The Imperial Presidency - number of Executive Orders issued by President

[sailingaway]

too bad Mitt's an Imperial Presidency kind of guy, too, from what he has said...

NOTE - the list I had posted with a facebook link was challenged and inaccurate. since Louise researched hers, I'm posting it in the OP instead:


I don't know if you saw my edit above, but I'll post them again. They're listed and totaled by president here (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html).

BHO: 135 Total Executive orders Issued
GWB: 291 Total Executive orders Issued
Clinton: 364 Total Executive Orders Issued
GHWB: 166 Total Executive Orders Issued
RR: 381 Total Executive Orders Issued
JC: 320 Total Executive Orders Issued
GF: 169 Total Executive Orders Issued
RN: 346 Total Executive Orders Issued
LBJ: 324 Total Executive Orders Issued
JFK: 214 Total Executive Orders Issued
DDE: 486 Total Executive Orders Issued
HT: 896 Total Executive Orders Issued
FDR: 3,728 Total Executive Orders Issued

[Lucille]

That is outrageous.

[kathy88]

I'd prefer to withhold judgement until a source other than someone's facebook page surfaces.

[sailingaway]

Yeah. It seriously is.

And another thing that is outrageous is that this hasn't been reported on high and low.

[sailingaway]

I'd prefer to withhold judgement until a source other than someone's facebook page surfaces.

that did cross my mind as well, but I hadn't researched yet. Now I'm beholden to check.

It FEELS right, though :p

[sailingaway]

MEH, now I have to change it. That number is everywhere but seems wrong. http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01/current-list-of-president-obamas.html

[Lucille]

MEH, now I have to change it. That number is everywhere but seems wrong. http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01/current-list-of-president-obamas.html

135 Total Executive orders Issued

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/obama.html

And I repeat, that is outrageous.

GWB: 291 Total Executive orders Issued
Clinton: 364 Total Executive Orders Issued
GHWB: 166 Total Executive Orders Issued
RR: 381 Total Executive Orders Issued
JC: 320 Total Executive Orders Issued
GF: 169 Total Executive Orders Issued
RN: 346 Total Executive Orders Issued
LBJ: 324 Total Executive Orders Issued
JFK: 214 Total Executive Orders Issued
DDE: 486 Total Executive Orders Issued
HT: 896 Total Executive Orders Issued
FDR: 3,728 Total Executive Orders Issued

Look at Harry Truman and FDR! Holy crap.

[sailingaway]

So ok, it isn't as interesting, but it seems to be 139 in 4 years, still a ton. The problem is I think Romney is 100% on board with this way of governing as well, from what he said about the President HAVING the power to invade Iran w/o Congress.

[kathy88]

Those numbers are bad enough. Nice find, Lucille. You always post the best stuff!~

[Lucille]

So ok, it isn't as interesting, but it seems to be 139 in 4 years, still a ton more than Bush did in 8 years, and Bush was our prior Imperial President. The problem is I think Romney is 100% on board with this way of governing as well, from what he said about the President HAVING the power to invade Iran w/o Congress.

I don't know if you saw my edit above, but I'll post them again. They're listed and totaled by president here (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html).

BHO: 135 Total Executive orders Issued
GWB: 291 Total Executive orders Issued
BC: 364 Total Executive Orders Issued
GHWB: 166 Total Executive Orders Issued
RR: 381 Total Executive Orders Issued
JC: 320 Total Executive Orders Issued
GF: 169 Total Executive Orders Issued
RN: 346 Total Executive Orders Issued
LBJ: 324 Total Executive Orders Issued
JFK: 214 Total Executive Orders Issued
DDE: 486 Total Executive Orders Issued
HT: 896 Total Executive Orders Issued
FDR: 3,728 Total Executive Orders Issued

[jay_dub]

There have been over 13,000 EOs to date. EO #1 was issued by Abraham Lincoln.

From EO#1:

In this emergency the President felt it his duty to employ with energy the extraordinary powers which the Constitution confides to him in cases of insurrection. He called into the field such military and naval forces, unauthorized by the existing laws, as seemed necessary. He directed measures to prevent the use of the post-office for treasonable correspondence. He subjected passengers to and from foreign countries to new passport regulations, and he instituted a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in various places, and caused persons who were represented to him as being or about to engage in disloyal and treasonable practices to be arrested by special civil as well as military, agencies and detained in militarry custody when necessarry to prevent them and deter others from such practices. Examinations of such cases were instituted, and some of the persons so arrested have been discharged from time to time under circumstances or upon conditions compatible, as was thought, with the public safety.

