Emergencies in the TDG

A different kind of executive decision

Photo by Marcel Petzold on Unsplash

When, why, and how does an American president execute an executive order?

John Egelkrout

wrote an article expressing his bewilderment:

What I Learned About Our Government I Didn’t Know Before

I never paid much attention to executive orders until President Obama. I was under the impression that there were some constitutional restrictions to an American president using them, and Obama was perhaps stepping over those restrictions. But I also thought Obama was someone who would vet his ideas with people around him before issuing the order.

Of course, Trump 1, Biden, and Trump 2 governed a lot by executive order. But if this tool is to move political issues though a dysfunctional congress, then what is the purpose of congress?

I did a little study of Franklin Roosevelt. It seems his New Deal was constructed more by executive order than by votes in Congress. From what I can understand, executive orders are more restricted by political culture than by legislation around executive orders. In other words, American presidents can issue executive orders if they think…