Posted on 11/18/2010 10:10:08 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the President from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point.
“I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.”
How does one “move the country forward”? In the center’s report, Podesta explains that Obama can use executive orders, rulemaking, and even the armed forces “to accomplish important change” and that such means “should not be underestimated.”
What exactly does Podesta think the president should use such powers to “accomplish”? Among others, the report suggests “job creation,“ ”quality affordable health care,“ ”sustainable security,“ and ”a clean energy future.”
The report cites specific goals such as mitigating the effects of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, supporting a Palestinian state, and reducing greenhouse gasses by 17 percent by 2020.
“The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy,” Podesta writes. ”Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still.”
Statement from John D. Podesta November 15, 2010
In the aftermath of this month’s midterm congressional elections, pundits and politicians across the ideological spectrum are focusing on how difficult it will be for President Barack Obama to advance his policy priorities through Congress. Predictions of stalemate abound. And some debate whether the administration should tack to the left or to the center and compromise with or confront the new House leadership.
As a former White House chief of staff, I believe those to be the wrong preoccupations. President Obama’s ability to govern the country as chief executive presents an opportunity to demonstrate strength, resolve, and a capacity to get things done on a host of pressing challenges of importance to the public and our economy. Progress, not positioning, is what the public wants and deserves.
The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy. These authorities can be used to ensure positive progress on many of the key issues facing the country through:
* Executive orders * Rulemaking * Agency management * Convening and creating public-private partnerships * Commanding the armed forces * Diplomacy
The ability of President Obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated. President Bush, for example, faced a divided Congress throughout most of his term in office, yet few can doubt his ability to craft a unique and deeply conservative agenda using every aspect of the policymaking apparatus at his disposal. And, after his party lost control of Congress in 1994, President Clinton used executive authority and convening power to make significant progressive change. For instance, he protected more great spaces in the lower 48 states than any president since Theodore Roosevelt, established for the first time significant protections for Americans’ medical privacy, and urged the creation of the Welfare-to-Work Partnership that enlisted the help of 20,000 businesses in moving more than 1 million welfare recipients into the workforce.
The upshot: Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still. This administration has a similar opportunity to use available executive authorities while also working with Congress where possible. At the Center for American Progress, we look forward to our nation continuing to make progress.
Read the full report (pdf)
Download the executive summary (pdf)
Download the report to e-readers and mobile devices from Scribd
To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:
Print: Megan Smith (health care, education, economic policy) 202.741.6346 or msmith@americanprogress.org
Print: Anna Soellner (foreign policy and security, energy) asoellner@americanprogress.org
Print: Raúl Arce-Contreras (ethnic media, immigration) 202.478.5318 or rarcecontreras@americanprogress.org
Radio: Laura Pereyra 202.741.6258 or lpereyra@americanprogress.org
TV: Andrea Purse 202.741.6250 or apurse@americanprogress.org
Web: Erin Lindsay 202.741.6397 or elindsay@americanprogress.org http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/11/executive_orders.html/#statement
Based on my own limited military experience, I'd estimate that a good 80% of those in the service would actively disobey any order the President would give under the auspices of moving the country forward by using force on American citizens. It's the 20% I worry about.
One thing I've always wondered about is this: say push did come to shove, and the liberal forces and conservative forces were to do actual battle with each other. If you're a liberal, under what scenario could you possibly perceive that your side would be able to match a conservative force on the field of battle? It's our side that's all about private firearms ownership. It's our side that dominates the ranks in the military.
And now you understand why President Bush did NOT break the posse comitatus law during Katrina.
Imagine if that precedent had been used by Bush.
I have been posting that this was coming for months now! And I was told I was over reacting or that I should take off my ‘tinfoil hat’, but the truth is starting to win out.
Last month’s election ‘tsunami’ is not the ‘Magic Wand’ that will wipe away our troubles! Obama and the ‘DemonRATS’ are already showing that the election is not of concern to them, how else do you explain Pelosi’s re-election as leader. In fact now with so many of the ‘blue dogs’ gone (as soon in the vote to re-elect Pelosi)they will and are turning even harder to the left!
