House Republicans crying out against President Obama’s “precedent-setting” executive orders must be hoping that no one paid attention in their U.S. History classes.
In July, the House of Representatives voted 225-201 along party lines (all but five Republicans voted for the measure while not a single Democrat voted in favor) to sue President Obama for his unilateral action on immigration and the Affordable Care Act.
The specific actions that caused the GOP uproar were President Obama’s executive decisions to defer deportation of illegal, underage immigrants and postpone deadlines for small businesses and policies in the Affordable Care Act. President Obama stated he is issuing executive orders to combat congressional gridlock this term.
Executive orders are not a novel concept. Theodore Roosevelt used executive power to create the national park system, issuing a total of 1,081 executive orders in his presidency. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued more than 3,500 to bring the nation out of the Great Depression. Historic human rights advances like the Emancipation Proclamation, Desegregation of Schools and Equal Employment Opportunity acts were all executive actions. Bill Clinton even intervened in the 1999 Kosovo War with executive action (it was later approved by congress).
In comparison, President Obama has issued only 191 orders. Recently, he used executive action to set a minimum wage for government contractors, set prohibitions on war criminals and enforce workplace safety—certainly not dictatorial use of the powers vested in him.
According to the National Review, in times when congress is divided among party lines, government gridlock does not necessarily worsen. The less the legislative branch works together, the more the executive branch (the president and government agencies) steps in and enacts change.
The ideal political situation is one where both parties can agree on important legislation that benefits the American people in a timely manner. However, in the current climate of party politics and incompatible ideology, that utopia is not happening.
The House is spending their attention on the courtroom lectern when they should be finding ways to cross the aisle. Partisanship is the real boogeyman in politics, not executive orders which actually enact policy.