Thread: Rule by Fiat

Obama Addresses Drug Shortages with an Executive Order
By L.L. Woodard Yahoo! Contributor Network – 13 hrs ago

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-addresse...224300296.html

The University of Utah, which tracks the nation's drug shortages, has reported 213 drugs are in short supply this year. These are medications used to treat cancer, infections, high blood pressure and more. Doctors are rationing these drugs, leading to delays in treatment and sometimes even death.


Today, President Barack Obama signed an executive order allowing and directing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to "identify and reduce" critical drug shortages.


Drug Shortages


According to the University of Utah, drug shortages have been increasing in recent years, from a low of 58 in 2004 to 129 in 2007 to 166 in 2009 to 211 in 2010 and to 213 this year.


Many of the unavailable drugs are intravenous or injectable medications administered to patients in the hospital -- from the emergency room to the operating table. Hospitals are scrambling to find sources of these drugs for their patients. Doctors are facing choices in the implementation of treatment for some patients.


Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Howard Koh said, "We know this is a dire public health situation and there have been delays in care."


Who Is Affected by the Drug Shortages?


The drug shortages have affected people of all ages and will continue to do so until the situation is alleviated: any child, teen, young adult, baby boomer or senior has the potential to be affected depending on the health situation involved. You may already know someone whose life has been impacted.


The Associated Press reported via Yahoo! News in late September that 15 deaths in 15 months have been attributed to the unavailability of needed medications.


The shortages are also impacting medical research, slowing or stopping the development of new, potential life-saving medications.


Executive Order


The president's executive order directs the FDA to increase the number of staff dedicated to dealing with the nation's drug shortages and to speed up review of new drug suppliers and manufacturers. The Justice Department must examine whether the current shortages are intentional to cause drug prices to soar.


Additionally, the president is urging Congress to pass legislation granting the FDA more power in addressing drug shortages.

comments

There is no drug shortage, only intentionally limited drug production.

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Identifying why there are drug shortage should be one of their main priorities. If it turns out that drug companies are intentially shorting the drug supllies so prices can skyrocket the CEO's should be brought up on manslaughter charges at the least.

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Better not have "Made in China" on it....

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Geee, you do not think it is these FDA regulations making things worse do you? Or, this invasive govt intrusion into our lives and freedom to control more do you?

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Drug companies are the biggest wise guy operations on earth and they will try any trick to short the market and drive prices up ...beware manipulation ..

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Obama stopped one step shy of his infamous, Czar appointment ritual. Guess he has played that card to many times, but at least by telling the FDA to look into it, by adding even more humans to the payroll, Obama is keeping in character. Don't worry folks, the government will take care of it, and four or five years from now, they will tell us that Big Pharma withheld drugs in their ware houses, sent drugs over seas to make better profits, and slowed production on other drugs. Their investigation resulted in no prosecutions however several CEOs were transferred to other companies and given raises. The government has decided to keep the extra FDA workers and start another agency to monitor all people taking the drugs adding 20,000 to the federal workforce...

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So what will the FDA do? Put guns to pharmaceutical companies' executives and force them to up production then sell cheap? Or the FDA will take over the drug makers and make the drug themselves? What?

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When the situation is better understood, we'll find most of these drugs are inexpensive and the drug companies wanted to charge more for them, so they manufactured shortages instead. Remember what the big energy companies did in the CA rolling blackouts?

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Oh evil drug companies. Maybe they should just quit researching and creating new life-saving and life enhancing drugs altogether. Yeah, that'll fix them. Or on the other hand, Obama can issue an executive order directing that employees must work 10 hours a day to create a drug he thinks is important. You know, he's decided that if he thinks something's important, the constitution, congress and anyone else's rights and input frankly don't matter .

Obama acts to ease the burden of student loans
By Alister Bull | Reuters – 2 hrs 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is taking steps to ease the burden of student loans, the White House said on Tuesday, potentially helping millions of cash-strapped college graduates in a tough economy.

Obama plans to accelerate a plan to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income, bringing it forward to start in 2012 instead of 2014. "Steps like these won't take the place of the bold action we need from Congress to boost our economy and create jobs, but they will make a difference," he said in a statement.

The loans initiative will be the third such move by Obama in as many days, following action to aid homeowners and boost hiring of military veterans. The White House wants to show he is an activist president battling a "do-nothing" Congress.

The loan changes do not require approval by Congress. Republican lawmakers blocked a $447 billion jobs plan put forward by Obama last month because it raises some taxes.

Students helped push Obama into the White House in 2008. As he campaigns for reelection in 2012, Obama's public approval ratings have fallen near 40 percent, the low of his presidency, because of discontent with his economic stewardship. Americans owe more on student loans than on outstanding credit card debt, and total loans outstanding are slated to exceed $1 trillion this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The rise in private student lending and growing debt defaults have also been highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Obama will announce the student loan measure in Denver on Wednesday as he wraps up a swing through western states that will be vital to his re-election campaign in 2012.

