Obama's "We can't wait" executive orders

I know this will overlap with the election thread, but I am curious about what people think about...

1. ...executive orders as a whole. (they are barely leagal as is)
2. ...Obama using executive orders as a political tool.
3. ...the ones he has made so far.
4. ...what effect the ones he has made will have. (answer could be none)

And anything else in relation to these executive orders.

(link to the Gov website with a list of executive orders.)

edited 10th Nov '11 10:00:31 AM by Belian

Well... executive orders have exactly as much value as what they accomplish.

Ideally, they would be used sparingly, but in times like these where we have a useless Congress you might as well get something done in the interim.

Most of the things on this list seem kind of innocuous and low-key, though. I mean, stuff like increasing the customer service quality of the mailing system? That's just like, well, whatever, that's what they should do anyhow...

The Republican congress gave a lot of power to the president under bush, but I'm not sure under what purview.

They gave him the power, they've just been completely forgetting that fact up until now, and now they have to accept that fact.

The Imperial Presidency. Been incrementally happening since Jackson gave the Supreme Court the finger all those decades ago.

Whelp, thats what we get for modeling out nation after the friggin Roman Empire. A Caesar will eventually make themselves known.

The fact that they are rather "vanila" is one of the things that is getting to me. Obama is runing a portion of his campain on these and they really do not do that much.

Also, another question is "What do you think his other executive orders are going to be about?" He has promised one a week (or there abouts) untill the elections. That is a LOT of executive orders.

I'd be busy formulating a set of executive orders that were excessively overreaching but forced a bunch of my things through as I was about to leave office...

Well I think Obama is in that weird position where Congress is totally useless but he doesn't want to actually abuse his power so he puts in "vanilla" executive orders, as you said. So they do stuff, just nothing drastic and are just rather obvious to-do list kind of stuff.

That would be bad.

Hm. I dunno. Benjamin Franklin did say that the constitutional system would inevitably collapse into despotism due to human incompetence and voter apathy...

Bah I refuse that. America's problems are fixable.

And what is wrong with a Caesar, anyways? If he were a competent and fair ruler, I would gladly support an American version of Caesar, or Alexander, or Napoleon. With America's military might, we could potentially conquer half of the world with ease, and leave the other half for a generation or two down the road. Imagine it! The world, united under one rule for the first time in history. What wonders could we accomplish if our petty nationalism no longer existed? It would be a glorious new age for the human species.

A) You are forgetting the nukes.

B) And even if we did get to a "one country" world, I would like to see your solution for all the different cultures that absolutely hate each other.

C) I'm fairly sure you are being some version of sarcastic.

D) Completely off-topic.

@Stars: Pure amount of territory doesn't make the lives of the people in that territory any better.

THAT'S why we don't want a Caesar; they tend to pursue meaningless glory at the expense of things the people actually need.

I want a caesar in the fact that I want a leader who is decisive, has a vision for prosperity for the nation, and isn't going to let people stand in the way of progress without a damn good reason.

In other words, the Roman Empire without the Imperialism, and with the good system of government that was actually working in the early eras.

Thats basically what the founders wanted. Problem is, much like the real Roman Empire, that only works at first before some knucklehead (or several over time) change things until it truely is Imperial.