Yes the Republicans scored big, but clearly the Obama and the ‘Pelosis’, the ‘Boxers’, the ‘Reids and the other‘DemonRATs’ learn NOTHING! Did the RINO’s like Carl Rove or Mitch McConnell learn anything? It is they who help the ‘DemonRATSO’ engineer O’Donnell defeat. Do you think Murkowski learned anything after stabbing the party in the back! She already saying she owe’s the party nothing! The Elitist Jerks of both parties are scrambling for their political lives and they know it!
Oh you say but those ‘DemonRATs’ up for re-election in 2012 will learn fear, they will now be scared to the ‘middle’. WHY SHOULD THEY? Most handlely won and see nothing to fear.
Some say oh they won’t pass anything with the the people so opposed to them, to which I say, BS! DO any of you remember the crowds that surrounded Congress during the ‘Obamacare’ vote? Did it scare them?
Look about you it’s not only the ‘DemonRATs’ but the RINO’s as well who refuse to see that they have brought, supported and passed an agenda that the American People have rejected. They still feel that they know best and any defeat will only come about due to the ignorance of the electorate.
I have posted this before and I will keep posting it (I am beginning to feel like Paul Revere: THE RADICAL PROGRESSIVES AND THE RINO’S ARE COMING! THE RADICAL PROGRESSIVES AND RINO’S ARE COMING!) because I know in my heart that I am right about this, too many are thinking that yesterday’s victory has reset everything. And I say that NO it hasn’t and you can bet that they will soon double down on everything! Those that won believe they won because of their far left positions on the issues so why would they abandon what work? Obama is showing in his after election press conference that he does not fear yesterday’s loss. And can bet that ‘Zero’ and his kind will not only press on with their agenda but as I said they will DOUBLE DOWN on it! Yes we have enough votes in the House to stop much (if we can keep the RINO’s from selling out), but when nothing gets done they will hang the ‘Party of NO’ sign aroun the Republicans’ necks and blame them.
I don’t believe that yesterday’s elections will change a thing! The Washington creatures both Democrat and RINO still believe that they know best and will act accordingly.
Even with yesterday’s win’s some of the BIGGEST turnover in history the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triad are such a pack of narcissist that they will come back during the ‘lame duck’ session and pass every far left-wing bill they can think of! They will burn the house down before they surrender it! If they can’t drink from the well they will poison it for all! If they can’t keep it they will surround it with mines and keep anyone else from getting to it! That will be their reaction.
Even after the ‘lame’ duck session you will see the greatest attempt by any President in our history to rule by executive order! ‘Zero’ KNOWS BEST what is good for us and he will act accordingly. No mere election won by a bunch of peasants or as ‘Zero’ describe us: Bitter Clingers (“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”) is going to change his direction. To ‘Zero’ yesterday’s election holds no meaning and was only the ‘peasants acting out’ and the unfaithful of his party getting their due. None of which was his fault as he believes that he the Great Obama knows what is best for ‘bitter clingers’ and he will do it to save them from themselves!
If anyone thinks that yesterday’s lost will make one iota of difference in Obama and the ‘DemonRATs’ leftist agenda you need to seek professional help immediately, because I assure you that the sounds you the sounds you are hearing coming from the White House is not the‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ it is the notes of El Degüello.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKD5TgHWyxM
I steadfastly believe that these elections will NOT provide the immediate relief we hope and prayered for, but will only go on to boaster the ‘DemonRATS’ lefist agenda and push us that much closer to what I call a National ‘Battle of Athens’ moment (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnnews/kns001.htm )
A time in which it will require much more action that punching a ballot to save the Republic. There is so little ‘middle ground’ left and now after this election what there was has greatly shrunk. The country is clearly and deeply divide between a deep blue NorthEast and a Deep blue West and a great and mostly Deep red middle.
