Executive Powers: It’s Vulnerability For Abuse Essays Examples

[Professor]

Executive order (E.O.) is one of legal authorities of the President in the United States of America. This power can be translated as the way of the president to avoid the democratic process in crafting policies and laws that is done in the legislative branch of the government. According to the CNBC, all the US presidents since George Washington used this power either to change a domestic policy or order the military to go to war. Indeed, this form of power can easily be abused in the absence of watchdogs.
The Constitution does not specify a limit as to the number of executive orders that an elected president has to make. According to Gerhard Peters in an article entitled Executive Order: Washington to Obama, if we try to trace the number of executive orders in the history of the United States of America, the president with the highest E.O. is Franklin Roosevelt ranks number one with 3,721 E.O.s throughout his twelve years of presidency. President Barrack Obama is still far from reaching even one-fourth of Roosevelt’s issued executive orders. As of February 20, 2015, Obama has issues a total of 203 E.O.s. The contents of the executive orders vary and some are contradictory. It depends on the president’s political belief and political will. One of the examples of contradicting executive orders is that of President Ronald Reagan and President Bill Clinton. Reagan in 1984 issued an executive order banning the use of government’s money in advocating for abortion. President Bill Clinton however reversed the E.O. when he took office.
One of the most progressive and unusual executive order of Obama is E.O. 13492 on January 22, 2009 entitled Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained At the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities. In the order, it mentioned about the Geneva Conventions that signified the rights of every individual and the writ of habeas corpus. I say that it is unusual and progressive as it is a strong move. The detention facility has been a controversial issue of the US since 2002 during the US’ war on terror campaign but then President Bush did not lift a finger to issue a closure order.
The President appoints the czars to man a specific policy arena which the Congress does not have power over. Czar is a title give to the directors of each policy arena. The term was derived from Ceasar (Czar) during the medieval Europe. Ceasar was a ruler that embodies almost the same power as the emperor. In the website called Patriot 4 Liberty, it listed Obama’s czars including the salary of some. Below is the list of Patriot 4Liberty:
“Medicare Czar Donald M. Berwick, Auto Task Force Czar Ron Bloom, Border Czar Alan Bersin, Energy Czar Carol Browner with a salary of $172,200, Urban Czar Adolfo Carrion, Jr. with a salary of $158,500, Infotech/Public Information Czar Vivek Kundra, Faith-based Czar Joshua Dubois with a salary $98,000, Health Reform Czar Sam Kass, New TARP Czar Herb Allison, Stimulus Accountability Czar Earl Devaney, Performance Czar Jeffrey Zients, Non-proliferation/WMD Czar Gary Samore, Terrorism Czar John Brennan with a salary of $172,200, Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein with a salary of $172,200, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, Guantanamo Closure Czar Kenneth Feinberg, Cyber Security Czar Howard Schmidt, Technology Czar Aneesh Chopra, Car Czar Ed Montgomery, Economic Czar Paul Volcker, Great Lakes Czar Cameron Davis, Intelligence Czar James Clapper, Weather/Science Czar John Holdren, Aids Czar Jeffery Crowley, California Water Czar David Hayes, Domestic Violence Czar Lynn Rosenthal, TARP oversight Czar Elizabeth Warren, Weapons Czar Ashton Carter, Copyright Czar Victoria Espinel, Middle East Peace Czar George Mitchell , Af-Pak Richard Holbrooke, Sudan Czar J. Scott Gration, Southwest Asia Czar Dennis Ross, Climate Special Todd Stern, Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar with a salary of $420,750” (Patriots 4 Liberty, “List of Obama’s Czars”).
Among the 35 czars, only seven of them are confirmed by the Senate. Almost all of them are appointees of the president.
It seems that the power of the president is indeed very vulnerable for power abuse especially that around him is his czars operating not within the powers of the Senate and Lower House. With the power of the president to issue an executive order without the approval of the legislative body and his power to appoint the directors of every policy arena, the government without the watchdogs will become self-serving. I realized that the only way to avoid that to happen is for every citizen to be active in the policy making processes and be vigilant.

Works Cited

Koba, Mark. “Executive Orders coming? Here’s how they work.” CNBC, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Peters, Gerhard & Wooley, John. “Executive Orders: Washington-Obama.” The American Presidency Project. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Taegan Goddard’s Political Dictionary. “czar.” Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Patriots 4 Liberty. “List of Obama’s Czars.” Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Federal Register. “Presidential Documents: Executive Order 13492 of January 22, 2009.” Federal Register, vol. 74(16), 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.