Posted on 11/18/2010 10:10:08 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the President from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point.
“I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.”
How does one “move the country forward”? In the center’s report, Podesta explains that Obama can use executive orders, rulemaking, and even the armed forces “to accomplish important change” and that such means “should not be underestimated.”
What exactly does Podesta think the president should use such powers to “accomplish”? Among others, the report suggests “job creation,“ ”quality affordable health care,“ ”sustainable security,“ and ”a clean energy future.”
The report cites specific goals such as mitigating the effects of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, supporting a Palestinian state, and reducing greenhouse gasses by 17 percent by 2020.
“The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy,” Podesta writes. ”Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still.”
Statement from John D. Podesta November 15, 2010
In the aftermath of this month’s midterm congressional elections, pundits and politicians across the ideological spectrum are focusing on how difficult it will be for President Barack Obama to advance his policy priorities through Congress. Predictions of stalemate abound. And some debate whether the administration should tack to the left or to the center and compromise with or confront the new House leadership.
As a former White House chief of staff, I believe those to be the wrong preoccupations. President Obama’s ability to govern the country as chief executive presents an opportunity to demonstrate strength, resolve, and a capacity to get things done on a host of pressing challenges of importance to the public and our economy. Progress, not positioning, is what the public wants and deserves.
The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy. These authorities can be used to ensure positive progress on many of the key issues facing the country through:
* Executive orders * Rulemaking * Agency management * Convening and creating public-private partnerships * Commanding the armed forces * Diplomacy
The ability of President Obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated. President Bush, for example, faced a divided Congress throughout most of his term in office, yet few can doubt his ability to craft a unique and deeply conservative agenda using every aspect of the policymaking apparatus at his disposal. And, after his party lost control of Congress in 1994, President Clinton used executive authority and convening power to make significant progressive change. For instance, he protected more great spaces in the lower 48 states than any president since Theodore Roosevelt, established for the first time significant protections for Americans’ medical privacy, and urged the creation of the Welfare-to-Work Partnership that enlisted the help of 20,000 businesses in moving more than 1 million welfare recipients into the workforce.
The upshot: Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still. This administration has a similar opportunity to use available executive authorities while also working with Congress where possible. At the Center for American Progress, we look forward to our nation continuing to make progress.
Read the full report (pdf)
Download the executive summary (pdf)
Download the report to e-readers and mobile devices from Scribd
To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:
Print: Megan Smith (health care, education, economic policy) 202.741.6346 or msmith@americanprogress.org
Print: Anna Soellner (foreign policy and security, energy) asoellner@americanprogress.org
Print: Raúl Arce-Contreras (ethnic media, immigration) 202.478.5318 or rarcecontreras@americanprogress.org
Radio: Laura Pereyra 202.741.6258 or lpereyra@americanprogress.org
TV: Andrea Purse 202.741.6250 or apurse@americanprogress.org
Web: Erin Lindsay 202.741.6397 or elindsay@americanprogress.org http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/11/executive_orders.html/#statement
Here it is, folks. No longer a theoretical or polemic discussion, but an “in-your-face”, “do something about it” threat. Yesterday, in light of Janet “Brunhilda” Neapolitano telling us that we have no right to fly and her aide, Tim “Adolf” Pistole, saying he won’t change TSA policy; this should come as no surprise.
The question is do we stand by and do nothing? I was born free and I will die that way, My knee bends for no one, except He that made me.
Feds: “I REFUSE”
If Barry uses the military, there won’t be a next sitting President.
This is more than troubling. Podesta is financed by Soros. Every “suggestion” from this group has been adopted by the administration within weeks of their “suggestion”. Yesterday Soros, said that if this President can’t get it done then we need to start looking for a new figure.
This is more than ominous. This is an order for action.
Liberalism should be declared a mental disease, because you really need to be a sick person to want to control every facet of peoples’ lives.
To name a few, Whiskey Rebellion, Bonus Army, WV Mine Wars and desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I think that was supposed to be a private force as strong or stronger than the US military and answerable only to the anointed one. Sounds like some "progressives" would like those duties assumed up by the US armed forces.
*To quote an American patriot: “Let’s roll.”*
We citizens are heavily armed.
