Barack Obama's Executive Orders

New President to Put His Stamp on the USA Sooner Rather Than Later

Mark Whittington
Barack Obama, following the traditional practice of incoming Presidents, plans to put his own stamp on the United States by issuing a series of executive orders that will have the force of law. The choice of the executive orders is illuminating.

Some of the first executive orders will no doubt be pleasing to some of Barack Obama's feminist supporters and will anger pro life supporters. Barack Obama will lift the restrictions on foreign aid to abortions that were imposed by President George W. Bush. Obama will also lift restrictions for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Neither of these proposed executive orders is unexpected. President Clinton, when he first entered office, issued similar executive orders to lift abortion restrictions imposed by both President Reagan and the first President Bush.

President George W. Bush had imposed some restrictions on embryonic stem cell research because such procedures destroy human embryos, which pro life supporters regard as taking human life. Breakthroughs in adult stem cell research have subsequently obviated the need for embryonic stem cell research that many find ethically suspect. Nevertheless Barack Obama will issue the executive order that will open up embryonic stem cell research.

Far more controversial, because it will affect far more people, is a proposal to issue an executive order to reverse President Bush's opening of offshore areas and certain land areas such as Utah to oil exploration. While, due to the current economic slowdown, the price of oil and gas has declined since the summer highs, unrestricted oil exploration still enjoys wide spread support. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has gained a lot of political mileage with his "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign.

More experts suspect that the current decline in the price of oil and gas is only temporary. When that price starts to rise, Barack Obama's executive order restricting oil exploration will almost certainly come back to haunt him.

The problem is that Barack Obama was not elected on the virtue of any policy proposals that he may have made during the campaign, except possibly the middle class tax cut for "95 percent of the American people." Obama was elected because of the credit crisis and because he positioned himself to represent "hope and change", good things for a politician to be on the good side of.

Some people who may have voted for Obama may be in for a rude awakening as they see gas prices inch back up and hear about restrictions on oil exploration due to an Obama executive order. They may complain that they didn't vote for this.

But, of course, they did, whether they knew it or not. Elections are about choices and the outcome of them matter. The first executive orders to be issued by a newly installed President Obama will drive that point home.

Source: Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact, Stephen Ohlemacher, AP, November 9th, 2008

Published by Mark Whittington

Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington...   View profile

21 Comments

Post a Comment
  • Bruce Roberson 9/27/2010

    Simple Arithmetic Average,
    Largest Daily Point Losses, Intraday, Distances and
    universal standard, within time zones, "real", "live"
    communications and equipment.

    http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/s/spoons
    Accounting service with no
    returns for 2010; Webpages as voice, dialogues as voice,
    broadcast as voice, pages of research, search engines and
    browser with questions and no answers. Internet protocols
    measures, content, personal sales volume and employments.
    Performances and channel intakes; Music Videos, Tutorials,
    Training, Features, "News of the Day", Room and Boards,
    Graphic Designs and pricing.

    Communication Service rate 2.35 State of Florida
    Prime Rate 3.25%
    Prime Lending (1962) 4.50%
    Inflation [USD] 2.46%

    53wk low/high Change% Volume

    2007 Establishing Firmware (Sole Proprietor Television)

    10% 0.47 2.11 2.69 109.72
    9% 0.472 2.115 2.70 110.00

    2008 Channelization Techniques

    8% 0.45 2.21 2.83 115.43
    7% 0.44 2.25 2.89 117.48

    2009 eTV Premier

    6%

  • Jay 1/8/2010

    I wish the people of the left would actually move away the wool that
    Obama has pulled over their eyes.

  • Jay 1/8/2010

    I wish the people of the left would actually move away the wool that
    Obama has pulled over their eyes.

  • SF49rsfn 4/23/2009

    Ok,check this out and decide for yourself. Sometimes you just have to dig a little bit deeper! This concerns our new President. Please don't watch this around the kids! Also check out the book "Eating in the Dark" By Kathleen Hart". This book tells you about America's Experiment with GM Foods. It's definitely worth looking at!!!!!!!!!!

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886780711843120756

  • L. Coursey 2/18/2009

    Stem cell research never stopped or was restricted. Only embryonic stem cell use was restricted and even that continued on with the use of placenta and umbilical cord stem cells. Embryonic stem cell have also proven less stable than adult stem cells. Get off your political high horse.