The White House estimates the loan changes could cut monthly payments for 1.6 million graduates. Student debt will also be forgiven after 20 years, compared with 25 years under current law.

More than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt, but only 450,000 have so far taken advantage of the existing income-based repayment program.

Obama will also make changes to allow 6 million students to bundle together certain federal loans to allow a single monthly payment, reducing the risk of default caused by juggling multiple debt obligations.

The option will be open from January and those that take it up will also get a 0.5 percentage point cut in the interest rate on some of their loans, lowering monthly payments and potentially saving them hundreds of dollars in interest. "College graduates are entering one of the toughest job markets in recent memory, and we have a way to help them save money by consolidating their debt and capping their loan payments," said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-acts-eas...001017820.html

comments

Silly me, we did the responsible thing and limited our student loans and paid them all out ?

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How about putting a cap on politicians paychecks too?

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I went to a college that gave me the best education I could afford. I could have gone to more well known schools, but I couldn't afford it. I came out of 5 years of college with $30K in student loan debt and paid it off in 4 years. Why does everyone need their hand held through life? Good to a school you can afford and pay your bills!!!

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These articles refuse to say blocking his bill was a bipartisan effort. You have a right to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

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Let's put a cap on how much money any political candidate can spend on their campaign. Let's see how far that bill would get.

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I paid off my student loans early, am I going to get some money back for doing the correct thing?

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These students took out the loans. They are LOANS. If they loan money to somebody they expect to be paid back. That's how it works. If you take on adult respocibilities you have to act like an adult and live up to your word. You gave your word when you signed the loan. Stop whinning and pay your debts. Everybody else does.

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The burden of student loans is personal problem not the taxpayers responsibility.

“Pass this jobs bill” has been abandoned in favor of something with a little more urgency: “We can’t wait!” It’s called “We can’t wait” because “Who needs Congress” sounded too brazen.

From CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_1...-we-cant-wait/

With Republicans continuing to stall action on President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, the White House is taking action to help jump-start the economy with the message “We can’t wait.”

President Obama is going to begin a series of executive branch actions that will not require action from Congress – or the assent of Republicans.

With recovery in the housing market tied to economic recovery, Mr. Obama will today announce what senior officials are calling a “major overhaul” of the government’s underused refinance program for federally guaranteed mortgages, in order to aid homeowners having difficulty refinancing their housing loan.
[...]
Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s communications director, told The New York Times that truly attacking the country’s economic troubles requires “bold, bipartisan action in Congress,” but that Mr. Obama “believes we cannot wait, so he will act where they won’t.”

Last month President Obama said he’d like to work his way around Congress, so let’s at least not accuse him of failing to properly telegraph his intentions. http://campaign2012.washingtonexamin...round-congress

Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I don’t want somebody who has presided over a $4 trillion increase in the national debt since taking office helping me with my finances. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...04-503544.html But I’m picky like that.

In any case, here are the five eligibility requirements for a mortgage re-fi through the Bank of We Can’t Wait by way of the Federal Housing Finance Authority: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011...cing_obam.html

-The mortgage must be owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

-The mortgage must have been sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac on or before May 31, 2009.

-The mortgage cannot have been refinanced under HARP previously unless it is a Fannie Mae loan that was refinanced under HARP from March-May, 2009.

-The current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio must be greater than 80%.

-The borrower must be current on the mortgage at the time of the refinance, with no late payment in the past six months and no more than one late payment in the past 12 months.

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey writes that the focus here is all off: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/2...ss-on-housing/

The real problem in the housing crisis isn’t mortgages, it’s unemployment. Even an underwater mortgage is still manageable as long as the debtor maintains an income level that affords the payments. Foreclosures don’t happen because of devaluation of property — they occur because payments don’t get made. Further, if homeowners have steady incomes, banks don’t need government interventions for refinancing and restructuring mortgages; they have plenty of motivation to perform those on their own.

In a manner of speaking, they’re trying to force-feeding the cat because the dog is starving. But the intent of course isn’t necessarily to fix a problem but rather to assign blame anywhere and everywhere except at the White House going into 2012. Saying mortgage problems are a cause of the economic downturn rather than a symptom incompetent and/or self-serving decision-making in Washington over the years helps to blame banks, which then leads to pointing the finger at Wall Street. And in the process, if Team Obama can bring the Peggy demographic back on board where they were in 2008, all the better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI



Speaking of “We can’t wait”, two can play that game.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexamin...twait-campaign

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/24...-we-cant-wait/

Obama to promote new steps to help housing woes
By JIM KUHNHENN and JULIE PACE - Associated Press | 10-24-2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to circumvent congressional opposition, President Barack Obama will promote a series of executive branch steps aimed at jumpstarting the economy this week, beginning with new rules to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages.

The White House said changes to the two-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program will help homeowners with little or no equity in their houses refinance by cutting the cost of doing so and removing caps to give deeply underwater borrowers access to the program. The new rules apply to homeowners with federally guaranteed mortgages who are current on their payments.

