Pirate's Cove

Obama has fully embraced the use of executive powers, and the NY Times works hard to say “yes, this is A-OK”. One has to wonder how they would react if it was a Republican president

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

Yeah, it’s hard to ruin the country and act like Hugo Chavez when those damned Americans decided to provide a historic beatdown of the Party that controls the House because it was ruining America.

“We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”

For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.

But increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress. Branding its unilateral efforts “We Can’t Wait,” a slogan that aides said Mr. Obama coined at that strategy meeting, the White House has rolled out dozens of new policies — on creating jobs for veterans, preventing drug shortages, raising fuel economy standards, curbing domestic violence and more.

Except, he isn’t creating jobs for veterans, or anyone else for that matter. He’s not preventing drug shortages, curbing domestic violence, “or more”. He did raise fuel economy standards, which will make motor vehicles more expense and less safe. Good job, PBO!

Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”

Of course, it would be nice if Obama would actually consult with the duly elected representatives of the American People. Perhaps offer up some legislation for Congress to take up. Yet, he doesn’t even send anything over to the Democrat controlled Senate….well, except for his budget proposals, which were unanimously voted down last year and not even brought to the Senate floor this year by the same Democrats.

The rest of the article is simply an attempt to provide political cover for Obama, when the Times would be tearing into a Republican. But, we all know that being the POTUS is hard work, especially when one has no leadership, nor management, skills. It’s one thing to whip up a bunch of left wing folks into a frenzy as a “community organizer”, something quite different having to deal with elected representatives who are (supposedly) responsible to the people who elected them within a Constitutional Republic framework.