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President Obama’s EOs All Fluff & Puff

By: westcoastpatriette (Diary)  |  January 16th, 2013 at 02:48 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The following is a list of the 23 “Executive Orders” President Obama issued today in an effort to impose stronger sanctions on gun-control and as an (over)reaction to the Connecticut school shooting:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background-check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background-check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background- check system.

4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a Department of Justice report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun-safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to healthcare providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency-response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within Affordable Care Act exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental-health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health

After all the huff and puff, this balloon turned out to be nothing but a shriveling whimper. Obviously, this was all for show and I must admit, I am relieved to see that Obama is not as recklessly blind to Constitutional limits and political realities as I thought. This thing simply has no teeth.

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  • plumely

    I wonder if he had more severe EO’s in mind but dialed them back after mounting pressure from our side. Especially regarding impeachment. If so, that is encouraging and shows that we are not powerless at least on the grass roots level.

    • westcoastpatriette

      And his side, I think. Too many Dems come from pro-gun states and he could not risk putting them in a position to upset too many folks come 2014. Always thinking ahead. So, the left had to pull back to save their own skin. Okay with me. :) )

      • plumely

        Me too. I think we are seeing a spec of light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

        • westcoastpatriette

          Yes, me too. I watched him today and he looks really tired. Trying to dictate is way too hard now with the House and 30 governorships in Republican hands.

    • Kyle-MI

      Was there really any credible threat of impeachment? I think it was more poll reading. Their arguments could not get enough traction in public opinion.

      • plumely

        Who knows, but any smart politician knows that that kind of talk festers and then eventually grows legs if you don’t quash it at its early stages. Obama and his team I am sure understand that.

  • kowalski

    I don’t think so. I think these were pretty carefully calibrated to install a false sense of security, to blunt the effort that we need to keep moving.

    • westcoastpatriette

      I just don’t see it kowalski. Most of these are reminders, suggestions, and promotional in nature. I don’t see any orders that carry any weight beyond the powers he already has. Calling them Executive Orders is over-kill and made him look really foolish and weak.

      • Melody Warbington

        I see them along the lines of you have to read it to find out what’s in it. The fact that they’re pretty much open to interpretation should be a huge red flag. They will interpret as they go along and instruct whoever they can to do whatever they want at the moment. By the time we figure out what they’ve done, folks will be acclimated to it and it’ll be too late to turn back the clock. For example, want to bet there will be a new curriculum handed down by the NEA through CCS on anti gun violence to further brainwash the children?

        • westcoastpatriette

          Maybe I’m misreading here. Wouldn’t be the first time. We’ll see.

          • kowalski

            Obama’s exeuctive orders aren’t even Round One of this fight. He can issue them at any time, rescind them, reissue them, and as long he doesn’t do anything really egregious, he hasn’t spent any political capital and none of his party’s political capital. They way I see it, Obama just got those 23 executive orders essentially for free, and he realizes that.

            The real test of how determined he is will come in the next few months, as he and his party calibrate how much political capital they’re willing to spend in Congress to get an AWB passed – and whether or not the President should try to issue a second round of executive orders once that picture becomes clearer. And believe me, the President and his team are monitoring public opinion data and also trending opinions among gun owners and non gun owners by the minute to decide what their next move should be.

            This is the smartest and most plugged in Administration in history, by whatever equivalent of light years you’d use to measure it. They’re monitoring this with every sensitive instrument they have. These guys fly by wire and they know how to use their computers.

            In my view, yesterday’s executive orders and the new laws in New York State were an unequivocal win for the White House and the gun grabbers, and more importantly, they cost them virtually nothing. Now the media is fighting their fight for them, while Obama steps into the background to monitor how public opinion moves after a hugely successful opening effort. They’re watching the reaction (I’ll bet they’ve read your blog post) and you’d better believe there’s going to be a Round 2 and a Round 3 and more than that.

            I’ve watched Barack Obama’s media and legislative strategies develop over the course of more than a decade now, and my read is: He Has Not Yet Begun To Fight. The EOs were just the prelude.

          • westcoastpatriette

            I don’t mean to be saying I think he is done with this. Just that I think these “orders” are drama that make him look silly. Everything he does is designed as propaganda with an end in mind.

          • kowalski

            Well, WCP I’ll leave this part of the discussion with another expression from the turn of the last century. People living in tenement houses, particularly in New York City but elsewhere, packed together armpit to elbow in rickety dwellings with thin floors and thin walls could accurately gauge the state of undress of their neighbors, sight unseen, by “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

            People would come home, sit on their bed or at the kitchen table, take off one shoe, it would clonk against the floor, and then it was a matter of counting a few seconds while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

            Think of this President as the legislative equivalent of Imelda Marcos.

    • kipling

      I have to go with kowalski on this one. I think the President initially bit off more than he could chew on this one. My guess is he wanted to bully the NRA and force their hand by standing on the graves of dead children. When the NRA would not budge and the American people began to rumble, he decided to back off. There were too many trial balloons in the media for all of this just to have been a little huffing and puffing.

      The President will continue to pursue confiscation. The next tragedy will be another pretext. I don’t think the NRA will be caught off guard. Mr. Obama made the mistake of showing his hand on this one. He figured the NRA and others would fold like the GOP. Instead, they showed more guts and bloodied the bully’s nose. He will not forget it. So, we had better be ready.

