Executive Orders An Abuse Of Power?

The President has issued and continues to issue Executive Orders going around the Senate and Congress. What do you think about that? Has the Executive Branch overstepped boundaries? Do you think going around the Senate and Congress something that is an impeachable? What are your thoughts?

 

I've heard zero, nothing, zilch about Obama's executive orders. Haven't even researched it.

Wish there was an executive order legalizing weed.

 

They can be challenged in federal court.

 

Executive orders issued by a sitting President are an abuse of power that can be devastating...In 2002 there was a secret executive order that went into effect that we the American people are feeling the full effects of now...That was the one that gives the NSA the right to listen and record citizens phone calls without a warrant....

 

If you say you haven't heard anything about Obama's executive orders should take the time and read some of the 164 that he issued already....

 

It's just a tool with a limited life span. Probably designed to break up log jams on particular issues. But executive orders also brought us the Manhattan Project, the Tuskegee Airmen, a space shuttle 2/3 larger than NASA wanted and a swift halt to various discrimination practices. The curve smooths out as some executive orders expire while others are converted to bills and laws.

 

Woo hoo!...and FDR wins that race.....

 

Yea, but he had a REAL war to deal with. One of his executive orders transferred the US silver bullion supply to the Manhattan Project. The silver bars were melted down and pulled into wire because copper was impossible to get because of the war effort. The silver wire was used to make magnetic coils for isotope separation to make atomic bomb fuel. After the war the order expired and the wire was gradually replaced with copper coils and the silver returned to the US Mint.

I heard a rumor that it caused a shortage of dimes and quarters which made returning change difficult for merchants and grocers. Their solution was to make a 10 cent can of beans into a 9 cent can of beans. But it also meant a 35 cent can of tuna suddenly became 39 cents. Trump will need executive orders because Washington is going to builod the same walls against him that they have for Obama and Bush and Clinton. The torture never stops.

 

The purpose of Executive Orders is to the give the President the ability to issue directives to enforce and carry out existing laws. They're not supposed to be used to create laws or make end-runs around Congress. It's a system that's been thoroughly abused.

They don't trump existing law and the President can't nullify a law with EO, but as I said, they're abused.

The EO is only valid as long as that President is in office. Every time a new President is sworn in they have to be renewed. I forget the name of the document, but instead of resigning each one there's a single document he signs that's basically a blanket renewal. The new President also has the power to nullify previous EO's in the process of renewing others.

 

The calls had to be between an individual in the US and someone in a foreign country who'd already been identified as a potential terrorist. The info then went before a federal judge to determine if a warrant would have been justified and if not, the information couldn't be used. The "warrantless wiretaps" weren't EO's, the program had to be approved by both Houses of Congress (Pelosi and Hillary both approved Bush's program) before the President could sign the order and had a time limit. They had to be renewed with Congressional approval every year. It was later learned the scope of the program was in fact abused, but that abuse was done with the approval and knowledge of both parties.

So before this turns into a "pot calling the kettle black" situation, keep in mind warrantless wire taps were also used by Carter, Reagan, and Clinton. In comparison to Bush's very limited scope, Bill Clinton's warrantless wiretaps gave him the authority to listen to ALL electronic communications throughout the world. It was used against Aldrich Ames, an American working for the CIA who was a Russian spy, to monitor his activities without a warrant. Ames was arrested in 1994.

One also has to remember the NSA's unlimited collection of American's cell phone data was the result of Obama's broad expansion of the Patriot Act. He already renewed it twice (it had a sunset provision) and each renewal included expansions of its powers.

As for Reagan I haven't found anything detailing the extent he used the program or what authorities he requested of Congress, but I suspect he requested broad authority just as Clinton did.

Both parties spy on American citizens. It's disingenuous to try to lay the blame on one person or one party.

 

I'm pretty well convinced the first wiretaps were initiated by Samuel F.B. Morse and Alexander Graham Bell. It's foolish to assume that any government will ignore the means under the guise of playing by the rules. Nixon proved that's alive and well.

 

True. So true.

 

Ah, the wages of extreme partisanship. This lack of cooperation / good will goes both ways.