Meantime a favorable change of public opinion has occurred. The line between loyalty and disloyalty is plainly defined. The whole structure of the Government is firm and stable. Apprehension of public danger and facilities for treasonable practices have diminished with the passions which prompted heedless persons to adopt them. The insurrection is believed to have culminated and to be declining.

The President, in view of these facts, and anxious to favor a return to the normal course of the Administration as far as regard for the public welfare will allow, directs that all political prisoners or state prisoners now held in military custody be released on their subscribing to a parole engaging them to, render no aid or comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United States.

The Secretary of War will, however, in his discretion, except from the effect of this order any persons detained as spies in the service of the insurgents, or others whose release at the present moment may be deemed incompatible with the public safety.

To all persons who shall be so released and who shall keep their parole the President grants an amnesty for any past offenses of treason or disloyalty which they may have committed.

Extraordinary arrests will hereafter be made under the direction of the military authorities alone.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69792

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most disturbing EO of Obama that I know of is EO #13603, known as National Defense Resources Preparedness.

Here's one columnist's take on it.

The 2012 NDAA deemed the United States a "battlefield," as Senator Lindsey Graham put it, and gave the president and his agents the right to seize and arrest any U.S. citizen, detain them indefinitely without charge or trial, and do so only on suspicion, without any judicial oversight or due process. The new Executive Order states that the president and his secretaries have the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic resources, including food and water, as well as seize all energy and transportation infrastructure inside the borders of the United States. The Government can also forcibly draft U.S. citizens into the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not even any Congressional oversight allowed, only briefings.

In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated through the president to the secretaries that run the Government itself:

• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;
• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;
• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;
• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;
• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.

The Executive Order even stipulates that in the event of conflict between the secretaries in using these powers, the president will determine the resolution through his national security team.

The 2012 NDAA gave the Government the right to abrogate any due process against a U.S. citizen. The new Executive Order gives the government, through the Secretary of Labor, the right to proactively mobilize U.S. citizens for "labor" as the government deems necessary and to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense to maintain data to coordinate the nation's work needs in relation to national defense.

What is extraordinary about the Executive Order is that, like the NDAA, this can all be done in peacetime without any national emergency to justify it. The language of the Order does not state that all these extraordinary measures will be done in the event of "national security" or a "national emergency." They can simply be done for "purposes of national defense," clearly a broader remit that allows the government to do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, to whomever it wants, all without any judicial restraint or due process. As Orwell famously said in 1984, "War is peace. Peace is war." This is now the reality on the ground in America.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html

Full text of the EO.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

[sailingaway]

I don't know if you saw my edit above, but I'll post them again. They're listed and totaled by president here (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html).

BHO: 135 Total Executive orders Issued
GWB: 291 Total Executive orders Issued
Clinton: 364 Total Executive Orders Issued
GHWB: 166 Total Executive Orders Issued
RR: 381 Total Executive Orders Issued
JC: 320 Total Executive Orders Issued
GF: 169 Total Executive Orders Issued
RN: 346 Total Executive Orders Issued
LBJ: 324 Total Executive Orders Issued
JFK: 214 Total Executive Orders Issued
DDE: 486 Total Executive Orders Issued
HT: 896 Total Executive Orders Issued
FDR: 3,728 Total Executive Orders Issued

Yeah, I think you were still creating your post when I posted mine, and I missed part of it. I changed mine.

[Lucille]

How about that evil fascist SOB FDR? No wonder Stalin and Mussolini loved the guy.

[Shane Harris]

shared lucilles list on FB

[Lucille]

I wonder why I typed out Clinton and everyone else got initials... LOL I'm going to edit it.

[Shane Harris]

There have been over 13,000 EOs to date. EO #1 was issued by Abraham Lincoln.

From EO#1:

In this emergency the President felt it his duty to employ with energy the extraordinary powers which the Constitution confides to him in cases of insurrection. He called into the field such military and naval forces, unauthorized by the existing laws, as seemed necessary. He directed measures to prevent the use of the post-office for treasonable correspondence. He subjected passengers to and from foreign countries to new passport regulations, and he instituted a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in various places, and caused persons who were represented to him as being or about to engage in disloyal and treasonable practices to be arrested by special civil as well as military, agencies and detained in militarry custody when necessarry to prevent them and deter others from such practices. Examinations of such cases were instituted, and some of the persons so arrested have been discharged from time to time under circumstances or upon conditions compatible, as was thought, with the public safety.

Meantime a favorable change of public opinion has occurred. The line between loyalty and disloyalty is plainly defined. The whole structure of the Government is firm and stable. Apprehension of public danger and facilities for treasonable practices have diminished with the passions which prompted heedless persons to adopt them. The insurrection is believed to have culminated and to be declining.

