Thursday, January 30, 2014

Dictatorial Tyrant?

Republican rhetoric rarely reflects reality (how about that alliterative treasure):

In truth, the whole issue of the imperial presidency was baked in the cake by the Founding Fathers, many of whom were in favor of giving the president king-like powers. Others, of course, thought Congress should hold all power, with the president as a mere errand boy. Without a clear line between executive and legislative power, we have been engaging in trial-and-error since 1789, with power ebbing back and forth depending on circumstances, personalities, court cases and other factors.
Insofar as Obama is concerned, he has actually been among the least aggressive presidents in recent history to use executive orders to implement his agenda. As University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner points out, Obama has issued far fewer executive orders per year than Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, as shown in the chart.
Ironically, those who believe in congressional primacy and fear executive overreach are partially responsible for the latter. They have championed use of the filibuster in the Senate to block even the most routine legislation and executive branch appointments. There doesn’t seem to be any logic to it except the assumption that whatever Obama wants is per se bad or that Republicans deserve to get something in return for every vote.
The result has been implementation of the so-called “nuclear option” in the Senate, where majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, engineered a sharp limitation on all filibusters against executive branch nominations. In short, overuse of the filibuster led to its demise.
Similarly, Congress’s refusal to act on many Obama initiatives creates inevitable pressure on him to act unilaterally. It would be much harder for him to do so in the face of a vote in Congress explicitly rejecting one of the policies he has implemented by executive order.
Therefore, one way Congress can restraint the president is simply by doing its job.
It is pretty clear why Bruce Bartlett got excommunicated from the Republican cult.

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