The New York Times reports,
One Saturday last fall, President
Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not
on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration
needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of
Congressional obstructionism.
“We had been attempting to highlight the
inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who
was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed
frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the
envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”
For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting
the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White
House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked
through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.
But increasingly in recent months, the
administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress. Branding
its unilateral efforts “We Can’t Wait,”
a slogan that aides said Mr. Obama coined at that strategy meeting, the
White House has rolled out dozens of new policies — on creating jobs
for veterans, preventing drug shortages, raising fuel economy standards,
curbing domestic violence and more.
Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the
fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in
refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for
example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll
continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”
Aides say many more such moves are
coming. Not just a short-term shift in governing style and a re-election
strategy, Mr. Obama’s increasingly assertive use of executive action
could foreshadow pitched battles over the separation of powers in his
second term, should he win and Republicans consolidate their power in
Congress...
