Despite what you hear on certain television stations, presidents are not autonomous Kings. Of course, they would love to believe that they are – and this includes all presidents, not just the one currently in office.
But that pesky Constitution limits a lot of what a president can do. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 further restricted that power against a president declaring war on another country. That is Congress’s responsibility.
Presidents, however, seem to have that husband hearing sometimes, though. And they often forget and just declare things. Reagan expanded foreign policy powers that led to the Iran-Contra affair where the US sold arms to Iran in secret. Obama created DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) that shaped immigration policy without any laws being passed by Congress.
And President Biden signed executive orders around climate change and carbon footprints of the United States in line with the Paris Climate Accords. An Executive Order can also be ceremonial, like naming Medal of Freedom recipients or to honor fallen soldiers. Harry Truman issued one creating a National Day of Prayer annually (May 1st). Reagan created National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15).
All told, what once was generally only a ceremonial ability, has now turned into major policy shifters for the country. George Washington signed only eight Executive Orders in his terms in office. Just last week, President Trump signed 35. In his previous presidency, he signed 220. The ones he signed last week had wide ranging implications on immigration policy, climate change policy (he basically hit the UNDO button on Biden’s Paris accords EO), and gender studies.
So, the power of the EO has clearly expanded. My question is… what do WE get out of this? Any president would basically have the power to cancel Daylight Saving Time, or institute a robotic strike zone in Major League Baseball, or name chocolate chip as the official ice cream flavor of the United States. Why haven’t they?
Sure, you can enact policies to deport immigrants and name that there are only two genders, but what about proclaiming that everyone has Leap Day off? Or that all trees on streets facing north and south need to be evergreen trees? Or maybe that on the third Tuesday of every month, the US Treasury will send everyone a check for $200 and a free medium fries at Whataburger?
If we are going to just have one person making all these rules and laws, let’s at least get some entertainment value out of it. After all, if we’re going to steamroll Congress and unilaterally end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs throughout the government, let’s at least move to the metric system or send some astronauts to Neptune or let us talk to the Area 51 aliens.
As they say, “with great power comes great responsibility to entertain the masses.”
(For more on Neptune and Area 51 aliens and whatnot, follow our Rambling Moron Chris Kamler on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he does his thing as @chriskamler)
