Why did President Obama campaign against the use of executive actions?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

Last edited Thu Jan 7, 2016, 02:45 PM - Edit history (2)

ETA for clarity: This is not my question. It's a question I saw on facebook. No quotes because I'm not repeating it verbatim.

....

I'm in a situation on facebook where the following video has been posted to my feed, along with the ensuing nastiness...

Please explain how I should defend our president on this. Thank you.

[randome]

1. He made it clear he wanted to work with Congress.

But if Congress refuses to work with him, it's time to fall back on Plan B. No need to defend or denigrate President Obama. He's doing the best he can.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[YoungDemCA]

8. +1

Republicans see him as the anti-Christ. How do you negotiate with that?

(Answer: You can't).

[question everything]

21. Thank you. Love this reply (nt)

[Scuba]

2. He didn't. He talked about W bringing more power into the Executive branch. There's other ...

... ways Bush did that in addition to his Executive Actions.

[pintobean]

3. Or, IF you should.

He said it, and he's doing what he's doing. Do you feel that you need to defend it?

[deathrind]

4. There is a huge

Differerence between executive orders and signing statements.

[sarisataka]

5. Obama's EAs only affect

enforcement of existing laws. That is the purview of the executive branch.

They do not attempt to create any new policy which would be the responsibility of Congress. Thus he is not bypassing Congress but enforcing the laws put in place by Congress.

[spanone]

6. he was foolish enough to think congress cared about the american people.

now he knows the truth.

[world wide wally]

7. Mention that the "Emancipation Proclamation" was an executive order, not a signing statement

[mwrguy]

10. Obama wields power for good. Bush wielded power for evil.

In a nutshell.

[jberryhill]

11. Absence of context

There is no "overreach" in any president's use of executive orders addressing the functioning of the various executive agencies.

Given that this is a small snippet, it would be interesting to know in particular what he was talking about here. Where is the full context of his remarks posted?


Please refer to my post here on the executive order bullshit generally:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7505566

[ChisolmTrailDem]

19. ATTENTION All Respondents to MY OP - Thank you, jberryhill. You and many others that have responded

... have given me all I need to respond to this on facebook. My immediate reaction was well, what is the context? So, right after I posted this I got an unexpected distraction here in the real world and am just getting back to this. I'm now going back to find the entire context of this clip and most here are thinking along the same lines I am about the difference between reality and what this video was offered as, which was to show that Pres O is going back on his promise to reverse the use of executive action. I knew right off the bat what Obama was referring to but wanted to get input from good DUers like you and others in this thread before I form my response.

I have to be gentle with how I do this because, unfortunately, I face headwinds on my facebook.

[NightWatcher]

12. Don't waste your time arguing with rw'ers on Facebook

It'd be a better use of your time to roll a heavy boulder up a hill only to let it roll back down repeatedly.

Even if you are correct, you won't convince repukes

[YoungDemCA]

13. Ask them if they know about George W. Bush's systematic abuse of signing statements

And other tools of executive power.

[geek tragedy]

14. Obama did not campaign against the use of executive authority, which would have been

really idiotic since he was running for the job of heading up the executive branch.

He did run against executive power grabs based on constitutional gobbledygook.

[YoungDemCA]

15. That's it, in a nutshell

Well said.

[LanternWaste]

16. From that video alone, we may not validly infer he was speaking of executive actions.

Executive actions not mentioned or referred to in video, hence it begs the question-- why focus on that one concept rather than his general criticism in the video? From that video alone, we may not validly infer he was speaking of executive actions.

Though no doubt, we often attribute our own inferences, curiosities and agendas to other people's nastiness.

[msongs]

17. tightly edited and no context - typical facebook fodder nt

[jberryhill]

18. "Why the did President Obama campaign against the use of executive actions?"

...additionally, the subject line makes no sense.

Everything the president does in his official capacity is an "executive action".

No, he did not campaign against the office of president being eliminated.

[librechik]

20. I think they wanted to avoid the AVALANCHE of negative criticism

which such actions would have provoked in 2009 from Republicans and others who WILL NOT ACCEPT an "Uppity n word" telling them what to do and acting like a president. HOW DARE HE???!!!

They knew it would only exacerbate problems and for whatever reason, the Obama team did not want to confront Congress, but work amicably with them. So they acted like tame kittens instead of what they should have done, IMO: call the traitors out.

the civil war we have now would have started a lot earlier.

[ileus]

22. Because at that time they were in power and their EOs were bad.

Now we're in control and our EOs are for the greater good.