Obama will discuss the initiative during a meeting with homeowners Monday in Las Vegas, a city hard hit by foreclosures and sagging home prices. One in every 118 homes in the state of Nevada received a foreclosure filing in September, according to the foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac.

With the president's jobs bill struggling in Congress, the White House is refocusing its efforts on steps Obama can take to address the nation's economic woes without getting lawmakers' approval. In addition to the refinancing program, the White House said Obama will also announce executive action later this week to help students better manage their student loan payments.

The new push comes with a fresh catchphrase as the White House tries to push Republicans into action: "We can't wait." It's Obama's latest in a string of slogans aimed at blaming GOP lawmakers for lack of action on the economy.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said that while executive actions are no substitute for Congress passing elements of the jobs bill, the economy requires action now.

"When Congress won't act, this president will," he said.

GOP leaders counter that the sluggish economy and stubbornly high unemployment rate are the result of Obama administration policies that have failed, including the 2009 stimulus package and financial regulation bill.

"They got everything they wanted from Congress the first two years. Their policies are in place. And they are demonstrably not working," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Sunday.

Last month, Obama announced a $447 billion jobs plan, filled with tax increases on the wealthy and new spending on education, infrastructure and aid to state and local governments. Efforts to pass the full measure were blocked by Senate Republicans, who see the president's proposal as a second stimulus.

That's left Obama and his Democratic allies pushing lawmakers to pass the bill in individual pieces, though the fate of most of the measures remains unclear.

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said the president considered including an expansion of mortgage refinancing in his jobs bill, but felt the changes could be implemented more quickly through executive action.

The changes to the so-called HARP program will be implemented by the independent Federal Housing Finance Agency. At its core, the initiative will relax eligibility standards, allowing those who are 25 percent of more underwater on their mortgages to take advantage of loans with lower interest rates.

The administration is also extending the program through the end of 2013. The program was originally slated to end in June 2012.

The federal refinancing program only covers mortgages created before June 2009 and owned or backed by government-controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Borrowers also must be current on their payments.

When the program began in 2009, administration officials hoped at least 4 million Americans would take advantage. But as of August, about 894,000 homeowners had refinanced their mortgages through the program.

White House officials said they had no estimates for how many homeowners would be eligible for refinancing under the new rules or how many might take advantage of the program.

"However many homeowners are going to be helped by this, they will be very grateful for the assistance that will allow them to refinance at today's low rates," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. He indicated the president would take additional executive actions this year if Congress fails to act on elements of his jobs bill.

Following his events in Nevada, the president will travel to Los Angeles for two fundraisers for his re-election campaign, including one at the home of movie stars Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas. Obama will also make stops this week in San Francisco and Denver.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-promote-...134858489.html

...Seeking to circumvent congressional opposition...

Imagine the hue and cry had Bush tried this move ....

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Obama Addresses Drug Shortages with an Executive Order
By L.L. Woodard Yahoo! Contributor Network – 13 hrs ago

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-addresse...224300296.html

MM's column dismantles President Obama’s 98th executive order, which proposes to Do Something about prescription drug shortages. (The other 97 are listed here: http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01...nt-obamas.html ) The White House spin doctors have been busy stirring up panic to justify circumventing Congress : http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/...critical-level As usual, the Obama cure IS the disease. Government needs a Hippocratic oath.


Obama’s Drug Shortage Demagoguery
By Michelle Malkin • November 4, 2011 09:42 AM

President Obama couldn’t wait to trample over the legislative process again. This week, he issued his 98th executive order on an irresistibly exploitatable policy issue: prescription drug shortages. Soon, “One a Day” won’t just be a multivitamin. It’ll be the rate of White House administrative fiats.

Federal officials darkly suggest that selfish industry “stockpiling” is endangering Americans’ lives. “If we find out that prices are being driven up because shortages are being made worse by manipulations of companies or distributors,” the White House further threatened, “agencies will be empowered to stop those practices. And the FDA and the Department of Justice will be investigating any kinds of abuses that would lead to drug shortages.”

As usual, the underlying reasons for these marketplace conditions are gobsmackingly complicated. As usual, a significant portion of the fault lies with the government — not evil corporate “abuses.” And as usual, Obama’s unilaterally imposed “solutions” promise to do more harm than good.

There’s no question that drug shortages exist and that they have been on the rise. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 246 drugs are now scarce. It’s a record. Why? I’ve rounded up just a few of the reasons:

– DEA rules. In some cases, manufacturers have been ensnared by federal Drug Enforcement Administration regulations. Take Adderall, the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication. As ABC News reported earlier this year, Shire Pharmaceuticals makes Adderall “and is under contract to provide the generic form of the drug to Teva Pharmaceuticals and Impax Laboratories, which mass produce the generic.” According to Shire, their supplies have been hampered by DEA restrictions on the amphetamine-based medications, which are tightly monitored controlled substances.