IMHO there will soon be a time of great choosing and you will be required to make a stand to: Choose this day how you will serve; Will you serve unwillingly and at the bidding of others wearing the yoke of socialism or will you hold true to the course of our forefathers’ standing tall and serving freely? As for me I choose to SERVE THE REPUBLIC!
I get a very suspicious and sick feeling whenever anyone says we need to “move the country forward”.
________________________________________________
Forward to Communism.
Many pundits keep asking if Obuma will now move to the right after the effects of the election. I submit that he will not. Obuma is not in this for himself and his political career. He is truly a Jihadist in that he is in office only for the purpose of destroying this country, one way or another. This statement by Podesta only confirms my belief. He will implement his agneda.
Here we are getting all upset about body scanners and pat downs while Obuma, the democrats and labor unions completely steal this country blind, monetaryily and politically. We are probably beyond the pint of no return. Billions unpon billions of $$$ have been directly funneled in labor unions. Ballot stuffing was rampant in this last election (why is it that only democrats won the close elections, including Lisa Murcowski)
People from CAP are wacked-out left-wing nuts. When they show up (frequently) on CNBC I hit the mute button immediately before they start driving me crazy with their foolish extreme left-wing rants.
sfl
Well said. Which is why I still sleep well at night.
Some of us are not so easily crushed. The moment that anyone tries to use the armed forces against the citizens of the US is when all holy hell will break loose and the would be oppressors will find out just how bad of a mistake they have made.
Tread not upon the serpent for you may find that it is not a snake but the tail of a dragon on which you have stepped.
> Firing on our own citizens was stated to be considered an
> illegal order.
> Then there are also laws against such actions...
Laws and arcane legalities mean nothing to these people.
They are revolutionary communists.
Now that they once again have the reins of power, and the command of the military, they are not likely to let go.
Clinton was careful about the Congress.
These anti-American criminals are not.
I disagree, they all have friends and family that are Citizens like you and I.
There maybe a few gung ho types but as soon as they realize their friends and family will be in harms way they'll be squashed by their own.
I have worked alongside the military for several years as a "civilian accompanying US forces."
I don't see them turning on us.
To my knowledge only dictators have turned their military against its own people. But that has been when the military was largely corrupted, which is not the case with the US military. As I think another poster suggested, 0bummer might leave himself open to a coup if he ever attempted such an action.
Glenn Beck believes these statements are being made publicly to rally the radical left and union powers into action.
But, I find it interesting that nobody will explain why they are built it there with a separate fence and guards, yet the front gate to the center is a pass through without even a look. The guard house is empty and the only presence is the "police" to make sure you keep it under 15. I wonder if Vets are considered a possible source of trouble in the near future. I t does five an appearance of a containment facility, to me. But, I'm just paranoid or something. But, try and find something online. There isn't anything I can find.
Tin foil hat off...
Yes
They don't have to use absolute force everywhere. They would use just enough to squeeze great segments of the population to accepting their actions by fiat. Buy their cars, pay pay their taxes, fly on their planes, watch their media. Go to their doctors, buy their medicines, etc.
They also have no compunction over attacking the very young, very old, and the infirmed. Yes, people can and do eventually regain their freedom. Usually at great cost.
> actually, Podesta is semi-right.
in 2001 and 2002, the Dems. controlled the Senate due to “Jumpin” Jim Jeffords.
In 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, the GOP controlled the Senate after the 2002 mid-terms.
In 2007 and 2008 the Demos controlled both houses due to the 2008 mid-terms.
So technically, 4 out of 8 years, not most. But the GOP only had full control from 2003-2006.
There’s no ‘semi right’ here. I was aware of the makeup of the Congresses. Daschle took over on June of 2001 to Jan.’03. A year and a half + 2 years after the ‘06 midterms.
OMG.....this can’t be real.
Podesta coms from a lllllllong line of hard-core leftists..an old Clintonite too..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.