EXECUTIVE ORDERS
In times of emergency, the president can override congress and issue executive orders with almost limitless power. Abraham Lincoln used an executive order in order to fight the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson issued one in order to arm the United States just before it entered World War I, and Franklin Roosevelt approved Japanese internment camps during World War II with an executive order. Many other executive orders are on file and could be enacted at any time.
This is how the legal information institute describes the executive order specifically stating all other powers of the President are stated by the Constitution. In times of emergency the power is almost limitless it says. Well the first test then is this, if congress is not in session is this a time of emergency? For that matter when they are in session is it a time of emergency? What dictates an emergency in Washington, no one really seems to be in a hurry to get anything done and that usually is the sign of an emergency, people moving quickly away from the problem.
President Obama has issued 183 executive orders according to The American presidency project which doesn’t even reach the top limit record which was reached by FDR who wrote 3522 executive orders during WWII which I concede was a time of emergency. Now in the Presidents defense, which is rare for me I know, President Clinton wrote more executive orders and was not at war, President Obama has had two wars and the financial crisis but I wonder once again if this constitutes an emergency after all government was working properly and by definition shouldn’t that be the criteria for the use of an executive order, the breakdown of government.
If that is true then almost every President since Woodrow Wilson has by passed normal procedure incorrectly and we as the American people need to stop this behavior before we find our government no longer functions for our best interest, this may have already happened but it is time for us as citizens to find out and do something about it. Our founding fathers did not intend for the President to act as a single authority, an action they fought and died for. This act of executive order has been redefined in the last 120 years to allow power to slip from Congress to the President and we as by standing citizens have allowed this act for far too long.
Well America how do you want to be governed? I am not criticizing a specific president but an action taken by many Presidents and in my mind inappropriately. As citizens of this country our by standing days are over, we need to act to either restore our republic or decide to live under the rule of a single leader. For over 120 years Congress has slowly slipped into irrelevance and as idiotic I feel they act on occasion I believe the three branches of power are necessary for our government to function properly. The only way this can be done is if the executive order is used properly and only when government cannot function and that is not today.