The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
http://nypost.com/2016/01/03/president-obamas-lame-duck-drive-for-disastrous-success/
President Obama’s lame-duck drive for disastrous ‘success’
By Post Editorial Board
January 3, 2016 | 9:21pm
Lame-duck presidents rarely get much done in their final year, or even try — clearing the field for election-year politics. But President Obama is plainly intent on feeding partisan rancor in 2016 — via unconstitutional overreach.
He’s going big with executive action, damn the consequences. And he’s doing so on divisive issues from gun control to immigration.
On New Year’s Eve, his Homeland Security Department announced new rules boosting the number of work visas for foreign-born US college graduates — well above the level approved by Congress.
This, just weeks after language buried deep in the omnibus spending bill increased visas for working-class immigrants.
And as immigration has become a bitter issue on the presidential campaign trail.
On gun control, word is that an executive order to expand background checks on certain gun sales will come this week.
Look: This issue’s been before Congress for at least two years — and gone nowhere. Worse, Obama’s claim that he has the power to act here is legally . . . imaginative. So the action is nothing more than red meat for the culture warriors on both sides — plus provocation of the legislative branch.
On both issues, the president could have sought an honest dialogue with opponents and tried to forge a compromise. But he’s instead spent years demonizing those opponents — and losing Democratic seats in Congress as a result.
And every time his rhetoric blows up in his face, he resorts to dubious unilateral action.
Most famously, in 2014 he issued an executive order giving limited legal status to illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. It’s been struck down in the courts, with only faint hope of successful appeal.
So he inspires his political base, enrages the opposition — and changes nothing.
The underlying issue doesn’t get resolved, yet the country grows more divided, with all sides more frustrated.
The president may think he’s “doing something” with his unilateral approach — but it amounts to nothing more than stroking his own ego at the nation’s expense.
President Obama’s lame-duck drive for disastrous ‘success’
By Post Editorial Board
January 3, 2016 | 9:21pm
Lame-duck presidents rarely get much done in their final year, or even try — clearing the field for election-year politics. But President Obama is plainly intent on feeding partisan rancor in 2016 — via unconstitutional overreach.
He’s going big with executive action, damn the consequences. And he’s doing so on divisive issues from gun control to immigration.
On New Year’s Eve, his Homeland Security Department announced new rules boosting the number of work visas for foreign-born US college graduates — well above the level approved by Congress.
This, just weeks after language buried deep in the omnibus spending bill increased visas for working-class immigrants.
And as immigration has become a bitter issue on the presidential campaign trail.
On gun control, word is that an executive order to expand background checks on certain gun sales will come this week.
Look: This issue’s been before Congress for at least two years — and gone nowhere. Worse, Obama’s claim that he has the power to act here is legally . . . imaginative. So the action is nothing more than red meat for the culture warriors on both sides — plus provocation of the legislative branch.
On both issues, the president could have sought an honest dialogue with opponents and tried to forge a compromise. But he’s instead spent years demonizing those opponents — and losing Democratic seats in Congress as a result.
And every time his rhetoric blows up in his face, he resorts to dubious unilateral action.
Most famously, in 2014 he issued an executive order giving limited legal status to illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. It’s been struck down in the courts, with only faint hope of successful appeal.
So he inspires his political base, enrages the opposition — and changes nothing.
The underlying issue doesn’t get resolved, yet the country grows more divided, with all sides more frustrated.
The president may think he’s “doing something” with his unilateral approach — but it amounts to nothing more than stroking his own ego at the nation’s expense.