– FDA rules. According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and other professional organizations, “several drug shortages (e.g., concentrated morphine sulfate solution, levothyroxine injection) have been precipitated by actual or anticipated action by the FDA as part of the Unapproved Drugs Initiative, which is designed to increase enforcement against drugs that lack FDA approval to be marketed in the United States.” These industry experts point to additional new drug manufacturing approval processes that are “lengthy and unpredictable, which limits their ability to develop reliable production schedules.”

– Manufacturing problems and generic drug status. Sterile injectables such as Propofol, a widely used anesthesia drug, are notoriously difficult to make. The timeline is long; interruptions in manufacturing one drug can affect multiple products. Sterile injectables can be contaminated easily. Several batches have been recalled in recent years because of dirty particulate matter found in vials.

Recall and liability headaches have led manufacturers to get out of the business. Moreover, as low-priced generic drugs, sterile injectables just aren’t as attractive to pharma companies already weathering tough economic times. When drugs go off patent, the prices decrease. The rest is elementary.

“If the costs associated with making a drug begin to outweigh the profits,” the New England Journal of Medicine explained, “companies may wish to discontinue production of the drug in favor of a newer, more profitable product. If the number of companies making an older drug decreases, and there is a delay or problem in manufacturing, shortages can and do occur.”

– Bush-era Medicare price controls and Obamacare price controls. Everyone from the free-market Wall Street Journal editorial board to renowned death panelist Ezekiel Emanuel agrees that low prices yield inevitable shortages. President Bush and Republicans imposed a 6 percent cap on cancer drug price increases that took effect six years ago. Health care analyst John Goodman adds that Obamacare exacerbated a separate federal price distortion, which requires drug companies to provide rebates to certain hospitals and clinics “of 23.1 percent for brand drugs; and 13 percent for generic drugs off of their average manufacturer’s price on qualifying outpatient drug use.”

Emanuel, the controversial former Obama health care guru, provided an unexpected shot in the Democrats’ market-bashing arm in a recent New York Times op-ed: “You don’t have to be a cynical capitalist to see that the long-term solution is to make the production of generic cancer drugs more profitable.”

But instead of a sober debate about the wildly divergent reasons for some of these shortfalls, Obama’s perpetual campaign machine gave us taxpayer-funded videos that yank the heartstrings and smear pharmaceutical companies. Instead of an honest assessment of the proposed government “fixes,” Washington bureaucrats are using patients as human shields to disguise new power grabs.

Unfortunately, the only cure for Team Obama’s overdose of toxic demagoguery lies at the ballot box. We can’t wait.

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/11/04...ge-demagoguery

Further reading:

John Goodman : Rx Drug Shortages: Regulation Can Be Deadly http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/0...can-be-deadly/

Michael Mandel : Pebbles in the Stream: Does the FDA Slow Medical Technology Innovation? http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress...gy-innovation/

Walter Olson : A Hospital Drug Shortage Made In Washington http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/a-hos...in-washington/

comments

An executive order to demonize industry and “resolve” a problem created by government. The tactic is called Straw Man: making your own enemy so you can knock him down and play hero, the savior. Setting up the straw man and knocking him down. A game as old as the mountains. People fall for it.

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By the way, speaking of regulations…this democrat congresswoman was on Cavuto yesterday and she was defending the massive regulations. Cavuto said that they were passing about 10 new regulations PER DAY and it was stiffling job growth. The brainless twit congresswoman said that Obama was doing a lot about that…he has already eliminated 5 regulations. Five. Period. She thought that was just fantastic. Cavuto looked at her like she just stepped off the mother ship. She also made sure to mention that Republicans want dirty air, dirty water, and poison food.

Some people are not worth debating, they are that stinkin’ stupid. That woman was one of them. Can’t remember her name…don’t want to.

Also, I know why Obama has to by-pass Congress for everything he wants done. NO ONE in Congress likes anything he proposes, not even the dems. And, he isn’t in DC long enough to convince anyone…he has completely abandoned his job a POTUS and is now campaigning for another four years of RULE.

I am absolutely astonished that ANYONE still claims they will vote for this imposter. He is the worst disaster to hit this country since Viet Nam.

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98 executive orders and counting

Careful with the “number of executive orders” argument. It’s a common thing that libtards like to see–it leaves you wide open for the lame “moral equivalency” canard that libs like to use to justify whatever behavior they want. They just pull up the numbers of EOs that other presidents have issued. You can find a list here. http://www.archives.gov/federal-regi...sposition.html

The problem is not so much the number of EOs as it is the nature of the orders. With Obama (actually, most democrat presidents) it is a direct attempt to end-run congress and subvert the separation of powers.

It’s the nature, not the number.

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When the government gets into any area of commerce, whether it’s drug production or street production, the product is shoddy and the price is exorbitant because of crony capitalism. We waste tons of money on the military, but that task is listed in our constitution as the one thing the federal government is required to do. No social engineering or commercial enterprise are part of the constitution, so why are they programs we are forced to pay for.

