In December 2011, a Whitehouse press release announced ‘a series of executive actions’ that the Obama administration was going to take to strengthen the economy following the defeat of his proposed $447 billion Jobs Bill in October 2011. This presidential campaign, labelled ‘We Can’t Wait’, strikes at the heart of the debate over the issue of executive orders.
President Obama was looking to pursue a series of unilateral initiatives, by issuing a number of executive orders, which aimed to push ahead with his agenda in the face of an obstructionist Congress. Obama’s supporters have heralded it as a necessary measure in the face of a divided government, in which congressional Republicans have refused to debate job creation measures. However, his Republican critics have claimed that these actions are an attempt to push through expensive and unnecessary programmes while avoiding working with Congress to pass more substantive bipartisan legislation.
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