I'm ever so tired of hearing Hillary supporters say that Bernie Sanders could not get anything done as President with a Pug Congress. The implication is that Hillary could do ever so much better given the same situation. I cry "bullshit" on that one. There's plenty of evidence that Pugs hate Hillary more than "the Socialist". What Hillary could get done LEGISLATIVELY would be obtained by ceding the Pugs much of what they want (witness NAFTA and the repeal of Glass-Steagle under Bill and the sequester and TPA under Obama). But, I digress.
I've racked my brain thinking of what a sitting President may do without Congressional approval. Below is my list. I think you'll find there's a shitload the President can do.
I want to be clear that I'm not stating that Bernie WILL do all these things, but that he has the authority to do them. I'm also not stating that he won't get any blowback by doing them. He'll get plenty.
Finally, I will try to respond to well-made comments, but will ignore trollish comments.
Things President Bernie Sanders Could Do Without Congressional Approval
1. As Commander-In-Chief, he could bring our troops back home from Afghanistan and the Middle East.
2. As Commander-In-Chief, he could stop all drone strikes.
3. As Commander-In-Chief, he could ensure that the NSA does not get to keep all of the meta-data it has collected on all American citizens. The NSA has actually been shown to have broken the law by doing so. Obama has not followed through on making the NSA follow the law.
4. As head of the Executive Branch, he could direct the Justice Department to investigate the Bush Administration’s use of torture. Of course, Obama refused to do this, and now Bush and his cronies think they’ve made torture legal since they did not get punished for it. Obama’s inaction has further ramifications in muddying the water on what defines treason/sedition. So, Tom Cotton and 46 other Pug Senators think they can tell the Ayatollah not to trust Obama without being accused of Treason/Sedition. Pugs are worse than children. You cannot let them think they won’t be punished for breaking the law, or they’ll ignore that law.
5. As head of the Executive Branch, he could direct the Justice Department to prosecute the bankers who are culpable in the 2008 Financial crisis. The Obama administration, of course, did not use this ability, and basically gave the banks a slap on the wrist with fines which were but a fraction of the banks’ profits.
6. As head of the Executive Branch, he could direct the Justice Department to put police departments having been shown to use excessive force under federal oversight. I believe the Obama Administration placed the Ferguson and Albuquerque Police Departments under this kind of supervision.
7. As President, Bernie could make good on his promise to require any SCOTUS nominee to be whole-heartedly for overturning Citizens’ United.
8. As head of the Executive Branch, he could direct the Justice Department to investigate state voting rights violations in 2016, and file suits under Section 2 of the Civil Voting Rights Act against states like Alabama and North Carolina, whose new voting rules can be proven to disproportionately affect minority voters. If the suits are successful (Section 2 has a much higher bar than Section 5 which was struck down by SC(r)OTU(m)S), the states would be placed under federal supervision for future election laws. I believe the Obama administration has such a suit ongoing for Texas. Bernie could probably file such suits against all Red-controlled states.
9. As head of the Executive Branch, he could designate public lands as national monuments, setting them aside from private development. I’d love to see Bernie do this to the land Cliven Bundy’s using (without paying the government for it)! Just desserts for the racist asshole.
10. As head of the Executive Branch, he can put pressure on the federal regulatory agencies such as the SEC and CFTC to enforcethe Volcker rule, a part of the Dodd-Frank legislation which would prevent banks from using risky loan instruments, like derivatives. Obama applied this sort of pressure to Tom Wheeler, the head of the FCC, to ensure Net Neutrality. Tom Wheeler claimed he was not obligated to do what Obama asked, but he eventually caved. I believe Bernie could do the same with the SEC/CFTC to enforce the Volcker rule.
11. As head of the Executive Branch, he could put pressure on the IRS to tighten up the rules on what organizations can become designated as 501(c)(4). This designation allows the organization to call itself a social welfare organization, accruing tax breaks for donors, while at the same time being able to use the donated money for political ads. Americans For Prosperity (the Koch Brothers organization) made the scary Obamacare ads with this money. The actual language in the law governing 501(c)(4)s actually would have prevented Americans For Prosperity from being so designated because AFP is a political organization, but the IRS changed the language of the rule implementing the law slightly so as to allow AFP in. Not sure why they did that.
