Study: Obama Issues Decrees, Ignores Congress

January 8, 2014 by B. Christopher Agee 3 Comments

Many conservatives decry the passage of sweeping federal laws that prevent states from governing themselves. According to the separation of powers enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, however, legislation is not passed without a specific oversight process by members of Congress.

This process was designed to reduce the opportunity for corruption; and, as such, the Obama administration is naturally opposed. Instead, this regime would much rather issue empirical decrees that unilaterally impose the will of Obama upon the American people.
While this trend is obvious in the major fiat rulings Obama has made regarding immigration and delays in the implementation of his own healthcare law, a recent study shows just how widespread the practice has become.
In 2013, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported, 3,659 individual regulations were passed without the need of a proper congressional vote. In contrast, Obama signed just 65 bills into law during the same period.
This breaks down to the passage of 56 regulatory mandates implemented for every new law.
According to researcher Wayne Crews, who worked on the CEI study, this data reveals a record high ratio of regulation to legislation. While Congress presented fewer laws in 2013 than in any year throughout the past decade, Obama continually implemented new rules to supplement existing laws.

The end result, Crews asserted, is the “deterioration of the Constitution’s separation of, and balance of, powers,” which “means that regulators and bureaucrats now make most laws.”
He indicated that the executive branch now wields the lion’s share of power in Washington, D.C., thanks to a neutered Congress and an activist president.
“Obama and his administration repeatedly say they are not going to wait for Congress,” Crews noted, “so brace yourselves.”
Those dedicated to reshaping America into a leftist utopia will not allow the Constitution to deter their mission. Since voters re-elected one of those very ideologues to the highest position in the land, it is no surprise Congress has not only taken a backseat. It seems they are no longer even in the car.
–B. Christopher Agee
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