Free Republic

President Obama has decided to use his executive power to order tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, accelerating the fight against climate change without waiting for Congress, administration officials said Thursday. Mr. Obama plans to announce on Friday that he is ordering the creation of a new national policy that will result in less pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he has already put in place. Under rules that were eventually formalized last month, new cars have to meet a combined...

According to comment #16 on this unrelated Hillbuzz.com article: "McCain requested that Obama send 3000 National Guard to the AZ border. I though this sounded strange – isn’t it the AZ Gov that deploys National Guard? Then I found this – Executive Order 13528, signed Jan 11 2010: ...So now the AZ Gov cannot deploy the AZ NG without approval from the President and his Council of Governors?" I looked a bit further and found a blogger, Chris Marten, whom I know nothing about, also commenting on this EO: "...read this one closely but when it dawns on you that...

The nation’s non-union contractors, who constitute the bulk of the construction industry, say President Obama has given a “massive payback” to unions by implementing an executive order that would help them secure billions of dollars in construction contracts on public projects -- and a House Republican congressman agrees. The executive order, implemented in mid-April, encourages federal agencies to use “project labor agreements” or PLAs on their construction projects, which could require any non-union workers to pay into ailing union pension funds and follow work guidelines set out by a union. Ben Brubeck, who is director of the labor and federal...

So much for the spectacle of Democrats and Republicans fighting their way through Congress over the future of Cap and Trade energy legislation. Thanks to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in little noticed press releases from March 29 and April 1, the “final decision” that “greenhouse gases (GHGs)” and “carbon pollution” will be regulated (taxed) by the federal government is complete and the imposition of “construction and operating permit requirements for the largest emitting facilities will begin.”

There was plenty of hoopla in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday when President Obama signed his health care bill into law. But when Mr. Obama signs an executive order that secured the votes of anti-abortion Democrats, he will do so in private. The White House announced Tuesday evening that Mr. Obama would sign the order — which it said reaffirms the health bill’s “consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion” — in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon. The order, negotiated Sunday afternoon as the House was entering the final stages...

Our rooting interest here is that The One double-crosses him and doesn’t sign it at all, right? In theory, it’s a dilemma because conservatives want whatever meager protection for the unborn that Obama’s willing to give. But if you believe that the executive order’s a purely symbolic gesture that’s worth nothing in practice, then who cares if he signs it or not? Better that he doesn’t sign it, in fact, and proves once for and all to the suckers in the Democratic pro-life caucus just what an ignoble sellout Stupak’s deal turned out to be. Not that they’d care.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has issued a statement declaring victory after the Senate health care bill's passage Sunday, noting that the abortion-related executive order Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) agreed to in exchange for pro-life Democrats' votes was merely a "symbolic gesture." Stupak had argued after the vote that, contrary to the affirmations of virtually every top pro-life organization in the U.S., Obama's promised executive order "is worth more than the paper it is written on." "The only option you had was leave the Senate language or strengthen it to prevent abortions under an...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood called the pro-abortion health care bill the House approved late Sunday night a victory and applauded the financial windfall is expected to reap as a result. The abortion business also dismissed the executive order President Barack Obama promised Congressman Bart Stupak as harmless. “For more than a year, Planned Parenthood has worked tirelessly for a health care" bill, its president Cecile Richards said in a statement today. "It's a huge victory for women's health, but our work isn't over yet."With passage of the legislation, "monumental progress was made toward achieving these goals."Richard dismissed the...

Andy McCarthy, respected author of the landmark book, "Willfull Blindness" talks to Steve Malzberg from the radio show of the same name at 710 WOR AM NY. http://wor710.com Andy delineates the shell game being played by Obama and Stupak. Go to the link above to listen to Andy and Steve! His essary on the same subject from NRO is also included.

WASHINGTON -- A last-minute compromise yesterday that swung a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats behind President Obama's health-care bill -- virtually ensuring its passage -- failed to placate outside activists on either side of the issue, and drew derision from Republicans. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), leader of the anti-abortion bloc, said he was satisfied with an executive order issued by Obama affirming prohibitions in current law and in the health legislation against taxpayer money going to abortions. "Make no doubt about it. There will be no public funds for abortion," Stupak said in announcing the agreement yesterday ahead of a vote on...

Congressman Sensenbrenner on the House floor blasting the Executive Order from President Obama, and telling Stupak "I'm sorry, but the gentleman from Michigan has misstated the law" (Video)

President Obama Breaks Faith with Women Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill March 21, 2010 The National Organization for Women is incensed that President Barack Obama agreed today to issue an executive order designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women's access to abortion. Through this order, the president has announced he will lend the weight of his office and the entire executive branch to the anti-abortion measures included in the Senate bill, which the House is now prepared to pass. President Obama campaigned as a pro-choice...

Abortion Pact Paves Way for Health Bill House Votes to Begin Debate on $940 Billion Health-Care Overhaul JANET ADAMY And GREG HITT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House voted Sunday to allow debate to begin on a sweeping $940 billion health-care measure, just hours after an agreement was reached on abortion language that is expected to result in the bill's passage. In a procedural vote that was a key test for whether the bill will pass, the House voted 224-206 to approve the "rule" on the health-care bill's debate. A final vote on the bill likely will come late Sunday night....

Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz admits an executive order can't change law.

Per Fox legal analyst -- Obozo's executive order to get Stupak's vote unlawful; anything added to this vote changes the Senate bill and thus invalidates today's House vote.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has announced his small group of Democrat pro-life voters are swinging their votes to support Obamacare. His reasoning is based on an Obama Executive Order that will supposedly keep the new health care bill from paying for abortions. Pro-life groups have warned that this move is smoke and mirrors and that the Executive Order is not enough. The Susan B. Anthony list explains: 1. An executive order can be rescinded any time. President Obama could reverse it next week, next month, or next year. Should another pro-abortion president be elected in the future, it could be...

Executive Order Hijinks [Andy McCarthy] I know we tire of the hypocrisy, but I really think this is remarkable. We spent the eight years through January 19, 2009, listening to Democrats complain that President Bush had purportedly caused a constitutional crisis by issuing signing statements when he signed bills into law. Democrats and Arlen Specter (now a Democrat) complained that these unenforceable, non-binding expressions of the executive's interpretation of the laws Bush was signing were a usurpation Congress's power to enact legislation. But now Democrats are going to abide not a mere signing statement but an executive order that purports...

The Order [Yuval Levin] Upon first hearing there was talk of an executive order yesterday, I wondered how the administration’s lawyers thought such an order could go beyond the letter of the law in restricting abortion funding. This was a question the Bush administration examined quite extensively on several occasions, and the lawyers involved always agreed that the legal precedents from the time between the Roe decision and passage of the Hyde amendment, as well as some after the Hyde amendment, are extremely clear in stating that federal funds cannot be denied to the provision of abortion except by explicit...

Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion. While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation's restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented. The President has said from the start that this health insurance reform should not be the forum to upset longstanding precedent. The health...

The White House just released this statement: STATEMENT FROM COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR DAN PFEIFFER Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion. While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation’s restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented. The President has said from the start that this health...