12. As head of the Executive Branch, he could pressure the Federal Elections Commission to force Super-PACs to reveal their donors (who are not non-profits; unfortunately, there is a loop-hole allowing non-profits to hide their identity) in a timely manner. See “Super-PACs and Dark Money: ProPublica’s Guide to the New World of Campaign Finance” for a good article.
13. As head of the Executive Branch, he can put pressure on the federal regulatory agencies such as the CFTC to limit speculation on commodities (like oil). The Koch Brothers had been accused of speculating on oil, jacking up the price of gas to over $4/gallon. Of course, Obama did nothing, but that doesn’t mean Bernie couldn’t.
14. As head of the Executive Branch, he can put pressure on federal regulatory agencies to investigate banks’ buying of storage facilities for commodities and sitting on those commodities to increase demand and hence price. Sherrod Brown mentioned that banks had been buying oil super-tankers and driving them around the ocean indefinitely so that the price of oil would be raised artificially. Supposedly we have FDR-era laws to prevent such practices, but those laws are not being enforced.
15. As head of the Executive Branch, he could have the Justice Department investigate the American Legislative Exchange Council to ensure they are following the law in their shenanigans.
16. As head of the Executive Branch, he could investigate corruption within all Federal Regulatory Agencies. He would stop this crap about Oil regulators literally sleeping with Oil Company executives, which happened on W’s watch.
17. As head of the Executive Branch, he could have the Justice Department investigate fantasy-scandal factories like Red State, Breitbart, the Heartland Institute, and even Fox News. And, make them more accountable for the Truth in their “news”.
18. Using the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, he could break up the big banks. Once the legislation was passed, Teddy Roosevelt busted all the trusts. He did not need Congressional approval for each application of the law. Believe it or not, Nixon was the last President to use this law to bust up Ma Bell. Carter finished the job. Personally, I think Bernie ought to break up the oligopolies in every sector of our economy. Of course, Pugs in Congress would howl and do everything they could to oust him from office. But, if the Senate were in Dem hands, Pugs would have a tough row to hoe.
19. As head of the Executive Branch he may direct the EPA to place much stricter standards on how much carbon is put into the air. The Obama administration placed mild carbon restrictions and SC(r)OTU(m)S ruled that the EPA has that authority under the Clean Air Act. I would think Bernie could ban fracking under the same premise.
20. As head of the Executive Branch, he may direct the Justice Department to investigate shady deals between State Government and polluting Energy companies. NC made a sweetheart deal with Duke Energy when it dumped coal-ash in the Dan River. I believe NC’s Governor McCrory is under investigation currently because he was previously a big wheel with Duke Energy. Can you say “conflict of interest”. I’m sure every Red State Governor is as guilty of the same type of sweetheart deals with polluters as McCrory is. I read that “Jeb!” allowed a donor to run his dirty (polluting) operation near the Everglades.
21. As head of the Executive Branch, he could put pressure on the agencies which regulate mergers to stop the consolidation of companies into oligopolies.
22. Bernie could certainly use as much creativity as Obama has done to issue Executive Orders of all sorts. When you consider that “The Emancipation Proclamation” was an Executive Order, that’s a fairly broad authority. Of course, Pugs will try to tie many of these up in court with their “bought and paid for” judges (as they did with Obama’s EO on the parents of Dreamers), but Bernie could keep them very busy just trying to stop his EO’s.
23. Veto every Pug policy which manages to get through the Senate. Hopefully, Dems can win back the Senate so that this won’t be necessary.
24. And then, there’s the bully pulpit. Obama hasn’t used it to get the American people behind his policies. I know that Bernie would. And, he’d use it to explain his policies and to defend himself against Pug fantasy-scandals. I can see Bernie re-instituting FDR’s fire-side chats to talk directly to the American People. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he bypassed the MSM and used Free-Speech TV and Social media to do it. We might just get the political revolution Bernie is promoting.
25. Most of the above he can do without Congressional approval. He can be more daring about the above if Dems take the Senate. Finally, if Dems take the House in Bernie’s second term, the sky’s the limit. TR and FDR greatly expanded the powers of the Executive Branch because they had Congress on their side. Of course, FDR even tried packing SCOTUS, but could not get away with that. W greatly expanded the Executive Branch with a friendly Congress. Of course, Progressives see his expansions as illegal; but, he has yet to be punished for them, so it’s almost like they were legal. But, there’s no reason Bernie, with a Dem Congress, can’t do the same.