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bho doesn’t want to solve problems, he wants it to appear that he solves them. He can’t order that shortages go away. After a long history of passing bills without knowing the content of impact on the market place, is it a wonder that undesirable consequences appear? Maybe the bills aren’t read anymore because those doing the reading can’t understand what they were reading. Then there is the disconnect between what the legislators say the bill does and what the bill actually says it does.

Following the Obama Administration for the Official Term of 1,461 days. Keeping an eye on the positions, policy, politics, stances and moves of the 44th U.S. President and his appointed administration.

President Obama has signed 98 Executive Orders to date during his Administration. This list is current to October 31, 2011

Learn more about other Presidents and how they have used the Power of the Executive Order by clicking here. http://1461days.blogspot.com/2011/01...executive.html

The Listing of Executive orders in the Congressional Library runs in a numeric order starting with the first Executive orders passed until the most current. When President Barack Obama took office his EO list started from #EO-13489

Updates and edits to this page are made as soon as new Executive orders are released and published to the Internet for review. The List of President Obama's Executive Orders runs in descending order from the most recent.

October 31, 2011 : Executive Order 13588 - Reducing Prescription Drug Shortages

October 7, 2011 : Executive Order 13587 - Structural Reforms to Improve the Security of Classified Networks and the Responsible Sharing and Safeguarding of Classified Information

October 6, 2011 : Executive Order 13586 - Emergency Board to Investigate Disputes Between Certain Railroads

September 30, 2011 : Executive Order 13585 - Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees

September 9, 2011 : Executive Order 13584 - Developing an Integrated Strategic Counterterrorism Communications Initiative

August 18, 2011 : Executive Order 13583 - Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce

Executive Order 13582 - Blocking Property of the Government of Syria and Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to Syria

July 25, 2011 : Executive Order 13581 - Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations

July 12, 2011 : Executive Order 13580 - Inter-agency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska

With a ringing battle cry of "Drill Baby - Drill" - and the non-stop they will not move forward on domestic energy still echoing as we move toward the elections, did the President just trump the Tea-Party by executing this EO or is this a preemptive move to set up election debate?

July 11, 2011 : Executive Order 13579 - Regulation and Independent Regulatory Agencies

Wise regulatory decisions depend on public participation and on careful analysis of the likely consequences of regulation. Such decisions are informed and improved by allowing interested members of the public to have a meaningful opportunity to participate in rule making. To the extent permitted by law, such decisions should be made only after consideration of their costs and benefits (both quantitative and qualitative).

July 6, 2011 : Executive Order 13578 - Coordinating Policies on Automotive Communities and Workers

Section 1. Policy. Over the last decade, the United States has experienced a decline in employment in the automotive industry and among part suppliers. This decline accelerated dramatically from 2008 to 2009, with more than 400,000 jobs being lost in the industry. Now, 2 years later, the American automotive industry is beginning to recover. The automotive industry has, over the past 2 years, experienced its strongest period of job growth since the late 1990s. Exports have expanded, and the domestic automakers in 2010 gained market share for the first time since 1995. The automotive supply chain, which employs three times as many workers as the automakers, has also shown renewed strength. However, we still have a long way to go.

June 15, 2011 : Executive Order 13577 - Select USA Initiative

June 13, 2011 : Executive Order 13576 - Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government

June 9, 2011 : : Executive Order 13575 - Establishment of the White House Rural Council

Yup - Another council has been authorised and established.

May 23, 2011 : Executive Order 13574 - AUTHORIZING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CERTAIN SANCTIONS SET FORTH IN THE IRAN SANCTIONS ACT OF 1996, AS AMENDED

May 18, 2011 : Executive Order 13573 - Blocking Property of Senior Officials of the Government of Syria

April 29, 2011 : Executive Order 13572 - Blocking Property of Certain Persons with Respect to Human Rights Abuses in Syria

April 27, 2011 : Executive Order 13571 - Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service

April 18, 2011 : Executive Order 13570 - Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to North Korea

April 5, 2011 : Executive Order 13569 - Amendments to Executive Orders 12824, 12835, 12859, and 13532, Reestablishment Pursuant to Executive Order 13498, and Revocation of Executive Order 13507

March 8, 2011 : Executive Order 13568 - Extending Provisions of the International Organization Immunities Act

President Obama invokes the section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (59 Stat. 669, 22 U.S.C. 288), and the Extending Immunities to the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International Civilian Office in Kosovo Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-177, 124 Stat. 1260 with this Executive Order.

March 7, 2011 : Executive Order 13567 - Periodic Review of Individuals Detained at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station Pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force

This Executive Order is an edit to a previous EO and adds Authorization for Use of Military Force of September 2001 (AUMF), Public Law 107-40, in order to ensure that military detention of individuals now held at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (Guantánamo), who were subject to the inter-agency review under section 4 of Executive Order 13492 of January 22, 2009, continues to be carefully evaluated and justified, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.

February 25, 2011 : Executive Order 13566 - Libya

BLOCKING PROPERTY AND PROHIBITING CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO LIBYA

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, his government, and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries, and wanton violence against unarmed civilians.

