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Obama Has Issued More Executive 'Memoranda' Than Any Previous President

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the “Do Nothing Congress” almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He’s used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.

Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he’s used his executive power less than other presidents. “The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: Next President Won’t Dare Reverse my Executive Action on Immigration

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Washington Times - ObamaThe next president won’t dare take the political risk that would come with undoing recent executive action on immigration reform, a defiant President Obama said Tuesday as he predicted his highly controversial steps will survive the test of time, even under a Republican administration.

Mr. Obama conceded that without new legislation, his action — which includes de facto amnesty for more than 4 million illegal immigrants — technically could be undone rather easily.

But in practical terms, the president said his successor will be unable to roll back his executive moves because doing so would carry grave political consequences.

His comments underscore the White House’s belief that the executive action, while lacking the heft of actual law, still can permanently transform the way America deals with illegal immigration.

“It’s true a future administration might try to reverse some of our policies. But I’ll be honest with you — the American people basically have a good heart and want to treat people fairly and every survey shows that if, in fact, somebody has come out and subjected themselves to a background check, registered, paid their taxes, the American people support allowing them to stay. So any future administration that tried to punish people for doing the right thing, I think, would not have the support of the American people,” Mr. Obama told a supportive crowd at a town hall meeting in Nashville. “It’s true, theoretically, a future administration could do something that I think would be very damaging. It’s not likely, politically, that they reverse everything we’ve done.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Prominent Liberal Legal Scholar: Obama’s Executive Actions are ‘A Very Dangerous Thing’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA legal scholar said Wednesday on “The Kelly File” that President Obama’s decision to bypass Congress to enact legislation is “a very dangerous thing.”

“The framers created a system that was designed to avoid one principle thing, and that’s the concentration of power in any one branch, because that balancing between these branches in a fixed orbit is not only what gives stability to our system, but protects us against authoritarian power, protects civil liberties from abuse,” Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, told host Megyn Kelly. “And what we’ve been seeing is the shift of gravity in that system in a very dangerous way that makes it unstable.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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FOX NEWS POLL 74 percent dislike Obama bypassing Congress

When President Barack Obama took an unplanned stop on the tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home Monday, he joked to French President Francois Hollande, “That’s the good thing as a president — I can do whatever I want.” The remark made headlines because Obama’s critics have long said he acts like he really believes that.

Among the most recent examples, they cite Obama’s State of the Union declaration that he plans to take policy actions “with or without Congress” — and this week’s White House announcement that it is delaying another key deadline in the health care law Congress passed in 2010.

Americans say not so fast, Mr. President.

According to a just-released Fox News national poll, most voters don’t think the country’s system of government was designed for the president to act unilaterally, and a majority disapproves of Obama bypassing Congress.

The new poll finds that 74 percent think the president using executive orders to get around Congress is not how things are supposed to work in our country. That includes 54 percent of Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Rand Paul to Propose Bill to ‘Nullify’ Obama’s Executive Orders on Gun Control

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has announced he will propose a bill to “nullify” any of President Obama’s executive orders on gun control that give the appearance that the president is writing new legislation.

Paul released his plan, called the Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection Act 2013, on Wednesday. The document, which he plans to introduce early next week, has several purposes.

The bill intends to condemn the use of executive orders which undermine the powers reserved for Congress under the Constitution. It specifically mentions Article I of the Constitution which states, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”

Paul’s proposed legislation also declares “null and void” any executive order that “infringes on the powers and duties of the Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and the Second Amendment.”

The bill also intends to prohibit funding for an “Executive Order Restricting [the] 2nd Amendment.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressional Dereliction: Senate Democrats Vow to Support Executive Fiat on Debt Ceiling

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photo credit: donkey hotey

Senate Democratic leaders have sent a letter to President Obama pledging their support if he raises the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling unilaterally in the face of Republican resistance.

Support has been growing among Democrats in Congress for Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment or another legal justification for expanding the nation’s borrowing authority without congressional approval.

