"I’m the President and This is My Administrative State"
Common Sense Paper No. 25
“I’m the President and This is My Administrative State”
The changing of a president brings new energy to administration of government. Presidents have unique powers to oversee the enforcement of all federal laws, to appoint numerous cabinet officials and agency officers who oversee government operations, to appoint judges, to negotiate trade deals and international agreements and treaties, and to serve as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
As the role of Congress—which is the most important driving force in effective government—has become gridlocked and dysfunctional, the administrative agencies of government have taken more prominence in rulemaking, rule adjudication, and enforcement. The shifting competition of legislative activity between Congress and administrative agencies has also opened the door for presidents to become rule makers or rule adjusters through Executive Order. The constitutional creep of these practices is becoming more problematic for government stability.
Let’s look briefly at some recent history on Executive Orders.1 William J. Clinton issued 364 Executive Orders between 1993 and 2001. George W. Bush issued 291 Executive Orders between 2001 and 2009. Barack Obama issued 277 Executive Orders between 2009 and 2017. In only 4 years, Donald Trump issued 220 Executive Orders, between 2017 and 2021. And in only 2 years, Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued 106 Executive Orders, between 2021 and 2022. A review of the general titles of some of these indicate how quickly the government enforcement of rules flip-flops with party change.
Again, Congress is supposed to make the laws that govern our federal system, but presidents now play king. It was Cicero in the days of Rome, being a big supporter of republicanism, who warned that without the checks and balances of a mixed constitution, the government would be “bandied about like a ball.” The explosion in use of Executive Orders provides evidence of why Cicero issued his warning.
President Bush
In the first month President Bush came into office, he executed: 1) White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, 2) Revocation of Executive Order on Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Certain Contracts, and 3) Revocation of Executive Order and Presidential Memorandum Concerning Labor-Management Partnerships.
President Obama
In the first month President Obama came into office, he executed 16 Executive Orders. Five of the 16 were revocations and amendments of previous Executive Orders including: 1) the elimination of two Bush-era orders regarding regulatory planning and review, 2) Amendments to the President’s Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and 3) adjustments to positions and disaster relief dates. Among the other orders, immediate adjustments were made to detention policies, detention facilities, and lawful interrogations.
President Trump
In the first month President Trump came into office, he executed 12 Executive Orders. Among these were some notable items as follows: 1) minimizing the burden of Obamacare, 2) Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior, 3) Border Security and Immigration Enforcement, 4) Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects, 5) Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry, 6) Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs, 7) Core Principles for Regulating the U.S. Financial System, 8) Task Force on Crime Reduction, 9) Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers, and 10) Enforcing Law on Transnational Criminal Organizations.
The general sense of these Executive Orders is that the rules of the federal administrative state are no longer really under control of Congress (THE LEGISLATIVE BODY), but get turned on and off like a light switch when presidents of different political parties come into office. This is problematic according to constitutional government. It’s dysfunctional for the securing of rights and the enforcement of federal law.
President Biden
In the first month President Biden came into office, he executed 35 Executive Orders. Oh, JOY! Four of these pertain to revocations of previous orders: 1) eliminated the Ethics Commitments of Executive Branch Appointees to allow for crony lobbying, 2) killed the Trump-era Apprenticeship program that was created to help workforce development and higher education reform, 3) revoked six Trump-era Executive Order reforms (stuff that was reducing regulation, enforcing regulatory reform, promoting the rule of law, and increasing government accountability—seriously why would anyone want stuff like that?), and 4) revoked Public Safety in the Interior. It’s embarrassing to run a political game this way from administration to administration. And if you work for any of the government departments or businesses affected by these see-sawing Executive Orders, you know how chaotic these shifts can be. As for the general make-up of the other 31 Executive Orders, they include stuff like: combatting gender discrimination, advancing racial equity, several items on Climate Crisis, several items on Immigration emphasis, and a number of items on Covid-19. It makes you wonder why our existing laws from Congress aren’t enough in some of these areas.
With this type of regulatory whack-a-mole, how should businesses, citizens, government employees and foreigners plan around the governmental policies every four years? It’s dysfunctional to administer a bureaucracy this way.
Foreign Policy
Turning to foreign affairs—the story looks much the same. Bad trade deal, cancelled trade deal. New tariffs, cancelled tariffs. Climate accords are on, then climate goals are off. The stance toward dangerous foreign regimes can shift quickly but tends to hold a little more consistent as both political parties recognize the threat of rogue nations. Again, the global business community becomes unsettled by the haphazard approach to regulatory shifts as changes in political party power happen election by election. It puts the U.S. in a very poor strategic position for intermediate and long-term planning, especially when entrenched dictators have endless terms to plan and plot against American interests around the world.
We should look for better leadership in the continuity of the president of the United States. Restoring Congress to its rightful place in determining the federal laws that apply uniformly across the country is vital. We are in a sad place due to the broken system driven by party politics that shows no respect for norms and shared goals that enforce consistent laws as directed by Congress.
Notes for new readers:
The Common Sense Papers are an offering by Common Sense 250, which proposes a method to realign the two-party system with the creation of a new political superstructure that circumvents the current dysfunctional duopoly. The goal is to heal political divisions and reboot the American political system for an effective federal government. If the movement can gain appeal, a call to crowdfund the project may occur in 2024. Subscribe for free with an email to follow along.
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See the following websites for more information:
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition
As we approach a potential eco-social catastrophic collapse, we know the power elite are making these horrific decisions based on very selfish metrics. Their power to do this stems from the accumulation of money and they have also monopolized the power to create it for the last 400 years. They create all the money as debt through the banking system which enslaves the many, as even the Bible notes. On the other hand, publicly issued money, the Green Dollar, is a permanently circulating asset empowering the many.
This piece illustrates the difficulty in running a republic, and how easy it is to slide into imperialism. Rome is the example. Governing is arduous. Running a republic is arduous and requires a great deal of effort to maintain and to make work bc it requires group effort, give and take, compromise. It’s easier to have an authoritarian government, an emperor/dictator/czar. It doesn’t require any work bc there’s no compromises needed, simply obedience and getting with the “program”. What has happened in America illustrates this. We have been making the presidency imperialist out of convenience. Back in Rome it was taken over by ambitious people who wanted individual glory. In America it’s have been laziness. It’ll be truly tragic, even more than it already is.