I've got a pen and a phone.

[rizon72]

"We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I've got a pen, and -- and I've got a phone," Barack Obama.

 

I find it disturbing that while people are going ape $hit over what Huckabee said, they are quiet on this quote. I don't care if this was spoken by a democrat, republican, independent, left, right, center. It sounds like a dictator to me. Before you defend or attack it, imagine the opposite party saying this? Would you be comfortable with someone who is opposite what you believe saying, or doing this?

 

This is a dangerous path. If Obama does this, what stops the next President from doing the same thing (and remember, the next President could be a republican)? Its a Pandora's box every should be screaming not to open.

[Vagrant0]

"We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I've got a pen, and -- and I've got a phone," Barack Obama.

On the contrary, I see it as a president responding to a congress who has done almost nothing but fight amongst themselves over the last 6 years, and seems content to continue to do so, meanwhile the country crumbles. The president is there as head of the Executive branch of government, it's kinda his job to take action when deemed necessary. It only seems odd because the last couple presidents rarely used their executive powers, or were so pressed to where it was so necessary just to keep the country running.

[kvnchrist]

There is a reason for congress and it's not to work with or against the president. It is to protect and nurture the laws that run the country. If they can't work together it is not up to the president to decide to go over them and when he does he risks being sued and if overturned he looks as inept as possible.

 

The best presidents have been the best communicators and this president has not been that. He works well with a teleprompter, but every time I've heard him go off message he has stumbled and fallen. You can just look at the first Obama/Romney debate to see that.

 

If Bill Clinton were in office today and had come in after such a financial debacle as President Obama did, we would have had national health care and several other progressive policies that would have helped America move foreword.

 

Some say he is a liberal, but I don't think he is.

[Vagrant0]

There is a reason for congress and it's not to work with or against the president. It is to protect and nurture the laws that run the country. If they can't work together it is not up to the president to decide to go over them and when he does he risks being sued and if overturned he looks as inept as possible.

 

The three branches of government exist as a means of checks and balances so that no singular branch has too much power. Congress is there to determine long term legislation, the President to determine areas of immediate importance, and the Supreme Court to ensure that these things are being done in accordance with the law. May want to find some 7th grader to refresh your memory about how the US government is setup.

[kvnchrist]

 

There is a reason for congress and it's not to work with or against the president. It is to protect and nurture the laws that run the country. If they can't work together it is not up to the president to decide to go over them and when he does he risks being sued and if overturned he looks as inept as possible.

 

The three branches of government exist as a means of checks and balances so that no singular branch has too much power. Congress is there to determine long term legislation, the President to determine areas of immediate importance, and the Supreme Court to ensure that these things are being done in accordance with the law. May want to find some 7th grader to refresh your memory about how the US government is setup.

 

First of all I will bypass the immature comment about my post. ones hope that the president can do what he wants to promote the policies one supports are immaterial to reality.

 

The branch of government that the President controls is called the Executive branch which is in fact in charge of executing the laws that congress makes. He can ask for laws to be made, but he can't create any. If he tries he ends up getting his hands slapped by the courts.

[colourwheel]

 

"We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I've got a pen, and -- and I've got a phone," Barack Obama.

 

It sounds like a dictator to me.

 

If executing executive orders is by all means "sounding" like a dictator then almost every president in history has "sounded" like a dictator by your logic...

 

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/09/obamas-executive-orders/

 

The only difference is that no other president in history has ever been called a dictator for wanting to use their executive powers besides Obama...

Edited January 26, 2014 by colourwheel

[rizon72]

Color, didn't like it then either, but you replied just like I expected you to. The problem I have is Obama saying he will go over if Congress doesn't pass laws 'he' likes. We have a Constitution that I'd like our politician to use. It is for checks and balances. It was created that way for a reason. I actually view it as a combination of many things why our government doesn't get things done.

1. Stupid political ideas from the party line.

2. Bloated government that's so big they are making laws that counter previous laws making the system unworkable yet no one is willing to step up and remove these blunders.

 

What is disturbing is we have been making the stage for a dictator for decades, and no one seems to care. Those who do warn are brushed off by those whose party is in power as nonsense. We are so blinded by the fact we should look out for the other guy we lose sight of what our own party is doing.

[kvnchrist]

In the U.S., an executive order is a presidential policy directive that implements or interprets a federal statute, a constitutional provision, or a treaty without the requirement of congressional approval.

 

 

 

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Executive+Order

 

The president can use [executive orders] to set policy while avoiding public debate and opposition. Presidents have used executive orders to direct a range of activities, including establishing migratory bird refuges; putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II; discharging civilian government employees who had been disloyal, following World War II; enlarging national forests; prohibiting racial discrimination in housing; pardoning Vietnam War draft evaders; giving federal workers the right to bargain collectively; keeping the federal workplace drug free; and sending U.S. troops to Bosnia.

Reference : http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/executiveorders.asp

 

[colourwheel]

I don't think anyone is really disputing what exactly an executive order is....

 

If Obama is a dictator because he "wants" to use executive orders then every other president in the history of our nation that has used executive orders is also a dictator.

 

Executive orders originated under George Washington, and their use stems from interpretations of the Article II of the Constitution, which created the executive branch and from presidential precedent...

 

If anyone has an issue with presidents using this power they only need to go back and take it up with George Washington himself for making what rizon72 calls "a stage for a dictator"....

Edited January 26, 2014 by colourwheel

[kvnchrist]

There have been numerous postings of this same debate on just about every web site I post at. From the attitudes that I have picked up I think the uproar has more to do with the idea that President Obama tried to use the powers of the office as a political commercial, for lack of a better term.

 

To me he was merely trying to distract the public by seeming to threaten the congress with this stunt and get his base's attention away from the ACA issues and back on what he wanted them to think on.

 

The bottom line is the public will rest on the issue that will effect them the most and the most often. That is not him swinging a pen at the Republicans, It is getting the Healthcare exchange website opened up and running smoothly.

 

P.S. a dictator would send the military into congress and clean house. They are historically ill tempered when it comes to getting their way.