EQ 14: Executive Orders = Action

Dear Friends,

I was reminded this morning by my wife that President Obama is doing a good job enacting policy through Executive Orders.  While Executive Orders are by their nature limited in the scope of what they can accomplish, they do provide a way to get somethings done when a President is faced with an opposition party that is against anything that he proposes.  Since the Republicans have made it clear that they will oppose anything that President Obama is for (think Obamacare and Cap and Trade both originally Republican ideas), President Obama has been forced to use Executive Orders to get things done.  Today he announced one directing federal agencies to find ways to expand flexible work place policies to be more family friendly.  Previously, he has used Executive Orders to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  He has made it easier to have the states provide information about mental illness to the federal gun background check system.  He has increased the minimum wage for federal contractors.  He has addressed climate change, most recently with coal fired power plant emissions.  The list goes on and you can see it here.

Each of these orders is just a small step.  It would be far better to have Congress act much more broadly in these areas, but that is not going to happen so we should encourage President Obama to continue to use Executive Orders whenever he can.  We should particularly encourage him to stop deporting people who may be here illegally but who do not pose any safety threat to our communities and if people are being deported to do so in a much more humanitarian way.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal