Biden's Excuse for Large Number of Executive Orders: 'I'm Not Making New Law, I'm Eliminating Bad Policy'
President Joe Biden attempted to justify the unprecedented number of executive orders he signed during his first couple weeks in office while speaking with the media Tuesday.
“I want to make it clear. There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed. I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” the president said.
.@JoeBiden defends issuing 40+ executive orders in less than two weeks by lying about what executive orders do:
“There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed. I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy.” pic.twitter.com/kIvDdna1lI
— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) February 3, 2021
Biden was enacting three more executive orders during the Oval Office event, all of which pertained to immigration issues such as family separation and the Trump administration’s travel ban.
“What I’m doing is taking on the issues that 99 percent of them, that the last president of the United States issued executive orders that I thought were very counterproductive to our security, counterproductive to who we are as a country, particularly in the area of immigration. This is about how America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly and humane legal immigration system,” Biden continued.
So far, Biden has signed 28 executive orders, 10 memorandums and 4 proclamations, according to NPR.
Having dozens of executive actions early in his presidency is a sharp contrast from his recent predecessors.
“30 executive orders and actions signed in only 3 days’ time. @POTUS, you can’t govern with a pen and a phone,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted on Jan. 26.
[firefly_poll]
30 executive orders and actions signed in only 3 days’ time.
@POTUS, you can’t govern with a pen and a phone.— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 26, 2021
Lawmakers should be understandably irritated about the number of actions taken unilaterally by Biden, as the United States federal government is not intended to be mainly operated by one branch.
The reliably liberal New York Times editorial board even published a piece titled “Ease Up on the Executive Actions, Joe.”
Wow-Even the New York Times is calling on @JoeBiden to halt all the EO’s. He signed more executive orders in his first week of office than any other President combined, before him.
“Ease Up on the Executive Actions, Joe” https://t.co/4zx3ucGRSH— Liz Joy (@LizLemeryJoy) February 3, 2021
“[T]his is no way to make law. A polarized, narrowly divided Congress may offer Mr. Biden little choice but to employ executive actions or see his entire agenda held hostage. These directives, however, are a flawed substitute for legislation,” the board wrote.
“They are intended to provide guidance to the government and need to work within the discretion granted the executive by existing law or the Constitution. They do not create new law — though executive orders carry the force of law — and they are not meant to serve as an end run around the will of Congress.”
However, this extensive use of power by the president only confirms the core principles of conservatives and libertarians: that government works better when it is smaller and kept in check.
While most presidents have used executive orders in the past, they have sometimes been used in grave error.
Americans are usually on the edge of their seats waiting for a president’s next move, and Biden’s actions are definitely a sign that one man has too much power.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