“In the event that Republicans make good on their threat by failing to act, or by moving unilaterally to pass a debt limit extension only as part of unbalanced or unreasonable legislation, we believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis — without Congressional approval, if necessary,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democratic leaders wrote in a letter dated Jan. 11.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Democratic Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.) signed the letter.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden Pledges Unilateral Obama Action on Gun Control, Executive Orders Considered (+video)

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By Erica Werner. Vice President Joe Biden vowed urgent action against gun violence in America Wednesday, pledging steps by the Obama administration that he said could “take thousands of people out of harm’s way” and improve the safety of millions more.

But a day ahead of a meeting with the National Rifle Association, which has sunk past gun control efforts and is opposing any new ones, Biden signaled that the administration is mindful of political realities that could imperil sweeping gun control legislation, and is willing to settle for something less. He said the administration is considering its own executive action as well as measures by Congress, but he didn’t offer specifics.

“I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we’re going to do nothing,” Biden told an array of gun control advocates, crime victims and others at the White House. “It’s critically important we act.”

Shortly after last month’s slaughter of schoolchildren at Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama tasked Biden with heading a commission to come up with recommendations on gun policy by the end of this month. Obama supports steps including reinstating a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and closing loopholes that allow many gun buyers to avoid background checks.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says that some 40 percent of gun sales are made without background checks, such as at gun shows and over the Internet. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Second Term: More Congress End-Run?

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photo credit: adam glanzmanA big unknown for President Obama’s second term is whether he will find a way to work with Congress or continue to push the limits of executive power.

The clearest signal may come before the year-end fiscal cliff: Obama said Friday he was “open to compromise,” but insisted on tax hikes on the rich. That may hurt chances for cooperation.

Obama’s last two years butting heads with the GOP House led him to increasingly focus on executive branch actions that cut Congress out of the loop.

Some analysts predict another end-run soon with a recess appointment that would open the door to principal write-downs on government-insured mortgages.

Two moves, in particular, this year have stretched executive power and touched off disputes as to whether Obama had exceeded his constitutional authority.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House considers circumventing Congress again, leaves Internet takeover through exec. order a possibility

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The White House has left open the possibility of enacting its Internet agenda via executive order after the failed effort to bring the Democrat-supported cybersecurity bill to a full vote in the Senate last week.

In response to a question from The Hill, a Washington, D.C. political newspaper, about whether President Obama was considering advancing his party’s cyber-plan through an executive order, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney didn’t rule out the possibility.

“In the wake of Congressional inaction and Republican stall tactics, unfortunately, we will continue to be hamstrung by outdated and inadequate statutory authorities that the legislation would have fixed,” he said via email.

“Moving forward, the President is determined to do absolutely everything we can to better protect our nation against today’s cyber threats and we will do that,” added Carney.

The failed cyber security bill, which could be revived by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid when the Senate comes back from recess in September, would have given federal agencies in charge of regulating critical infrastructure industries like power companies and utilities the ability to mandate cybersecurity recommendations.

Read more from this story HERE.

 

Obama pushing idiotic race-based discipline standards for schools

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President Barack Obama is backing a controversial campaign by progressives to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’ behavior.

His July 26 executive order established a government panel to promote “a positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in disparate use of disciplinary tools.”

“African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and they disproportionately experience school discipline,” said the order, titled “White House Initiative On Educational Excellence.”

Because of those causes, the report suggests, “over a third of African American students do not graduate from high school on time with a regular high school diploma, and only four percent of African American high school graduates interested in college are college-ready across a range of subjects.”

“What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama demands Romney’s tax returns; why hasn’t Romney demanded Barry’s college records?

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White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed Donald Trump’s position earlier this week that should Obama keep insisting Mitt Romney release his tax returns, Romney should demand that Barry Soetoro, Barrack Hussein Obama, or whatever his name is, first make his college records public information.