Japan knew that in WWII and that’s why they never tried a ground attack.
We are still heavily armed.
The military has sworn to uphold the Constitution, not some Communist halfwits that would tell them to fire on their own people.
If these knuckleheads STILL cling to the failed Marxist ideals, let them go to a Worker’s Paradise like Venezuela.
I understand but you do have to read most sentences. My point is why should the military expend any energy on this ridiculous non issue?
This is what the left does, browbeats everyone into believing there is some horrible pressing issue, then force in an absurd counter productive “solution”.
Like Jay Rockefeller saying he wants less tv stations because they are too expensive, when I just read that cable tv is under enormous price pressure from Internet based tv. But the libs will ride to the “rescue” with less channels and of course MORE exopensive tv.
The left are a bunch of kooks who never should have been let into the mainstream.
Always remember what occurred when the slickster thought he would show the Christian Right who was running the show. HE got 88 women & children burnt alive, which resulted in the OKC building bombing a year later. I bet if he had the chance to do it all over again, he would have taken a different course.
I'd actually like to see Obama try to do something crazy like trying to dis-arm America. He doesn't have enough military, and that's if they even follow his orders. Oh, I forgot, they will bring in the UN who can't even get the tribes in Africa to do as they're told.
Podesta is trying to force Obama to the left, but the Country & World knows the King has no clothes.
Wake me up when the pres becomes relevant.
Podesta, you and your commie hordes will lose....BANK on it...
actually, Podesta is semi-right.
in 2001 and 2002, the Dems. controlled the Senate due to “Jumpin” Jim Jeffords.
In 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, the GOP controlled the Senate after the 2002 mid-terms.
In 2007 and 2008 the Demos controlled both houses due to the 2008 mid-terms.
So technically, 4 out of 8 years, not most. But the GOP only had full control from 2003-2006.
-George
Make no mistake about this.
Two years ago it was stated this man would need, NEED, violence to accomplish the progressive change. Many here on FR scoffed at the idea of the peaceniks jumping on board...
Watch, the government ordered and supported violence against the American people is coming. Our troops, the UN forces...brutal overseas forces brought here to help subdue a peaceful people.
You see this won’t be a lame duck session. Their loss changed nothing on their agenda. IF it had changed anything, Pelosi would have been booted out...they kept her as leadership of their party!
In some ways we may have fallen right into their trap.
Soros Group Says Obama Can Use Armed Forces to Push “Progressive” Agenda
The Center for American Progress was given a 3-year $3,000,000 grant by George Soros’ Open Society Institute in 2006.
Media Matters, the communication wing of the Center for American Progress, was given a $1,000,000 grant by George Soros in October.
*The question is do we stand by and do nothing? I was born free and I will die that way, My knee bends for no one, except He that made me.*
Everyone stock up on ammo and release your inner Milk & Cheese* if this vile hatred of America ever becomes to a confrontation.
*Hilarious, violent comic book with characters that are “Dairy products gone bad”
Not if martial law was declared, as it was declared immediately after the electronic run on the bank in Sept of 2008.
But a lot of unconstitutional stuff can happen without shots actually being fired, and the precedent set with Lakin’s trial is that the Constitutionality of the order has no impact on whether the individual soldier has to obey it. Judge Denise Lind used a DIFFERENT set of criteria for determining the lawfulness of Lakin’s order - didn’t even reference the elements of Article 92. That is precisely how judges, through precedential decisions, can write a law out of existence. And it is being done right now.
It has been in the works for some time. And now Podesta accidentally revealed the end-goal of it. The coup that put Obama in power is not going to stop being a coup just because it’s in power. The original intent was to destroy this country and wherever the coup’s camel-nose gets under the tent it will flip everything and turn the rule of law on its head.
If the military accepts lawlessness, as the Lakin case suggests, then the military will become the worst tool in the hands of lawless men.
The fact that most of our Armed Forces know that they swore to defend the Constitution, not Obama "should not be underestimated."
Nor should our growing disgust at what these communists are trying to force upon us.
I am sure the Congress and SCOTUS are pleased to read this. Past 2 years aside, Congress is usually protective of its power.
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