Is Obama Really Limiting Executive Power?

Coyote has a great post about Obama’s new executive orders. Here he quotes Radley Balko:

“Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.”

“It’s worth emphasizing again here these steps Obama’s taking effectively limit his own power. That’s extraordinary.”

“But here is my cynical side coming out: It is easy to limit your own power in areas in which you have no desire to exercise it. Obama is doing great work here that needs to be done, but he is also not really giving up anything he cares to have. I could just as easily have written a story that said that Bush took brave steps to limit the power of the executive branch over CO2 emissions.”

Then Coyote asks:

“Obama is a different kind of guy, right? He would never expand executive power and short-circuit Congress just because he was in the hurry for something, would he?

‘President Barack Obama signed an executive order to force the auto industry to produce more fuel-efficient cars, an act he says will begin a new era of global leadership for the U.S.’

I thought this was particularly clever rhetoric for continuing to gut the 10th Ammendment.

‘The days of Washington dragging its heals are over,” he declared, saying it should be easier for states to adopt tough fuel-efficiency rules. “My administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them. We cannot afford to pass the buck or pass the burden onto the states.’

We are not grabbing power here in Washington, we are just relieving them of the burden of governing themselves.”

Very well said. I continue to contend that Obama is the left’s version of Bush…doing the same things Bush did, just for causes that appeal to the lefties instead of the righties.