Of course, rather than address the issue at hand, the administration consciously chose to launch into an Alinsky style personal attack on Trump. Carney called the suggestion “preposterous,” dismissing Trump as the “guy who insisted that he didn’t believe the president was born in the United States.”

Never mind that the current White House occupant signed an Executive Order hiding every last one of his personal documents from public view on his first day in office. For “the most transparent administration in history,” transparency is meant for everyone else, not themselves.

In typical Progressive “do as I say, not as I do” fashion, the White House has launched repeated attacks on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee over questions about the timing of his departure from private equity firm Bain Capital. One campaign spokeswoman even suggested that Romney committed a felony.

The White House and fellow Democrats keep insisting that several companies filed for bankruptcy and/or shipped jobs overseas under Romney’s Bain leadership. They’re obviously trying to create the theme that Romney only wants to help fellow millionaires, not working people.

Romney has maintained he is not responsible for many of those decisions because they took place after he took a leave of absence in February 1999 to oversee the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. According to recently released documents, regulatory filings show that Romney was still in charge of Bain through 2002. However, Bain officials, including Democrats, say that he was not involved with the company’s day-to-day operations during that time.

The White House is also criticizing Romney for setting up offshore bank accounts and refusing to release additional information concerning his personal fortune, estimated to be as much as $250 million.

Romney countered this week that, “John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. John Kerry ran for president, and his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow this wasn’t an issue. The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more, more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try and make a mountain out of and distort and to be dishonest about.”

But Progressives keep insisting that Romney’s supposed secrecy goes to the “trust factor.” This is the absolute height of hypocrisy. When it comes to secrecy and the trust factor, how on earth can policy wonks who insist on hiding the Oval Office occupant’s entire past claim even a sliver of the moral high ground? Perhaps Progressives need a lesson on how trust is a two way street. They should start with answering the following:

Why was the “Affordable Care Act” passed without Congress reading it first?

Why weren’t the New Black Panthers prosecuted for the voter intimidation that was clearly documented?

Why did the NLRB sue Boeing?

Why has the administration stifled the production of cheap energy through EPA regulations and denial of permits?

Why has the administration abandoned national border security while suing States attempting to enforce federal law and granting blanket protection from prosecution for breaking immigration laws to millions of illegal aliens?

Why is the administration suing States that passed Voter ID laws intended solely to protect the integrity of America’s voting process?

Why has the counting of American votes in the November 2012 election been outsourced to a Spanish company?

Why does the White House continue insisting that average, everyday Americans are not being taxed by the “Affordable Care Act” when enforcement of the “penalty” falls to the IRS?

When did the IRS suddenly leave the Department of Treasury and move to the Department of Health and Human Services?

Why did so many millions of taxpayer dollars go to green energy companies whose executives just happened to have been big time Progressive bundlers for the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign?

Where is the justification for using Executive Privilege to hide the truth about Operation Fast and Furious which resulted in the murder of American Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?

The White House calling for transparency from the Mitt Romney campaign might make more sense if Obama practiced what his administration has preached. But he has not. “The most transparent administration in history” has practiced anything but transparency. The American people won’t suffer this level of horrendous duplicity much longer.

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Michael Fell is a former MCA recording artist from the seminal punk rock era who toured America from coast to coast. Today, he’s a leading voice in the L.A. Tea Party movement, active since the February 2009 inception. Mr. Fell currently chairs the Westwood Tea Party, is a founding member of the L.A. Metro Tea Party Coalition, serves as the Vice Chairman of the Westside Republicans Club in L.A. CA, and is an elected Republican delegate to the L.A. 47th AD Central Committee. He’s been Campaign Manager for a primary winning Congressional candidate, as well as Santa Monica and L.A. City Council candidates. Mr. Fell is a contributing writer for https://conservativedailynews.com/, https://rightwingnews.com/, https://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/, https://beforeitsnews.com, https://www.redcounty.com/, https://www.uspatriotpac.com and, https://westsiderepublicans.com/. His opinions on today’s news events and political climate can be found on his blog: https://mjfellright.wordpress.com/

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