Politics at a Christmas Party? #1
Dec 21, 2015 23:19:59 GMT -6
Nugget, littled16, and 5 more like this
Post by Charles1952 on Dec 21, 2015 23:19:59 GMT -6
I recently had a political discussion with a fellow at a Christmas party. I’m afraid I’ve never liked him for various reasons, he’s just one of those people I find annoying. He’s a school teacher in the Minneapolis - St. Paul metro area, I forget the name of the school, and teaches in the upper grades. My opinion is that he gets his political beliefs from either the Democratic National Committee, the Socialist Workers’ Party, The New York Times, or bumper stickers.
In our heated discussion we touched on several points. I find that an unsatisfactory way to discuss a subject. I much prefer choosing a limited number of points and taking the time to go into them in some depth.
What follows is not what I said, I was too surprised that a civics (or whatever they call it) teacher would be so emphatically misinformed. Besides, I had just gotten up from a nap and wasn’t at my best. What I do provide is some information relating to a few of the points that came up. Because the first one turned out to be so lengthy. I'll break the conversation up.
1.) Obama doesn’t abuse Presidential authority, he’s issued one-third the number of executive orders that Bush did.
Many people don’t know that in addition to “Executive Orders” there are things called “Presidential Memoranda.” At one time they were known as “Presidential Letters.” The difference between a Memorandum and an Order is that Orders have to be numbered and have to cite the law which the Order is based on. They have the same legal authority and are issued by the President with no need for approval or review. They are considered to be the same thing. So let’s look at the numbers.
Considering only Executive Orders and leaving aside Memoranda, look at the number of EOs issued per year for our recent Presidents. (Of course a President serving one term will have issued fewer than one who has served two.)
Democrat F. D. Roosevelt 307.0
Democrat Harry Truman 116.6
Democrat Jimmy Carter 80.0
Democrat J. F. Kennedy 75.4
Republican Gerald Ford 69.0
Democrat Lyndon Johnson 62.9
Republican Richard Nixon 62.4
Republican Dwight Eisenhower 60.5
Republican Ronald Reagan 47.6
Democrat Bill Clinton 45.5
Republican George Bush 36.4
Democrat Barack Obama 32.7
Republican George H. W. Bush 10.5
Two things strike me as interesting. First, the idea that Bush has issued three times the number of Executive Orders as Obama is clearly wrong. Besides, the president is predicting a busy year for himself in 2016, I expect his average to go up.
The second intriguing thing is that Obama and Clinton are the only Democrats in the lower half of the Executive Order list. Is there a reason for this? Yes. Let’s add in Presidential Memoranda, which are just Executive Orders with a different caption on top. This information came from a bar graph, so I am unwilling to assign precise numbers, forgive me for grouping them together. Again, this number is Orders and Memoranda combined, per year in office.
Democrat Harry Truman 120
Democrat Jimmy Carter 90-100
Democrat J. F. Kennedy 80-90
Republican Gerald Ford 70-80
Democrat Lyndon Johnson 60-70
Democrat Barack Obama 60-70
Republican Dwight Eisenhower 60-70
Republican Richard Nixon 60-70
Democrat Bill Clinton 60
Republican Ronald Reagan 50-60
Republican George Bush 50-60
Republican George H. W. Bush 50-60
So, when it comes to showing executive restraint, Obama is a worse example than Reagan or either of the Bush Presidents. As I said, I expect him to go up from there.
Also interesting to me was that Bill Clinton was the most restrained Democrat, otherwise there seems to be a tendency for that party to make greater use of Presidential decrees of one kind or another. (No, I don't know what Ford was thinking.)
I hope the Christmas conversations you have are happier than this one.
In our heated discussion we touched on several points. I find that an unsatisfactory way to discuss a subject. I much prefer choosing a limited number of points and taking the time to go into them in some depth.
What follows is not what I said, I was too surprised that a civics (or whatever they call it) teacher would be so emphatically misinformed. Besides, I had just gotten up from a nap and wasn’t at my best. What I do provide is some information relating to a few of the points that came up. Because the first one turned out to be so lengthy. I'll break the conversation up.
1.) Obama doesn’t abuse Presidential authority, he’s issued one-third the number of executive orders that Bush did.
Many people don’t know that in addition to “Executive Orders” there are things called “Presidential Memoranda.” At one time they were known as “Presidential Letters.” The difference between a Memorandum and an Order is that Orders have to be numbered and have to cite the law which the Order is based on. They have the same legal authority and are issued by the President with no need for approval or review. They are considered to be the same thing. So let’s look at the numbers.
Considering only Executive Orders and leaving aside Memoranda, look at the number of EOs issued per year for our recent Presidents. (Of course a President serving one term will have issued fewer than one who has served two.)
Democrat F. D. Roosevelt 307.0
Democrat Harry Truman 116.6
Democrat Jimmy Carter 80.0
Democrat J. F. Kennedy 75.4
Republican Gerald Ford 69.0
Democrat Lyndon Johnson 62.9
Republican Richard Nixon 62.4
Republican Dwight Eisenhower 60.5
Republican Ronald Reagan 47.6
Democrat Bill Clinton 45.5
Republican George Bush 36.4
Democrat Barack Obama 32.7
Republican George H. W. Bush 10.5
Two things strike me as interesting. First, the idea that Bush has issued three times the number of Executive Orders as Obama is clearly wrong. Besides, the president is predicting a busy year for himself in 2016, I expect his average to go up.
The second intriguing thing is that Obama and Clinton are the only Democrats in the lower half of the Executive Order list. Is there a reason for this? Yes. Let’s add in Presidential Memoranda, which are just Executive Orders with a different caption on top. This information came from a bar graph, so I am unwilling to assign precise numbers, forgive me for grouping them together. Again, this number is Orders and Memoranda combined, per year in office.
Democrat Harry Truman 120
Democrat Jimmy Carter 90-100
Democrat J. F. Kennedy 80-90
Republican Gerald Ford 70-80
Democrat Lyndon Johnson 60-70
Democrat Barack Obama 60-70
Republican Dwight Eisenhower 60-70
Republican Richard Nixon 60-70
Democrat Bill Clinton 60
Republican Ronald Reagan 50-60
Republican George Bush 50-60
Republican George H. W. Bush 50-60
So, when it comes to showing executive restraint, Obama is a worse example than Reagan or either of the Bush Presidents. As I said, I expect him to go up from there.
Also interesting to me was that Bill Clinton was the most restrained Democrat, otherwise there seems to be a tendency for that party to make greater use of Presidential decrees of one kind or another. (No, I don't know what Ford was thinking.)
I hope the Christmas conversations you have are happier than this one.
(funny that Gouvernement (in french) ends with Ment...which means Lies
