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Why Obama could regret executive action
Washington Examiner ^ | 12/31/2014 | Brian Hughes

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 counsel’s 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.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; bathhousebarry; broncobama; executiveorders; kenyanace; obama
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What does this parasitic immigrant care about his legacy?

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,

1 posted on 01/01/2015 11:44:53 AM PST by HomerBohn
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To: HomerBohn

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!”


2 posted on 01/01/2015 11:51:30 AM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: HomerBohn

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.


3 posted on 01/01/2015 11:52:18 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: HomerBohn

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..


4 posted on 01/01/2015 11:54:27 AM PST by hosepipe (" This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole.. ")
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To: HomerBohn

He doesn’t care. It just makes a longer chapter in his bio.


5 posted on 01/01/2015 11:55:29 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We wouldn’t be a republic, and we don’t produce bananas.


6 posted on 01/01/2015 11:55:57 AM PST by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: HomerBohn
I'm really looking forward to Obama overplaying his hand with his signature Executive Orders and illegal directives which satisfy a lunatic fringe 20% of the population while alienating 80 % of mainstream America.

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

7 posted on 01/01/2015 11:56:40 AM PST by rdcbn
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To: hosepipe

AND............. the Voters are FOOLS... all of them..


8 posted on 01/01/2015 11:56:49 AM PST by hosepipe (" This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole.. ")
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To: HomerBohn

Obama regretful? NOT


9 posted on 01/01/2015 11:57:09 AM PST by fivecatsandadog (OBAMA - IMPEACH HIM NOW. Worry about it later.)
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

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.


11 posted on 01/01/2015 11:59:22 AM PST by Kackikat ('If it talks like a traitor, acts like a traitor, then by God it's a traitor.')
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We may not have to worry bout Bush/Clinton. We still have two more years of the Kenyan commie.


12 posted on 01/01/2015 12:00:09 PM PST by servantboy777
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To: HomerBohn

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.


13 posted on 01/01/2015 12:01:20 PM PST by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: HomerBohn

“but years from now, he could regret his penchant for going it alone.”

No.
He. Doesn’t. Care.


14 posted on 01/01/2015 12:02:58 PM PST by servo1969
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To: HomerBohn
"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. "

They can't do that.

They're not black.

15 posted on 01/01/2015 12:05:25 PM PST by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: HomerBohn
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!

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.

16 posted on 01/01/2015 12:09:19 PM PST by INVAR ("Fart for liberty, fart for freedom and fart proudly!" - Benjamin Franklin)
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To: HomerBohn

Still spreading New Years cheer, I see.


17 posted on 01/01/2015 12:11:31 PM PST by EEGator
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To: HomerBohn

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.


18 posted on 01/01/2015 12:12:28 PM PST by Bratch
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

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


20 posted on 01/01/2015 12:15:57 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%i)
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