  • rossg

    I actually liked most of these, the Order regarding doctors talking about firearms just seems beyond the pale. I don’t believe any of the Orders could have affected Newton but it might have stopped the Colorado spree killing.

  • californiasquish

    FWIW, I think this is what they had in mind the entire time.

  • Kyle-MI

    Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Right now I am thinking that children come in a close second. If you can’t defend your actions, then surround yourself with children. Come to think of it though, patriotism and children both come from the same root, emotions over reason.

  • ndmittle

    Seems people have been tilting at windmills.

  • Rich

    To be perfectly honest, I think Obama is nowhere near as anti-gun as his detractors make out, he did nothing in his first term on gun control and presented with a huge opportunity and lack of re-election pressure basically came out with pretty reasonable platitudes and suggestions. For all the demonization and bogeyman-making of Obama on conservative issues, he’s a smart politican and I think he realises that not only is there no political capital in tackling 2nd Amendment rights but personally it is not a major issue for him either.

    That said, excellent work by the GOP ‘first-responders’ for decrying as dictatorial and outlandish a pretty reasonable set of EO’s thus playing entirely into the public perception of them as obstructionist pig-heads subservient to special interests. GG.

    • ndmittle

      Boy, given the incredibly moderate things that Obama just proposed,
      including things right out of the NRA lobbying handbook, it looks like
      they’re trying to exploit irrational fear for fundraising or
      something….

      • PowerToThePeople

        So as long as someone punches you in the face with moderate strength, you are OK with that just because it was not severe? The second amendment is quite clear, his proposed intrusion is severe, not moderate.

        Two additional points if I may, first is the NRA is not the decider of what is constitutional nor are they the appointed group to decide what rights I give away, and second, this is the wrong site for you to perform fellatio on Obama. Those types sites are over in the dark area of the web.

    • Melody Warbington

      Just like he wasn’t interested in government run health care, either. And he wasn’t going to raise taxes on the middle class. And he was going to have a balanced approach to the debt crisis. And he was only going to enact common sense regulation. All that and more has worked out so well, hasn’t it?

    • checkmate2012

      Maybe, just maybe the GOP’s “first-responders” prevented him from overstepping his bounds. Glad to see you think he is reasonable but the Left is very patient and is willing to take baby steps to reach their goals. It’s just a matter of time that your rights will be infringed and then we’ll hear, “wow, I never thought it could happen to me!” Give him time and you’ll see.

      • Rich

        Put it this way – I think Obama’s priority right now is to try and divide and tarnish the GOP brand in the eyes of the voting public rather than doing anything politically risky like messing with 2nd Amendment rights. Hence the theater of the children, his EO proposals which are basically a checklist of ‘what do the public agree with? and daring the GOP to come out and shout and scream against them so in 2 years time the Democrat party can run ads of him standing around kids with his proposals next to quotes of ‘IMPEACH OBAMA FOR HIS DICTATORIAL CONDUCT” from GOP Reps in the House.

        Maybe it’s all a big bait and switch and I’ll end up with egg on my face but my instinct is that more credence is to be placed in him being a political operator taking advantage of an opportunity to pit the GOP against the general public than a burning desire to tackle 2nd Amendment rights.

        • checkmate2012

          I agree with your premise that he’s trying to ruin the GOP but also think that such pompous acts will hurt him in the end. Everything is political theater with him as you infer, and even his supporters will see through his shallow acts if his polocies don’t help them economically-well I hope. We saw a glimpse of hope in his press availabilty Monday when a few tougher questions were finally asked. If only the press would get some guts, then his acting days could be dampered.

    • Bill S

      You’re spending an awful lot of time here defending Obama, the Democrats, and the establishment Republicans. My guess is that you’re either a McConnell or Boehner staffer or just a garden-variety troll.

      Think twice before your next set of comments.

    • westcoastpatriette

      Whose side are you on? Your second paragraph came from where? A latent hatred for conservatives?

  • checkmate2012

    I submit that given these EO’s that Holder is unqualified to be the AG and should be fired or resign based on F&F and his lack of accountability as defined by the president and his remark that criminals shall be prosecuted for gunrunning:

    6. Publish a letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
    9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
    10. Release a Department of Justice report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
    13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

    • westcoastpatriette

      hahaha, checkmate’. I thought of that minor hypocrisy — F&F — while he was using the children as a prop for his propaganda announcement for his EOs. His hubris is unmatched.

      • checkmate2012

        Major hypocrisy in my book when Holder defied all of these EO’s! Issa, Gowdy, helllo?

        • westcoastpatriette

          Yes, definitely, major. My word “minor” was meant as sarc…:))

  • celador2

    Even one EO no matter how puffy it may appear is a set back. He offers these as part of a package for ongoing gun control and he and Ds would restrict crossing state lines. This very public release was a publicity stunt and shows how effective can be the bully pulpit.

    Janet Napelitano DHS secretary who profiles pro Second and pro life residents as terrorist potential is connected to the oversight of national gun control I read from a headline off Drudge.

  • commonsenseobserver

    “11. Nominate an ATF director.”

    That’s fine. So, about the guns in Mexico…

  • commonsenseobserver

    And, yes, this is all fluff. But it also happens to contain a lot of dangerous stuff. Foremost among them is the belief that he can just circumvent Congress.