Posted on 01/01/2015 11:44:53 AM PST by HomerBohn
President Obama sees executive action as the primary way to build his legacy, but years from now, he could regret his penchant for going it alone.
By so frequently testing the limits of his executive authority, Obama has set a precedent for future White House occupants to bypass Congress with even more regularity, say legal scholars and political insiders.
A President Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush, for example, could point to Obama as the model for interpreting prosecutorial discretion, taking a similar position on whether their administration would enforce laws conflicting with their political aspirations.
Obama used executive action to spare up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, normalize relations with Cuba, heighten standards for carbon emissions and delay politically-troubling components of the signature health law bearing his name.
More uncomfortable for the White House is whether Obama's actions have paved the path for a future president to employ a similar rationale for actions not supported by Democrats, such as undoing Wall Street reform, environmental regulations or even rewriting the tax code.
One of the things I find depressing is how much of a free ride Obama has gotten, said David Rivkin, a constitutional litigator who served in the White House counsels office in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
The vast majority of what Obama has done has been [legally] questionable, Rivkin added. We're talking about a long-term, adverse impact to what he is doing. Rewriting laws should be totally off the table. The temptation for the next occupant of the White House to follow suit would be that much stronger.
Obama arguably would have been his own harshest critic at one point. As a presidential candidate, he eviscerated President George W. Bush's view of the legal parameters of his executive authority.
The White House is now walking a fine legal line in defending a barrage of executive moves on big-ticket items.
Obama's supporters argue he is not rewriting laws because his executive action could be undone by any future administration. Yet, they are almost daring Obama's successors to scrap his initiatives, saying any Republican president would pay a heavy political price for doing so.
I think any future administration that tried to punish people for doing the right thing, I think, would not have the support of the American people, Obama explained earlier this month, when questioned about a future president rolling back his immigration action.
In essence, the White House is banking that policy will trump process and that Obama's actions will seem like common practice by the time he leaves office.
Obama's aides point to an uptick in his approval ratings of late as proof that his approach is working. But such thinking, analysts warned, can provide only short-term comfort to Obama.
No president cares much about the precedent he is setting for future presidents, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center of Politics. The odds are, he won't have to worry about this right now. It's the next president's problem. He's just trying to maximize his remaining time in office.
Obama's defenders counter that his actions aren't unprecedented, pointing to a similar number of executive orders and unilateral moves by previous presidents. However, the scope of Obama's actions, analysts say, is more wide-ranging than his predecessors'.
Obama started out small, acting on his own to deliver a handful of economic prescriptions. He then went a bit further, protecting Dream Act-eligible immigrants from deportation and delaying a handful of unpopular Obamacare provisions.
But 2014, particularly after the midterms, ushered in a new era for Obama. His move on immigration amounted to the most sweeping unilateral action on domestic policy in decades, say defenders and detractors alike.
And even some Obama allies have reservations about the unintended consequences of the president's constitutionally hazy actions.
Do I think the president's hand was forced by Republicans? Yes, I do, said a former senior official in the Clinton administration. Do I also think we may have opened up the floodgates on executive action in a possibly disastrous way? Absolutely, yes.
With the Republicrats' help he has accomplished his mission to leave the White Hut with America reeling from his whirlwind destruction campaign.
Enemies all over the globe getting ready to circle this now pitiful nation like a flock of wasps!
Staying home and not voting and allowing Obama to have 4 more years was a mindless tantrum that will bite those non-voters (and the rest of us as well) in the ass! This slow decay of America will probably end in civil war (which is what 0bama wants), and will take a long time to play out. There will be plenty of misery to live through between now and then,
If any Republican tried this “executive action” stuff, or declined to enforce some law, and did so in aid of an outcome that was aligned with the Conservative agenda, the screaming and caterwauling from the MSM and the Left would be deafening.
“He’s shredding the Constitution!”
If there’s a third “President Bush” or a second “President Clinton” I will start looking for another home. I don’t want to live in a banana republic.
Executive action bypasses CONGRESS completely...
NOT merely anti-constitutional but subversive and seditious as well..
IF executive action is allowed to CONTINUE.. Congress is a JOKE.. a SHILL.. a Fake.. Kibuki Theater..
And the Supremes are jesters.. comedians..
He doesn’t care. It just makes a longer chapter in his bio.
We wouldn’t be a republic, and we don’t produce bananas.
In the past, Presidents have been reluctant to overturn the Executive Orders of previous Presidents, but Obama’s blatant and unpopular abuse of the EO process has given the next President a good reason to reject precedent and have a serious review and possible retraction of all of Obama’s Executive Orders
This will give the 2016 Presidential Candidates the political cover to campaign on rescinding these EOs
AND............. the Voters are FOOLS... all of them..
Obama regretful? NOT
Obama’s not done yet, be sure to thank him for most of this stuff belongs to him, period...or Bari Shabazz, son of Malcolm X.
We may not have to worry bout Bush/Clinton. We still have two more years of the Kenyan commie.
The article assumes Obozo gives a crap what happens after he leaves. I don’t think he care one iota what happens after he leaves office.
“but years from now, he could regret his penchant for going it alone.”
No.
He. Doesn’t. Care.
They can't do that.
They're not black.
That comment alone nearly disqualifies any salient point you otherwise would have made, for the same charge is also applied to those who refused to vote for the Ruling Class Establishment Candidate and voted Conservative instead.
The last legitimate national election was back in 2008. If you think for one second that Obama "won" a second term - you are willfully blind to where we have arrived and already fundamentally transformed into.
Still spreading New Years cheer, I see.
If it’s a Democrat President, he won’t care.
If it’s a Republican President, they’ll be impeached and run out of office.
Win/win.
The flaw in the argument is a real conservative wouldn’t take such actions, though it would be nice if he did use such executive orders to eliminate unconstitutional spending
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