  • MS 2/12/2009

    THE COUNTRY SAW ITS NET WORTH PLUMMET. THE COUNTRY SAW MILLIONS OF JOBS LOST. THE COUNTRY SAW THE COUNTRY SAW BILLIONS GO TO BANKERS WHO HAD CONNECTIONS TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. AND SO AMERICA BECAME SICK OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. AND IN SENSELESS DESPERATION, AMERICA ELECTED AN UNKNOWN COLLEGE PROFESSOR AS ITS PRESIDENT.

    SO WHEN YOU SEE OBAMA GIVING HIS NEXT SPEECH, AND YOU NOTICE HOW OUT OF PLACE HE LOOKS AT THE PODIUM, IT'S NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE IGNORANT OR EVIL OR RACIST. IT'S BECAUSE THIS MAN IS COMPLETELY OUT OF HIS DEPTH. HE SNAPS AT THE MEDIA WHEN THEY ASK HIM SERIOUS QUESTIONS. HE LOOKS BAFFLED WHEN HE GETS ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE. AND THE ONLY ECONOMIC SOLUTION HE SEEMS TO KNOW IS TO GIVE AWAY MONEY TO HIS FRIENDS. BARACK OBAMA IS THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT. BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST.

  • MS 2/12/2009

    IT'S CLEAR FROM THE PAST FEW WEEKS THAT BARACK OBAMA IS COMPLETELY OUT OF PLACE. IF YOU LOOK AT WHAT HE'S BEEN TRYING TO DO TO THE COUNTRY, IF YOU LOOK AT HOW HE HANDLES HIMSELF, IF YOU LOOK AT THE WAY HE DEALS WITH THE MEDIA, IT'S PLAIN TO SEE THAT HIS ELECTION WAS DUE NOT TO HIS OWN ABILITY, BUT TO A PERFECT STORM OF EVENTS.

    FIRST, GEORGE W. BUSH DESTROYED THE ECONOMY. HE DRAINED THE TREASURY WITH AN ENDLESS WAR. HE SOLD OUR MANUFACTURING BASE OUT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD. HE GAVE BILLIONS IN AIDS MONEY TO AFRICA TO BURNISH HIS IMAGE WITH LIBERAL JOURNALISTS AND HISTORIANS. SO AMERICA BECAME SICK OF GEORGE W. BUSH.

    SECOND, JOHN MCCAIN RAN THE WORST PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IN LIVING MEMORY. HE PRAISED OBAMA CONSTANTLY. HE REFUSED TO LET HIS SUBORDINATES ATTACK OBAMA. HE NOMINATED AN UNQUALIFIED ALASKAN HILLBILLY AS HIS VICE PRESIDENT. SO AMERICA BECAME SICK OF JOHN MCCAIN AS WELL.

    THIRD, WALL STREET COLLAPSED AT THE HEIGHT OF THE ELECTION SEASON. THE COUNTRY SAW ITS NET WORTH P

  • Freedom Fighter 2/9/2009

    I ask that each of you recognize that the President is not going to save us we need to save ourselves and that of the 80 pages of promises he made during his campaign, he will have to prioritize and push them through the bureacracy of our government meaning that the lower priority items may never get on the table. To move this country forward, we need to take our eye off of blame, political party, and personal differences and focus on the big picture. Rising above the words conservative and liberal will allow us to see that we are truly headed in the wrong direction regardless of the president and it will take each of us to move this country to a more unified focus on making America great. It starts with our own very basic priorities in life and identifying where each of us can make a difference.

  • Stephen 2/8/2009

    Bush took executive orders to a new level -- not only to circumvent the legislative branch but also the judicial branch.

    Where is your concerned for those abuses, Margaret M.?

  • Margaret M 2/6/2009

    The comments so far are very revealing -- no one senses anything unusual in this application of executive authority, since other presidents have used executive orders. However, the number of executive orders is unusual, as is the practice of circumventing the authority of the Legislative Branch of Government -- The Congress -- The Elected representatives of the People in reversing issues that do not have a time urgency, but are simply ideologically incompatible with the new administration. The political danger is that President Obama will continue to create law, which is not the authority of the Executive Branch, resulting in change in the balance of power in our democracy. Governments in which legislative authority is vested in the Executive authority are the definition of a dictatorship -- something the United States has never had. Stay tuned. The next four years are going to be interesting.

Displaying Comments
Next »

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.