The
president has pledged to act without Congress --
and this
week he began doing just that.
Congress Inaction Prompts Obama To Act Alone
| by
JULIE PACE
WASHINGTON (AP) — This week, President Barack Obama promoted
tougher fuel efficiency standards for trucks. He touted progress on initiatives
to strengthen the U.S. patent system. And he signed an executive order intended
to speed up the process for approving import or export cargo.
Welcome to Obama's self-proclaimed "year of action,"
where hardly a day goes by without the president and his top advisers
trumpeting policy initiatives the White House is undertaking without the help
of Congress.
The mostly modest actions — far shy of the sweeping immigration
overhaul Obama hoped for this year — put into sharp focus the president's
limitations as he grapples with reluctant lawmakers in an election year. They
also underscore how much has changed for Obama since the early days of his
presidency, when he declared, "We do big things."
Yet the flurry of executive actions does seem to be having a
cathartic effect inside the White House, which was in need of a jolt after a
frustrating and disjointed 2013 that included the flawed rollout of Obama's
signature health care law and a sharp drop in the president's approval ratings.
Advisers who ended the year dispirited now appear buoyed by a new sense of
purpose — and the prospect of working around a Congress that has long been an
irritant to the president.
"I think people came back from the break over the holidays in
a real positive frame of mind," said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to
the president. "You don't want to be the prisoner of a negative narrative
that somehow Congress has stymied the president and nothing can get done."
Signaling how little the White House expects to change on Capitol
Hill this year, Obama communications director Jennifer Palmieri said advisers
are already mapping out plans for executive actions that will be unveiled well
into the fall and winter. That process, she said, "has ignited a lot of
creative thinking around here."
Even so, the president's political standing looks little better
than it did at the end of last year. His approval rating continues to hover in
the mid-to low-forties. Democrats are on edge about their prospects of
retaining control of the Senate. And hope of securing an immigration overhaul —
Obama's one legislative goal that appeared to have some chance of success this
year — faded when House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced this month that
a measure was unlikely to pass in 2014.
In the absence of legislative action, the White House is pumping
out a constant stream of executive actions on issues touching the economy,
education and climate change. Some are relatively modest or simply prod along
plans that were already in motion.
For example, an executive order Obama signed on Thursday to
streamline the import and export process established a deadline for an effort
that was already underway. And much of what the White House touted Tuesday on
truck efficiency standards had already been announced by Obama during a climate
change speech last year. Still, Obama personally heralded an incremental step
forward in the process, even traveling to a Safeway distribution center in
nearby Maryland to highlight steps the grocery store chain has taken to make
its fleet of trucks more efficient.
Other executive actions are intended to be more wide-ranging,
including a partnership with businesses that promised to not discriminate
against the long-term unemployed during hiring and $750 billion in private
sector commitments to expand Internet access in schools.
The president also signed an executive action increasing the
hourly minimum wage for federal contractors from $7.25 per to $10.10. While the
White House estimates the wage hike will affect only a few hundred thousand
people, officials hope the move spurs Congress to take up a broader bill or
businesses to act on their own to increase their workers' wages. The Gap, a
clothing company, did just that this week, announcing it will set the minimum
wage for workers at $9 an hour this year and $10 an hour in 2015.
Obama's predecessors have also turned to more modest executive
actions in the face of congressional gridlock, including President Bill
Clinton, who once launched a campaign to help schools require school uniforms.
Some of those who advised Clinton during that period are also on staff in the
Obama White House, including new presidential counselor John Podesta, a strong
proponent of executive action.
Peter Wehner, who served in three Republican administrations, said
exercising presidential power is a good way for a White House to generate a
"sense of momentum and action."
"Sometimes you wake up and you're happy there's just not a
series of bad stories or bad news," said Wehner, who last worked in the
White House under George W. Bush. "If you can take the initiative even a
little bit, it's better than being back on your heels."
___
(Beachwood,
OH)—For 45 minutes, doctors and nurses were unable to revive Brian Miller after
the 41-year-old truck driver suffered a heart attack. But Miller, who says he
was in Heaven during that time, claims he's alive today because God sent him
back. (Photo via WJW Channel 8 News)
According
to Fox WJW
Channel 8 News,
not only did Miller's heart inexplicably just start beating on it's own again,
but he "miraculously" suffered no brain damage or loss of any bodily
functions. (Photo
via WJW Channel 8 News)