February 8, 2011 : Executive Order 13565 - Establishment of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committees

The 1461 review and write up on this EO is pending. I can say this however. I am starting to get sick and tired of seeing the formation of committee after committee. I will be watching this new committee and the people who make up the group. It will be interesting to see where they come from.

January 31, 2011 : Executive Order 13564 - Establishment of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

January 18, 2011 : Executive Order 13563 - Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01...nt-obamas.html

McConnell: White House purposely ‘designed’ Obama jobs bill to ‘fail’ [VIDEO at source]
The Daily Caller – 5 hrs ago

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday that the White House intentionally “designed” President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill to “fail” with the hopes of making Republicans appear “intransigent.”

This was not — I repeat — not a serious effort to do something about jobs and the economy,” McConnell said. “It was a serious effort to help the president’s re-election campaign by making Republicans in Congress look intransigent”

Watch: http://news.yahoo.com/mcconnell-whit...171500683.html


Obama’s jobs bill was not put to a vote in the GOP-controlled House but was defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate. A part of the jobs bill that included $35 billion in federal funding for states to hire public safety workers and teachers also failed in the Senate.

Obama signs order to cut travel, cellphones, swag
By JIM KUHNHENN - Associated Press | AP – 6 hrs ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the stroke of his pen, President Barack Obama has sacked souvenirs federal agencies buy with taxpayer money to promote their work.

The ban he signed Wednesday is part of a broader executive order to cut some $4 billion of dollars in waste and make government more efficient. Some office equipment will simply be scarcer, and fewer cell phones and laptops will be issued.

Obama has been using his executive powers on modest proposals — Wednesday's order targets trinkets like coffee cups, T-shirts and pens — to promote job creation, help homeowners or, in this case, redirect spending.

With such orders, signed in Oval Office ceremonies, Obama is trying to demonstrate that he is engaged in measures large and small and to distinguish himself from what he argues is a pretty unproductive Congress. Lawmakers are in the middle of a more gargantuan task — cutting deficits by at least $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

"It doesn't replace the importance of work the Congress needs to do in coming up with a balanced, bold plan to reduce our deficit," Obama said as he prepared to sign his administrative order. "But it indicates once again that there are things that we can do right now that will actually deliver better government, more efficiently, more consumer friendly for less money."

The saved money won't directly reduce deficits, however. In a statement in advance of the signing, Obama said, "We're cutting what we don't need so that we can invest in what we do need."

An administration official said the savings of about $4 billion would allow the administration to focus resources on veterans, members of the military and on infrastructure.

The order directs government agencies not only to reduce the authorizations for technology equipment, but also requires cutting the size of the executive vehicle fleet.

It also encourages agencies to use technology to save money, including teleconferences and online seminars to reduce travel and online publishing to cut down on publication costs.

Overall, the president aims to cut spending in the areas mentioned in the order by 20 percent.

"We believe we can get better results for less using technology," Obama said.

Vice President Joe Biden and White House budget director Jacob Lew attended the signing in the Oval Office.

Obama was also accompanied by four finalists in a cost-saving contest among federal government employees. One finalist suggested the creation of a tool "lending library," another proposed ending the purchase of U.S. code books that are already available online.

Among examples cited by the White House of cost-cutting already under way are the Internal Revenue Service's plan to cut 27 percent of its travel costs by relying more on teleconferences and webinars and the Homeland Security Department's decision to conduct annual audits to reduce the number of unused cellphones and air cards.

At the Commerce Department, the White House said, the agency has reduced the number of fleet drivers to one for all top departmental officials, including for new Secretary John Bryson.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-signs-or...171104060.html

comments

4 billion in "swag" ???? jeez the politicians are the most wasteful individuals. Now they need to cut their pay, do away with their "special" health care and retirement programs. no free vacations, no free food, no free housing. these people are all wealthy, they should be paying for their own expenses and not using tax payers money. this and all the illegals that get a free ride really ticks me off!

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Does that include Michelle's extravagant travels? Are we cutting back on the golf junketts?

Remember the Africa trip ? The Obama children were listed as "Senior Staff" for the expense reports....

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How about dropping our "represenatives" health insurance the minute they don't have that job any more.

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like he is doing us a favor.. should have never been done in the first place... should have been eliminated long ago ... total campaign bull.. no thanks from this voter..

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He is making noise about plans to cut travel while he's fixing to take another vacation, stopping in Hawaii! he's such a pompus, big mouth,

He signed an order three years ago to cut Government travel by 25%! Guess what, Government travel increased by 37%.

Obama defies lawmakers with recess appointments to NLRB
By Kevin Bogardus - 01/04/12 03:15 PM ET

President Obama will recess-appoint his nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing a likely filibuster from Senate Republicans to keep the controversial agency operating in 2012.

The president will use a recess appointment to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as members of the NLRB. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican.

The recess appointments are a huge victory for Obama’s union allies, which had urged the president to use any means necessary to keep the NLRB functioning. Without additional members, the NLRB would have lacked the three-member quorum needed to issue rules and regulations.

