Obama and Executive Orders

Another set of broken promises:

Despite being an open critic during his campaign of former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush’s frequent use of executive orders and signing statements, Obama will now go back on yet another campaign promise and take over the role of decider-in-chief by laying down his own authoritarian decrees.

Frustrated by the failure to get health care reform and cap and trade bills through Congress, the Obama administration will whip up a fresh batch of executive orders and presidential signing statements to effectively shape its owns laws and progress its own agenda.

“With much of his legislation agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities,” reported The New York Times.

The Obama presidency has barely hit the one-year mark and has already issued nearly 50 of his own executive orders on a wide variety of issues. He may even be well on his way to surpassing Bush, who ended his two terms as president with a stock of 289 executive orders.

“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, in The New York Times article. . . .