History Lesson For Conservative Crybabies

In case you're wondering about that lawless President Obama and his unconstitutional abuse of executive power . . . 

The issuance of Presidential executive orders is common, legal, and typically not a big deal.  Most recent presidents issued far more executive orders than has Obama.




Per the National Archives:

In 7 years, Obama (D) has issued 217 executive orders.

George W. Bush (R) -- 290 in 8 years
Bill Clinton (D) -- 364 in 8 years
George H.W. Bush -- 165 in 4 years
Ronald Reagan (R) -- 380 in 8 years
Jimmy Carter (D) -- 320 in 4 years
Gerald Ford (R) -- 168 in 2 years
Richard Nixon (R) -- 345 in 6 years
Lyndon Johnson (D) -- 324 in 5 years
John Kennedy (D) -- 214 in 3 years
Dwight Eisenhower (R) -- 481 in 8 years

Abraham Lincoln (R) used executive orders to defend the Union and engage in the Civil War.

Woodrow Wilson (D) issued executive orders to equip the U.S. military prior to WW I.

Franklin Roosevelt (D) exercised his executive powers to establish internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WW II.  (Oops on that one!)

At the state and local levels, governors and mayors often use their versions of executive actions.  In one of his rare moments of sensibility, Gov. John Kasich (R) did it when he bypassed the state legislature to expand Medicaid in Ohio under the ACA.

The point is, executive orders are SOP -- standard operating procedure.  You may not always like the content, but everybody does it, and it's generally OK.

So why is Obama getting so much shit about it?

Oh yeah.  That.