To: SiouxPal who wrote (143906 ) 6/28/2014 9:52:30 PM From: DuckTapeSunroof Read Replies (3) | Respond to An Embarrassing Hole in Boehner’s Plan to Sue ‘King’ Obama: Executive monarchy ,” “imperial precedents” and “aggressive unilateralism ”—these are just a few of the terms being bandied about since House Speaker John Boehner announced two days ago a grand plan to sue President Barack Obama over his “king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.”memo issued Wednesday. “If the current president can selectively enforce, change or create laws as he chooses with impunity, without the involvement of the legislative branch, his successors will be able to do the same,” Boehner said. “This shifts the balance of power decisively and dangerously in favor of the presidency, giving the president king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.”There’s just one problem. Obama has issued fewer executive orders than any other president since Franklin Roosevelt, according to Gerhard Peters, co-founder of the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Peters and his co-founder, John Woolley, are among the nation’s leading authorities on the use of presidential executive power, going back to George Washington. “In the modern era that most presidential scholars believe began with Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, Obama has issued the least number of executive orders per year,” Peters tells Newsweek, after updating and crunching out the numbers . In fact, Obama’s yearly average of 33.58 executive orders is lower than any president in 130 years, going back to Chester Arthur , who averaged 27.7 executive orders a year. (Peters prefers using an average-per-year metric, as the length of presidential terms can greatly vary.) gender identity and sexual orientation .the suit as a “stunt.” Referring to Boehner in an interview Thursday with ABC News, Obama said, “You notice he didn’t specifically say what exactly he was objecting to.” Later, referencing members of Congress, he added, “I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something while they’re doing nothing.”Leah McGrath Goodman newsweek.com
