fandomhigh | US Government (Friday, January 10, 4th period)

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US Government (Friday, January 10, 4th period)

Josh was staring at a party invitation in confusion when the government class came in.

He shook his head, then focused on them. "Today we continue our discussion of the Executive Branch," he began. "We're going to be focusing on two important aspects of the job as the President: chief executive and commander-in-chief."

"The President is ultimately in charge of all departments and agencies that are charged with executing the laws that Congress passes. Those include the various Departments of, Social Security, Medicare, and the alphabet soup of agencies that normally spring to mind when you think of 'government.' He's the paper-pusher in chief." Josh grinned. "Not to mention in charge of the vast group of people who work directly for the Executive Office--which is what I did until I started teaching you fine people. The EOP --the Executive Office of the President--is where you'll find the National Security Council, the Office of Drug Control Policy, the Trade Representative, and until the DHS was begun, the Office of Homeland Security. These are positions, unlike the folks who are in charge of Cabinet-level departments, that don't require Congressional approval." He raised an eyebrow. "You can see why Congress fought so hard to make homeland security matters something that they would have some kind of say over."

Josh looked down at his notes. "Falling under the powers of the chief executive is also a nifty thing called executive orders, which have the binding force of law over federal departments and agencies without having to go through the Congress. While there's nothing in the Constitution that specifically grants this power, Presidents have been using it since 1789, and I see no sign that it would ever stop.

"Examples of executive orders include President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Harry Truman's order of racial integration of the armed forces, and Dwight Eisenhower's desegregation of public schools." He shuffled his papers. "Other, less fun versions of executive orders include FDR's order that delegated military authority to remove all people--especially Japanese-Americans and German-Americans--to a military zone, which led the way to Japanese-American internment camps."

He looked around. "Executive orders are also used to issue national security directives and occasionally start military engagements--Kosovo in 1999 was an example of that. Though Congress did pass a resolution authorizing that conflict as well, they were very much not happy to have their power of war declaring cut out from under them. This is still an ongoing issue--executive orders, the War Powers Act and the Constitution all have varying things to say about who can declare what and to whom." He made a face. "It's really better not to think too hard about that."

He turned back to his notes. "Anyway. The President is also the commander-in-chief of the entire US military, including the reserves and the National Guard, which he can mobilize whenever. Ask any of the units currently serving around the world. As a practical matter, the President coordinates military matters with his National Security Council, and aren't those just the biggest bunch of pranksters you'll ever meet." Josh paused. "Except for not having any kind of a sense of humor at all."

He made a face. "Okay. As of 2002, only the President of the United States is allowed to refer to himself as the commander-in-chief. The former CINCs--" he pronounced it "sink", "--of the various US military commands are now called combatant commanders. I find this incredibly pretentious, but then again, I find most of what Don Rumsfeld does to be incredibly pretentious."

He sat down. "Today's question: you're the President and just dying to issue an executive order. What do you declare?"

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...

"If I'm this president, I pardon a lot of my administration and declare martial law," Sam muttered under her breath, then said, "but I'd probably raise the minimum wage so people who work forty hours a week doing anything have enough money to afford a place to live, food, and other basic necessities."

Josh was certainly not snickering at what Sam had said. Definitely not. He nodded at her example. "A good thought," he said. "And you might even be able to get away with it. The current standard for legality of an executive order is if you are clarifying or furthering a law put forth by the Congress or the Constitution, rather than creating your own law. We have minimum wage statutes on the books already. They're just a bit on the hopelessly outdated side."

"What's the rationale for allowing the President to do this? Doesn't it undermine the authority of both Congress and the Constitution?"

"It began way back as a way for the President to implement changes in the federal departments and agencies without having to ask Congress. It's kind of snowballed since then. There's really no Constitutional basis for at all other than what's given to the President under his role as chief executive." Josh looked at Sam. "Congress whines about it, but never does anything because they like having the power when their political party is in charge of the White House."

"So, from a practical perspective, what limits the President?"

"The Supreme Court smacking him down," Josh said. "They've done it before, when Truman tried to place the steel workers under federal protection. He can't make new laws--he can only add to or clarify ones already on the books. Ever since that ruling, Presidents have been very careful to list the legal precedent when issuing executive orders. Bush mentioned them in the State of the Union when he was talking about the authorization he had just given to listen in on our conversations."