“The American people deserve to have qualified public servants fighting for them every day — whether it is to enforce new consumer protections or uphold the rights of working Americans," Obama said in a statement. "We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy and restore security for our middle class and those trying to get in it, and that’s why I am proud to appoint these fine individuals to get to work for the American people.”

The move by the White House will further anger Republicans, who were already up in arms about Obama’s recess appointment Wednesday of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a letter to Obama last month, all 47 GOP senators asked the president to refrain from making recess appointments to the NLRB.

The labor board has come under fire from GOP lawmakers and business groups for a number of decisions, most notably a complaint against Boeing last year for allegedly retaliating against union workers.

Critics argue the Boeing complaint and other actions by the NLRB, such as proposing a regulation to speed up union elections, are an abuse of the board's authority. The House has since passed legislation that would limit the labor board’s legal powers, and GOP senators have promised to block nominations to the NLRB.

With the Senate likely to block new nominees, the NLRB wouldn’t be able to function without recess appointments. Needing at least three members to form a quorum, the labor board was expected to be reduced to two members with the end of NLRB member Craig Becker’s recess appointment.

But with Block, Flynn and Griffin now all members of the NLRB, the labor board is up to its full roster of five members.

Republicans tried to prevent recess appointments by keeping the Senate in pro forma session over the holiday break. In response to Cordray’s recess appointment, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was an “unprecedented move” by Obama, who “arrogantly circumvented the American people.”

“This recess appointment represents a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” McConnell said in a statement.

The White House argues it has legal authority to make recess appointments during the pro forma sessions.

“In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called 'pro forma' sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President’s constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a blog post Wednesday.

Unions cheered the NLRB recess appointments. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hailed Obama's move as a victory for workers.

"We commend the President for exercising his constitutional authority to ensure that crucially important agencies protecting workers and consumers are not shut down by Republican obstructionism. Working families and consumers should not pay the price for political ploys that have repeatedly undercut the enforcement of rules against Wall Street abuses and the rights of working people," Trumka said in a statement.

James Callahan, president of the International Union of Operating Engineers, where Griffin was general counsel, said Obama recess-appointing Griffin to the labor board was the right move.

“Richard is highly respected by lawyers on both the labor and business side of labor law. His fair-minded approach to legal questions is exactly what the NLRB needs,” Callahan said in a statement. “Some Republican members of the Senate have made a determined effort to cripple the NLRB and other government agencies by refusing to act on President Obama’s nominees, no matter how qualified. Leaving the NLRB without a quorum would penalize both labor and employers.”

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbyi...al-labor-board

comments

The President is engaging in anarchy. A revolution isn't far around the corner. This President has circumvented the Constitution more than any President—fast-tracking immigration applications, immigration hotline, Fast & Furious, Solyndra, LightSquared. Where is Congress?

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Obama is now dicatator of the U.S. Obama will detain Americans (even lying to you all and blaming congress for doing so ) all the while it was he who ordered this language in the bill.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...tary-Detention

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If you want to know the real Obama, don't listen to his speeches. What what his minions do. Watch him leave Eric Holder in office, despite Fast & Furious and his utter failure to prosecute Jon Corzine.

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Radical is the standard for this President. The MSM will not cover his fast track immigration report or his board appointments. Most voters will never see background on these people or Bill Ayers or Jeramiah Wright. Pitiful.

I'm not surprised that he went against the Congress. He'll promise to be bi-partisan next time.

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While some of you may agree with Mr. Obama at the moment, what happens when he starts to do things you don't agree with and than, he could care less what you think. First, NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Be it Bush or Obama, the law is the law. This is not tit for tat it is our nation that is at stake here. We continue to elect the lesser of two evils, In this case we elected a corrupt Chicago politician, yet no one can bring themselves to admit it. Obama's biggest problem is he is drunk on power, and power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately. You are witnessing a man who is on the brink of imploding, he owes too much, to too many. Soon the piper is going to want to be paid, and there is nothing to pay him with. He owes the unions, his radical pals, the Progressives, George Soros just to name a few. If this support peels off he will not be reelected.

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I especially enjoyed Pfeiffer's statement: "the President's constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running." Gee, I wasn't aware that the NLRB was such a vital bureaucracy for the survival of the United States of America. Thank goodness the unions opened my eyes! I am white collar, don't belong to a union, have a small business on main street, work alot of hours, and yet, I am not considered "a working person" by the unions. A simple question - why, in some states, if you want a job, you have to join a union???

Here is the operating motto of the Obama White House: “So let it be written, so let it be done!” Like Yul Brynner’s Pharaoh Ramses character in Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,” the demander in chief stands with arms akimbo issuing daily edicts to his constitution-subverting minions with an imperious wave of his hand. His entourage of insatiable usurpers never rests.

