The president’s rhetoric leading into Tuesday’s State of the Union had folks believing he would invoke a troubling level of executive power in the year ahead. The speech itself suggested it may be more about his influence — whatever of it he has left.
Obama has declared repeatedly this month that he would stiff-arm Congress in enacting his agenda if he couldn’t strong-arm it. Fail to negotiate and send bills to his desk, he said, and he would take up the task of implementing policies himself. “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he declared two weeks ago in a somewhat infamous comment. It understandably disturbed many conservatives.
But if his strategy was ‘a little less talk, a lot more executive action,’ he’s not exactly going for broke with his decrees.
Labeled “key executive actions” in a White House document and touted as such in his address, the president said he would meet and work with the private sector on multiple policy fronts: a “summit on working families” to highlight best practices in the workplace, a confab of CEOs to discuss the long-term unemployed, a “mobilization” of business and community leaders to expand apprenticeships, and so on.
“As Congress decides what it’s going to do” on early childhood education, he said Tuesday, “I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K that they need.” He’s also going to ask colleges and universities, nonprofits, and businesses to help improve students’ access to higher ed — “building on the success of the President and First Lady’s College Opportunity Summit,” of course. The meetings will continue ’til morale improves.
Not all of the president’s executive proposals came with whale’s teeth, of course. Furthering efforts in the climate fight, he’s going to incentivize trucks that run on alternative fuels and further disincentivize those that don’t. And he awoke Washington Tuesday morning when the White House announced he would increase the minimum wage for new federal contract workers to $10.10 per hour.
But even that measure, the boldest of the executive actions that was outlined, is a provocation as much as it is a policy. The $10.10 figure is the same that’s used under legislation from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) that would raise the federal minimum wage. (“It’s easy to remember, $10.10,” the president said of the number.) The administration was as clear Tuesday morning as the president was Tuesday night that his action is ultimately inadequate — that Congress needs to go all the way with Harkin-Miller, “Say yes, [and] give America a raise” — perhaps reflecting the limitations of his one-man power.
Obama reapplied the pressure on Congress to pass “immigration reform,” but made no pledge to do anything about it with the use of his ink and stationary or phone. He was vague on gun control, offering no specifics: “I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, in our shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.” Save for his mostly mild measures on the nebulous issue of ‘jobs,’ he offered no orders that were obvious head-turners on the big-ticket issues of 2014. He qualified his stated goals by saying that the legislature would still have to do most of the lifting for him.
