Gene Healy: Congress should 'shellack' president's executive orders

“Stroke of the pen, law of the land — kinda cool” — that’s how Paul Begala described rule by executive order back in 1998, as his boss President Clinton prepared a passel of them, the better to bypass an uncooperative Congress.

After last Tuesday’s “shellacking,” it’s a fair bet President Obama will find rule by decree kinda cool as well. A recent report from the American Prospect argues “President Obama’s own executive power is a key to creating jobs at higher wages,” and he should reshape federal contracting to promote unionization and the “living wage.”