When President Obama was riding sky high approval ratings, which seems like a political lifetime ago, he said that he was going to do “big things” in office. But now, with an approval rating falling into the low 40s and an inability to get Congress to act on pet projects, Obama is preparing to “act alone” by issuing an avalanche of regulatory and rules changes to force his will on the nation.
The President says this will be his “year of action,” but his campaign shows that he is no longer able to achieve those “big things” he hoped to tackle, able only to tinker in the margins with a slew of regulations that will likely be the death of a thousands cuts to this weak economy.
Still, his new “action” campaign has whipped up morale inside his White House, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reported on February 21:
Yet the flurry of executive actions does seem to be having a cathartic effect inside the White House, which was in need of a jolt after a frustrating and disjointed 2013 that included the flawed rollout of Obama’s signature health care law and a sharp drop in the president’s approval ratings. Advisers who ended the year dispirited now appear buoyed by a new sense of purpose–and the prospect of working around a Congress that has long been an irritant to the president.
The disastrous rollout of Obamacare was a particular stumble for the President and his ability to push a broader agenda. As his signature healthcare law went into a tailspin late last year, Obama resorted to a stream of executive orders to bypass the legislative process.
But Obama’s reliance on backdoor rules changes and executive orders has been more untoward than other presidents and has even been called “unconstitutional” by some.
This reliance on executive orders and regulatory changes is not going unanswered, though. Florida Representative Ron DeSantis, for instance, has introduced a resolution of disapproval of the President’s actions.
Of course, this is the same President Obama who as a presidential candidate in 2008 attacked President George W. Bush for “trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch.”
During his early run for President, Obama said:
I taught constitutional law for ten years. I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all and that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States of America.
The Obama of 2008 is a far different man than the one who, only weeks ago, said that as President he can do whatever he wants to do.
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