Get the eraser

We are just days away from having our new President. Donald Trump has threatened or promised to change many things that Obama signed to be done while in office. One of the biggest things he wants to abolish is Obamacare the health care for all citizens. We see all the time video of Presidents signing executive orders with important people standing behind them as they historically even use a different pen for every document they sign. But then a new guy comes along and he could virtually erase anything the previous President fought for and signed. I believe in change but how dramatic a  change does the average citizen that just wants a home and to feed his family has to cope with?

Just recently President signed an order to ban oil exploration in certain areas of the Artic and the Atlantic. Even more important was the way he invoked the rules. He used a 63 year old land use law instead of simply writing an executive law.  That was  good thinking on his part because when Donald Trump takes office on January 20, he can easily put to a stop Obama’s executive orders. How do the rules work? President Obama has issued 266 executive orders so far. George Bush in his reign as President issued 291. Bill Clinton issued 364. In war time Franklyn D. Roosevelt issued a whopping 3,721 executive orders.  One of his orders was to put 122,000 United States citizens or just about anyone who looked Oriental in internment camps out of fear of the Japanese on our shores.

The Iran nuclear deal recently made by Obama was done through executive agreement that got majority approval from the Senate. Re-establishing relations with Cuba was done through a Presidential Policy Directive. All not done with just a signature. However DECA which is the deportation of illegal immigrants was done by an executive order signature that could be erased by Trump. That involves about 962 thousand people in the United States.  In jeopardy could be the Paris Climate Agreement and the order to accept 10.000 Syrian refugees. In jeopardy is an order of Obama’s to require public schools to accept and accommodate trans- gender students.

So, it is sad to realize that the power of the pen is erasable. Some executive orders by new Presidents is to simply get rid of orders put in place by previous Presidents. Obama’s very first executive order 8 years ago was to abolish one put  in place by President Bush that was to limit public access to the records of former Presidents and Vice-Presidents. So day one’s actions by Donald Trump could be more to say about Obama’s legacy than Trumps depending how much of Obama’s wishes he could erase.  Stay tuned, the next four years could take us all for some crazy ride.