Can’t delude legislators into adopting a $1.5 billion Kabuki summer-jobs makework boondoggle? Create an unfunded program through executive fiat.
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/05/work-opportunity/

Can’t muster up a filibuster-proof majority for radical nominees? Czar-ify ‘em. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/26...ma-underworld/

Can’t get Congress to approve vast wild lands designations? Grab them under cover of a holiday lame-duck session. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/02/04...e-of-contempt/

Can’t get the illegal alien bailout DREAM Act passed on Capitol Hill? Executive-order it. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/08/22...xecutive-fiat/


“So let it be written, so let it be done!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQnxlHZsjY


In keeping with the dark and defiant habits of this administration, the new head of the half-billion-dollar Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was sworn in behind closed doors on Wednesday night. The nomination of former Democratic Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to serve as Dodd-Frank regulatory enforcer had been soundly defeated in the Senate before Christmas. But as I reported last month, progressive zealots funded by billionaire George Soros goaded Obama to ignore the Senate’s constitutionally grounded advice and consent role. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/12/06...er-obama-czar/


At his left flank’s urging, Obama vowed to follow in President Theodore Roosevelt’s footsteps (TR recess-appointed 160 officials during a recess of less than one day) and install Cordray even though the Senate technically remained in pro forma session. Fresh from his Hawaii vacation, Obama returned to Washington and for once delivered on a promise. http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/04...dd-frank-czar/

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Thursday that the administration expects no retaliation for the end-run around the deliberative process. Playing the pharaoh’s helper, Carney airily dismissed widespread bipartisan questions about the legality of the power grab as “esoteric discussion.” https://twitter.com/#!/jamiedupree/s...80609800937472

The GOP knew the installation of Obama’s latest super-czar was coming a month ago, but is now scrambling to respond. Republicans will get clobbered with the class warfare card again unless they forcefully counter the Democrats’ narrative of the president’s “bold” actions for “middle-class Americans.” Obama’s liberal media supporters have rationalized the tyrannical maneuver as a response to GOP “nullification.” But it’s those who oppose common-sense reforms of the gravely flawed Dodd-Frank law — a 2,600-page monstrosity that no lawmaker read before passing it — who are obstructing good government. http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/15...k-monstrosity/ ttp://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/21/obama-to-sign-dodd-frank-monstrosity-today/


As Senate Republicans have been pointing out for months, Dodd-Frank threw out judicial review, removed CFPB from the congressional appropriations process, provided five-year tenure protection for the director and transferred the agency from the Treasury Department to the opaque and unaccountable Federal Reserve. http://republican.senate.gov/public/...3-0d5600c3313f


Obama and Democratic leaders themselves recognize the recklessness of vesting so much unfettered power in a single individual. In 2009, Obama floated a bipartisan board to oversee enforcement. Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island all co-sponsored legislation backing a commission. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank was also an original sponsor of a bill creating the very kind of five-member panel Republicans have proposed. http://creditnewsline.com/news/democ...pb-commission/


The House passed these and other structural reforms last year, but the Senate has failed to act, and the White House insists on demagoguing reformers. Moreover, taxpayers remain in the dark about how and how much the CFPB is spending, because Dodd-Frank allows the agency to draw funds from the Federal Reserve’s operating expenses. Out of sight, out of mind.

This is not “bold.” It’s jackboot. It won’t benefit “middle-class Americans.” It’ll line lobbyist pockets, soak taxpayer dollars and fuel a Beltway rule-making bonanza. It’s not about reining in Wall Street abuses. It’s about consolidating bureaucratic authority and granting unprecedented immunity to a single super-cop from congressional and public oversight. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/07/22...mployment-act/

Where, ahem, are those Occupiers when you need them?

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/06...-on-the-loose/

Create an unfunded program through executive fiat. .... http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/05/work-opportunity/

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-mone...obs-initiative

President Obama on Thursday will unveil a summer-jobs initiative that the White House says is already on track to create 180,000 “work opportunities” in the private sector in 2012. That is the number of opportunities, which includes mentoring and unpaid internships, that companies have told the administration they are willing to create. Some 70,000 jobs are paid, the White House says.

The initiative was hatched after Congress failed to approve a $1.5 billion summer-jobs fund that President Obama had been seeking as part of the American Jobs Act. “Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of executive actions the Obama administration is taking to strengthen the economy and move the country forward because we can’t wait for Congress to act,” a White House statement reads.

Cordray and NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional
Posted by Brian Darling Friday, January 6th at 2:30PM EST

http://www.redstate.com/brian_d/2012...onstitutional/

Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese and Todd Gaziano, both with my employer The Heritage Foundation, have written an excellent piece in the Washington Post explaining why the installation of Richard Cordray as head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Richard Griffin, Sharon Block and Terence Flynn to be on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are unconstitutional acts.The president claimed to use the constitutional power of the president to make recess appointments.http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...fdP_story.html

As another Heritage colleague, Hans von Spakovsky, explains for Pajamas Media, Congress is not in recess. The Senate actually conducted some very important business during one of the “pro-forma” sessions the White House has called a “gimmick”: On Dec. 23, it passed the payroll tax extension that caused such a political uproar in Washington. http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/01/05...ing-its-recess