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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Congress, Not Obama, in Driver's Seat on Policy Now

President Barack Obama has nearly reached the limit to the executive orders he can issue on major policies without the approval of Congress, according to Politico.

The president is preparing for his State of the Union address next week, which will be the first time he will speak in front of the assembly when the GOP controls both the Senate and the House.

Republicans and Democrats alike will be anxious to learn what Obama has to say, due to the difficulty he faces coming up with policy proposals that will pass Congress during his final two years in the Oval Office.

According to Politico, the White House knows that although Obama still may want to "grab the public’s attention," there are only a limited number of executive options he can make without getting the support of Republican lawmakers.

"Want to make community college cheaper? Obama just rolled out a plan to make it free for two years, but he needs Congress to sign off on it, and he’s not going to get that," wrote the political news website’s David Nather.

"Raise the minimum wage? Obama has already issued an executive order to do that for federal contractors, but a federal minimum wage hike is as dead in the new Congress as it was in the last one.

"Universal pre-school? Rebuild the nation’s crumbling bridges and highways? Fix the Voting Rights Act now that the Supreme Court threw out part of it? Nope — he needs Congress for all of those things, too."

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I personally think he's way past stuff he needs Congress for. He's done quite a bit of overreaching and needs to be reined in! Problem is that all of our elected officials are so worried about getting reelected instead of doing what is right that they are useless!

Anonymous said...

Just because you don't THINK he will edict more laws doesn't mean he won't. Legal or not he will make more and more laws to destroy our country...AND nobody will try to stop him.

Anonymous said...

Obama can veto and congress may NOT be able to override. Secondly, Obama is still using his Pen and Phone. Don't think for one minute Congress is now in the drivers seat completely. They are limited by the "One"...