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While not limited to the debate of NSA wire-tapping, has our Executive Branch overstepped its authority by issuing thousands of unilateral Executive Orders that cover every aspect of economic and private life? A great many of which have never expired or been rescinded?
"Presidential Decision Directive 25 allows the United Nations to take command of some U.S. military forces without congressional approval. And, if the president declares a state of national emergency - which he claims the authority to do single-handedly, with no congressional consultation - then, through his Executive Order 12919, the administration can take full control over and "allocate materials, services and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate." Which materials and services? Food resources and farm equipment, all forms of energy, health resources, water resources, and all forms of civil transportation.
About all that's left out of this order is our personal brain waves.
As Clinton political operative Paul Begala said: "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool."
Mobile Register, "The use of executive orders must be curtailed" (11/27/1999)
EO 10998 declares that all food resources could be taken over by the executive branch, including all agriculture, distribution, and retail facilities. Wal-Marts??
EO 10995 allows the president to take control of all media, as long as a national emergency exists. Included as media are radio, television and, conceivably, telephone and Internet outlets. Newsvine??
EO's 10997, 10990, 11003 and 11005 allow the seizure by the executive branch of all facilities that produce energy, including electricity, gasoline, and solid fuels. All means of transportation, both public and private, including ground and air transportation, could be completely controlled by the executive branch as well.
In 1971 Congress was astonished to discover that our nation had been in a continuous state of national emergency since Roosevelt's proclamations of 1933. Additionally, still binding were the emergencies proclaimed by Truman in 1950 and Nixon in 1970.
Executive Orders - Edicts From a Presidential Throne: by James Hirsen
National Archives: Presidential Executive Orders Index indicates the following statistics in chronological order:
President W. Bush to date has issued 197 EO's
President Clinton issued 364 EO's
President Bush issued 166 EO's
President Reagan issued 381 EO's
President Carter issued 320 EO's
President Ford issued 169 EO's
President Nixon issued 346 EO's
President Kennedy issued 214 EO's
President Eisenhower issued 486 EO's
President Truman issued 896 EO's
and the list goes on... (everything from Rough Cut Diamond Trade to Banning Nukes)
So why doesn't congress do something if many controversial EO's can go into effect by a state of national emergency, AND the president has an EO to declare a federal state of emergency without the congress?
President Clinton declared a state of national emergency 12 times without congressional approval... so by virtue of EO 10997 under those states of emergency he could have seized Exxon, Mobil and Texaco and dispensed fuel for free??
In 1995, for instance, Clinton issued Executive Order 12954 to try to overturn a 1938 Supreme Court decision, so he could prohibit companies from using replacement workers during strikes. The next year, however, a federal appeals court struck the order down, because the president had clearly overstepped his authority.
Mobile Register (1999)
Then many have concerns with Bush's electronic surveillance rationalized in part by EO's from Carter and Clinton, is Bush now overstepping his authority?
Investor's Business Daily had this to say:
Only twice have the courts nullified an executive order. A Cato Institute study tells us that out of more than 13,000 issued, Congress has modified or revoked an order only 239 times.
So presidents have been essentially free to make law. They've been bound by only their conscience.
''Presidents have had willing accomplices in Congress,'' explained Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. ''A great number of congressmen and senators quietly appreciate the assumed presidential authority to create and enact legislation because it allows them to see their goals accomplished without having to assume political responsibility.''
Where are the checks and balances...Concerned? I am.
If you liked this article, I hope you read more from the TopJedi myth busting series.
