Tag: executive order

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New York Times urges President Obama to issue executive order on employment discrimination

In an op-ed today, the New York Times urged President Obama to issue an executive order regarding LGBT employment discrimination as an opportunity to “lead by example:”

Mr. Obama said in November that workplace discrimination “needs to stop, because, in the United States of America, who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense.” An executive order barring discrimination by federal contractors would extend badly needed job protections to more than 11 million employees who work in states that lack such protections and whose companies fail to provide them voluntarily, according to the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law.

What Mr. Obama needs to do is act on his principles and issue such an order, without the religious exemption that was put into the Senate bill to lure Republican votes. Challenged last week to explain the mystifying delay on this issue, Mr. Obama’s spokesman said that the president supported broader legislation and that its enactment by Congress would make an executive order “redundant.”

[snip]

The best way for Mr. Obama to advance the issue and prod the House to do the right thing is to lead by example, not by waiting.

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Facts show President Obama has issued least number of executive orders in over 100 years

Graphic via Politics with Jarred and Dave – Click to enlarge

The latest talking point to emerge from the GOP congressional camp is that President Obama, through use of executive orders, is crowning himself “King Obama” and break the law by using this executive branch tool.

Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) called the president a “Socialistic dictator” and the “Kommandant-In-Chef.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) wants to “sue” the president for breaking the law.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says that the president is trying to “write laws.”

But are executive orders “breaking the law?” Is this a “new” thing we’ve never seen before? And is President Obama issuing them more than other presidents in the past?

From Steve Benen at MSNBC:

The American Presidency Project keeps a running tally of executive orders by president, starting with George Washington. Literally every president (except Harrison, who died a month after his inauguration) has made use of this tool, some more than others.

Franklin Roosevelt was clearly the most ambitious president when it came to executive orders. And who’s the least? That would be Barack Obama, who issued 168 executive orders in his first five years.

All told, Obama has averaged fewer executive orders, per year, than any president in the last 117 years. His totals may yet grow – it’s tough to predict how many orders he’ll issue in his final three years – but at least for now, Republican criticisms about Obama’s excesses aren’t just wrong, they’re demonstrably ridiculous.

Wait a minute! So you mean to tell me that Presidents Reagan and both Bush presidents used the dreaded executive order MORE than President Obama?

Yeah.  They don’t mention that part, do they?

(source)