Sam grimaced. "Okay, then. What about when an Executive Order blatantly violates a constitutional right, even if the law it's been attached to is constitutional? What happens during the time it takes for the case to make it all the way to the Supreme Court? Is the Order in effect or not?"

"Pitchforks and torches?" Josh said. "Public outcry can really do a lot, actually. It's the nice thing about executive orders that aren't cloaked under top-secret classifications. If you've done something and that something is stupid, people are going to tell you it's stupid."

"Declare a national holiday for some underappreciated hero of society."

"Do you have anyone in particular in mind, Clarence?" Josh asked. "Or is this more of a National Garlic Appreciation Month thing for Bob, the garbage collector?"

"Um. Are you asking me?" Sam asked with a confused look on his face.

"Um. Yeah," Josh said, raising an eyebrow. "So, other than me, a truly unappreciated hero of society, who would you choose to honor with this executive order of yours?"

"Albert Einstein," Sam said without thinking. He winced afterwards, realizing that was no where near someone that Marty would choose for recognition.

"Really?" Josh said. "Einstein? Really?"

"Hey, Marty can have depths." He was, after all, a frustrated physics prodigy. "What's wrong with Einstein? We could have the day off to do relativity experiments. It would be fantastic."

Sam grinned at Professor Lyman.

"I'd establish some sort of highly rewarding incentive program to promote the use of renewable resources. This country could be doing a lot with wind and solar power but right now, but other then in a few states, it's just not affordable for or worth the effort of most people."

Josh smiled. "Good idea. Private companies or incentives for government agencies?"

"I should clarify that the incentives I'm talking about are probably more like a subsidy for private citizens. Right now the cost to equip the average home with solar panels is well beyond the means of most homeowners. At a cost of approximately $45000 for parts and labor, it would take twenty years or longer for the system to pay for itself. Most people can't wait that long to earn that money back. If there was some sort of national program to subsidize equipping homes with solar power ~~much like the state of NJ that pays for 70% of the cost of the system~~ I think you'd see more people choosing to invest in alternative energy sources. And with that increased demand I think you'd see some sort of trickle down effect to the companies making the product because they'd all be interested in providing the best product."

Josh nodded. "That would be something to think about. Good idea."

He walked back to his desk and jotted down a note. It was certainly not reminding him to talk to the White House about this kind of a project. Nope.

John, not knowing much about government, ponders for awhile.

"What about declaring that the NSA be disbanded or something? They seem to always be into something shady these days."

Josh blinked. "You could... NSA falls under the direct authority of the President. But they also provide 80 percent of all the reliable intelligence that the United States uses to, you know, survive in the world. So getting rid of them might be a bad idea."

"Ah, okay. Bad idea then." John shakes his head. "Okay, something easier then. How about getting rid of the electoral college? C'mon, the 2000 election, Gore winning but losing? C'mon."

Josh grinned. "Oh, I have a whole lecture planned on the electoral college. But that's a thing in the Constitution--you'd need an amendment to get rid of it."

"Sorry Professor, I'm bad at this," he says, scratching his head. "Okay, how about an executive order for education reform? Something to improve the quality of the schools in all areas and not just the areas in a higher socioeconomic status areas? Kind of like Fair Deal only with education."

Josh nodded. "That we could work on. Eisenhower used an executive order to forcibly desegregate public schools. Your idea would probably work, too."

"Could you issue an executive order declaring a national moritorium on the death penalty?" Angela asked. "Because if I could, I would."

Josh thought about it. "You could try, but I'm pretty sure that would probably have to pass through the Congress--it's a new law rather than a clarification of one currently on the books."

Angela considered this. "Okay. Could I commute the sentences of every current death row inmate, and any others assigned the death penalty in the future? Or would I have to get governors involved on that?"

"If they were assigned the death penalty in a federal court, you can commute the sentence--you wouldn't even need an executive order to do it. The state courts would be up to the governors, though, yeah."

Angela pouted. "So the president can't bring America in line with basically every other civilized nation? That sucks."

"I'm kind of out of ideas."

"It really kind of does," Josh said, nodding. "But it was a good thought anyway."

"See, this is the kind of thing I don't want to have to think about which is why I said I had no interest in being president the other day."

"College subsidies," Elizabeth said immediately. "$40,000 a year for tuition alone? Admissions should be regulated by academic ability, not financial."

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US Government (Friday, January 10, 4th period)

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