidential directives, including proclamations and executive orders. Congress has enacted statutes that either modified or revoked a presidential directive only 239 times out of tens-of-thousands of directives, and the courts have struck down just two directives involving presidential law making.
Although many presidential directives do not violate the Constitution, such as declaring a national holiday, it is arguable that many have infringed upon the powers of another branch, such as the legislature, and violated the Constitution. “This is what presidents do,” admits Goldsmith.
This week, pray:
- That the Obama administration will use executive power properly.
- That the use of executive power, by any administration, will not infringe upon the rights of U.S. citizens.
- That the nation’s leaders will seek God’s guidance.
Bill Noles Jr. is an entrepreneur, author and writer. Married for 30 years, he is a father of two sons and grandfather of three children. He and his wife Diann live in Tucson, AZ.
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The President is useing the EO process to set up his authority to declare MARTIAL LAW , and to dictate his will over our constitution.