The President, in view of these facts, and anxious to favor a return to the normal course of the Administration as far as regard for the public welfare will allow, directs that all political prisoners or state prisoners now held in military custody be released on their subscribing to a parole engaging them to, render no aid or comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United States.

The Secretary of War will, however, in his discretion, except from the effect of this order any persons detained as spies in the service of the insurgents, or others whose release at the present moment may be deemed incompatible with the public safety.

To all persons who shall be so released and who shall keep their parole the President grants an amnesty for any past offenses of treason or disloyalty which they may have committed.

Extraordinary arrests will hereafter be made under the direction of the military authorities alone.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69792

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most disturbing EO of Obama that I know of is EO #13603, known as National Defense Resources Preparedness.

Here's one columnist's take on it.

The 2012 NDAA deemed the United States a "battlefield," as Senator Lindsey Graham put it, and gave the president and his agents the right to seize and arrest any U.S. citizen, detain them indefinitely without charge or trial, and do so only on suspicion, without any judicial oversight or due process. The new Executive Order states that the president and his secretaries have the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic resources, including food and water, as well as seize all energy and transportation infrastructure inside the borders of the United States. The Government can also forcibly draft U.S. citizens into the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not even any Congressional oversight allowed, only briefings.

In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated through the president to the secretaries that run the Government itself:

• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;
• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;
• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;
• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;
• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.

The Executive Order even stipulates that in the event of conflict between the secretaries in using these powers, the president will determine the resolution through his national security team.

The 2012 NDAA gave the Government the right to abrogate any due process against a U.S. citizen. The new Executive Order gives the government, through the Secretary of Labor, the right to proactively mobilize U.S. citizens for "labor" as the government deems necessary and to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense to maintain data to coordinate the nation's work needs in relation to national defense.

What is extraordinary about the Executive Order is that, like the NDAA, this can all be done in peacetime without any national emergency to justify it. The language of the Order does not state that all these extraordinary measures will be done in the event of "national security" or a "national emergency." They can simply be done for "purposes of national defense," clearly a broader remit that allows the government to do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, to whomever it wants, all without any judicial restraint or due process. As Orwell famously said in 1984, "War is peace. Peace is war." This is now the reality on the ground in America.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html

Full text of the EO.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

All Presidents issued EOs, but they only started documenting in the 1900s retroactively starting in 1862.

[jay_dub]

A good read:

http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/files/2012/02/10-Duncan-Book-2-Vol.-35.pdf

From the conclusion:

CONCLUSION

The trajectory of the evolution of the executive power in the United
States, as seen through the prism of the growing edifice of executive orders
have become increasingly formal and permanent. The evolution of
executive power in the United States has shifted executive orders from
mere legislative interpretation to ancillary legislation. Executive orders
continue to influence subsequent presidents. The elaboration of executive
order promulgation, as an autopoietic process was necessary to the very
existence of presidential power. That is, the mechanisms for formalizing
executive orders have always existed in the executive power in a
government whose legitimacy lives in written pronouncements treated as
delicate, sacred, and worth protecting at all cost. Part of this formalization
is a consequence of the reverence for precedent. Thus, prior presidents
influence future presidents, less because future presidents wish to mimic
their predecessors, but more because future presidents act within an edifice
their predecessors have already erected. Thus, the growth and elaboration of
an ever more robust structure of executive orders resembles an autopoietic process.

..............Even the most specific and ephemeral order by an executive is a rule
that demands some semblance of obedience. Insofar as society charges the
executive to carry out social policy enacted by another body, the executive
must be able to expect some semblance of social cooperation to enable it to
carry out its duties. As the formalization and codification of executive
orders grow, so will the quasilegislative nature of those orders as felt by
society at large.
At some point the question arises as to whether the executive is now
pursuing a legislative, rather than executive, function. It is precisely at this
point that it becomes important for society to identify the dividing line
between the two. Starting with the premise that the executive and legislative
entities must be approximately equal in power (i.e., the theory of the
equilibrium among the branches), that line naturally looks for a distinction
in roles, rather than for a body in which to place the predominant power.

[sailingaway]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to jay_dub again.

[Dr.3D]

So ok, it isn't as interesting, but it seems to be 139 in 4 years, still a ton. The problem is I think Romney is 100% on board with this way of governing as well, from what he said about the President HAVING the power to invade Iran w/o Congress.
I bet when BO has 4 more years and doesn't have to worry about being reelected, he will double that number in the next 4 years and come out with more than 350 total.

[Zippyjuan]

Looks like the lowest number in over 50 years. (Reagan, GW Bush, and Clinton had eight years to rack up their totals).

Content is important as well. Some executive orders are meaningless (like say creating National Hot Dog day or honoring some sports team winning a national titie or whatever) and some have a greater impact. That needs to be looked at too.