Obama’s Executive Orders. As we head into the weekend, we’re in the middle of a political firestorm. The President has issued orders granting a 3 year amnesty to a selected group of illegal immigrants. To begin with, the major broadcast networks refused to give the President air time, which infuriated the White House. Staffers complained the networks had given President George W. Bush airtime to announce the National Guard was being sent to the southern border to assist in security, in 2008. The networks retorted that Bush’s announcement was a bipartisan enforcement of existing immigration law. Kind of a slap in the face to the current administration, and from the major mainstream media broadcast networks no less. However, don’t think the networks are finally coming to their senses. Maybe it’s just that the President doesn’t command the kind of audiences he used to, given a popularity rating hovering around 40 percent. The biggest problem with the President’s executive order? Not long ago, he himself said he didn’t have the authority to make law. Whether or not the President’s orders are legal will have to be determined going forward with lawsuits and legislation. Largely though, it will be a matter of public opinion, due to the fact that courts are loathe to intervene in disputes between branches of the federal government. In the end this will be worked out through the ballot box, and citizens will have to decide whether they think the President overstepped authority. It is certainly true Congress chose not to act on immigration, which is itself acting. It is also true that courts have suggested the president’s authority to act through executive orders has limits. One of the key questions is whether he has usurped the congressional constitutional responsibility to legislate and whether he has refused to enforce the law in this case, which could end up creating a constitutional crisis. This whole controversy drives home the fact that elections – especially Presidential elections – have long term consequences. The reaction to this action churlish action by President Obama should be to organize neighborhoods and precincts, so that attempts to use the office to build support for progressive policy and politicians in the future, won’t work. One of the craziest suggestions this week was that the US should repeal the 22nd amendment, which term limits the US presidency. The argument suggests that if Obama had to run for a third term, he wouldn’t be as likely to issue these kinds of orders. Meanwhile, for the time being the White House has succeeded in taking control of the news cycle. The good news is we can depend on this White House acting true to form, which suggests they’ll encounter a real crisis, which the President will screw up and then we’ll all be talking about that! One person who is thrilled with the executive order … Jonathon Gruber, the ‘brilliant’ MIT ‘economist’ who thinks the voters are stupid, and he is thrilled because for the time being, no one will be talking about his latest video. Sponsored by X Government Cars! 

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