Op-ed:

Executive Orders + Obama = abuse of power 

By: Diane Sori

Barack Hussein Obama has abused the executive power granted him as president.  He just revels in bypassing our systems of checks and balances and legislative procedures by issuing Executive Order after Executive Order, all going against the wishes of ‘We the People.’

The time to reign in the use of the Executive Order privilege is upon us, because it will just get worse if we don’t.

But the question really is, do we even need Executive Orders at all, as they give definitive power to one individual and that is NOT what our Founders intended. Simply, Executive Orders are a rule or order issued by the president to an executive branch of the government (or agency) and having the power of law. While Executive Orders do bypass Congress and the legislative process, no Executive Order may direct any agency to conduct illegal or unconstitutional activities, at least they’re not supposed to.

Hear that Obama.

However, the term ‘Executive Order’ itself has never been defined by Congress.  Neither has Congress or the courts ruled to the extent or limit they can be used. And, there is no provision or statute in the Constitution that specifically allows for Executive Orders.  A vague musing of ‘executive power’ in Article ll, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution (“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America...”), and the words "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed..." is taken to mean to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" (Article II, Section 1, clause 7).  From these words alone it’s been decided presidents have the authority to issue ‘Executive Orders.’

Since Obama is unable to get his proposed bills passed in the House, he's using his executive powers to issue Executive Orders (128 to date), to do what he wants to do, which is to circumnavigate Congressional approval as he either changes existing laws from what they were intended to do or negates them completely. His latest was just this past Friday when he used his executive authority to stop deportation proceedings for young immigrants under age 30, who entered the U.S. illegally but who meet certain criteria he alone has determined, which directly go against our current immigration laws. 

Now here is something very interesting most people don’t know: in extreme cases Congress may pass an emergency law that alters an Executive Order, and/or declares an Executive Order unconstitutional thus allowing it to be overturned by the Supreme Court.

(To date, two Executive Orders have been overturned, those being a 1952 Executive Order of  HarryTruman’s that placed all steel mills in the country under federal control, and a 1995 Executive Order of Bill Clinton’s that attempted to prevent the federal government from contracting with organizations that had strike breakers on their payroll.

Well, if allowing 800,00 ILLEGALS under the age of 30 to basically get what amounts to amnesty, and in the process taking jobs away from LEGAL Americans, if this does NOT constitute an emergency than I don’t know what does.

But now we face a problem that we’ve faced so many times before...that is that this sitting Congress does NOT have the guts, courage, or fortitude to stand up to this miserable pathetic excuse of a president.

And this is so sad.  Congressional leaders have come forward questioning many of Obama’s Executive Orders, even going so far as to say that many appear unconstitutional, and yet all they do is talk, whine, and then sit back, twiddle their thumbs and do nothing even while knowing they have the power to overturn some, and that’s more than sad, it’s unconscionable.

What’s happened to those we elected to do ‘the people’s business’...are they all cowards...it sure seems that way.  Here we have a just initiated Executive Order that we know breeches Constitutional limits of power, an Executive Order that probably could be successfully overturned by Congress, yet no one, not one single Congressperson has called for this action to even be initiated.

So now I want to know where all America’s heroes and champions have gone...besides for our men and women in uniform, it seems those we counted on to be our champions, to be our voice, are no more.