"The Executive Orders of America: Why Obama Has No Excuses, But To EXECUTE"
Alright kids, its time for a little high school refresher course on CIVICS....
.....well sorta!
More specifically, a refresher course on what an Executive Order is....in case you weren't paying attention in class:
All United States Presidents issue Executive Orders to help officers and agencies of the executive branch manage the operations within the federal government itself. Executive orders have the full force of law when they take authority from a power granted directly to the Executive by the Constitution, or are made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress that explicitly delegate to the President some degree of discretionary power. Like both legislative statutes and regulations promulgated by government agencies, executive orders are subject to judicial review, and may be struck down if deemed by the courts to be unsupported by statute or the Constitution. Major policy initiatives usually require approval by the legislative branch, but executive orders have significant influence over the internal affairs of government, deciding how and to what degree laws will be enforced, dealing with emergencies, waging war, and in general fine policy choices in the implementation of broad statutes. (Source: WIKIPEDIA)
One of the most famous Executive Orders (at the time called a "Proclamation") came from President Abraham Lincoln back in 1863 called the Emancipation Proclaimation. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. The Proclamation also ordered that suitable persons among those freed could be enrolled into the paid service of United States' forces, and ordered the Union Army and all segments of the Executive branch to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the ex-slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not outlaw slavery, and did not grant citizenship to the ex-slaves. It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. (Source :WIKIPEDIA)
Did you get all that?
Our Constitution can be quite confusing sometimes. Sometimes it can be interpreted one way, and then other times....say when certain people are in power, can be interpreted a different way. But the one thing that it does do, is give authority to ANY President to make an Executive Order that is within their power.
I use the Emancipation Proclaimation as an example of what a typical Executive Order looks like. Now remember, President Lincoln WAS a Republican.......well, what they "called" the Republican Party back then. And so when he gave this order, it happened around the time of the Civil War.....the first real "race war" this country has seen, so far. He knew that in order for this country to survive in the future, everyone had to be a part of the building process......that included slaves and immigrants. He had to force the country to change, even though it wasn't ready for change. But it had to be done for the greater good.....so he did.
The great debate right now in 2014 is whether or not President Obama should sign Executive Orders to help with the immigration crisis in the United States. The GOP claims that he does not have the legal authority by the Constitution to do such a thing. They claim that he uses his power to impose his will on the country and that he needs to be stopped.
But the numbers......just don't lie.
Please note......the Republicans made it clear from the day the President was sworn into office back in 2009, that the only thing they were going to do was to deny Obama from anything he wants, even if it hurts the country in the process. Mitch McConnell said that they were going to make sure that he was going to be a "One-term President"....
.....yeah how's that going for you, Mitch?
It seems like they had no problem with all of their other friends signing orders.
But that Obama guy.....
.....there's just something different about him.
.....well sorta!
More specifically, a refresher course on what an Executive Order is....in case you weren't paying attention in class:
All United States Presidents issue Executive Orders to help officers and agencies of the executive branch manage the operations within the federal government itself. Executive orders have the full force of law when they take authority from a power granted directly to the Executive by the Constitution, or are made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress that explicitly delegate to the President some degree of discretionary power. Like both legislative statutes and regulations promulgated by government agencies, executive orders are subject to judicial review, and may be struck down if deemed by the courts to be unsupported by statute or the Constitution. Major policy initiatives usually require approval by the legislative branch, but executive orders have significant influence over the internal affairs of government, deciding how and to what degree laws will be enforced, dealing with emergencies, waging war, and in general fine policy choices in the implementation of broad statutes. (Source: WIKIPEDIA)
One of the most famous Executive Orders (at the time called a "Proclamation") came from President Abraham Lincoln back in 1863 called the Emancipation Proclaimation. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. The Proclamation also ordered that suitable persons among those freed could be enrolled into the paid service of United States' forces, and ordered the Union Army and all segments of the Executive branch to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the ex-slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not outlaw slavery, and did not grant citizenship to the ex-slaves. It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. (Source :WIKIPEDIA)
Did you get all that?
Our Constitution can be quite confusing sometimes. Sometimes it can be interpreted one way, and then other times....say when certain people are in power, can be interpreted a different way. But the one thing that it does do, is give authority to ANY President to make an Executive Order that is within their power.
I use the Emancipation Proclaimation as an example of what a typical Executive Order looks like. Now remember, President Lincoln WAS a Republican.......well, what they "called" the Republican Party back then. And so when he gave this order, it happened around the time of the Civil War.....the first real "race war" this country has seen, so far. He knew that in order for this country to survive in the future, everyone had to be a part of the building process......that included slaves and immigrants. He had to force the country to change, even though it wasn't ready for change. But it had to be done for the greater good.....so he did.
The great debate right now in 2014 is whether or not President Obama should sign Executive Orders to help with the immigration crisis in the United States. The GOP claims that he does not have the legal authority by the Constitution to do such a thing. They claim that he uses his power to impose his will on the country and that he needs to be stopped.
But the numbers......just don't lie.
Please note......the Republicans made it clear from the day the President was sworn into office back in 2009, that the only thing they were going to do was to deny Obama from anything he wants, even if it hurts the country in the process. Mitch McConnell said that they were going to make sure that he was going to be a "One-term President"....
.....yeah how's that going for you, Mitch?
It seems like they had no problem with all of their other friends signing orders.
But that Obama guy.....
.....there's just something different about him.