The New York Times has published the first in a series of articles detailing what it sees as a key part of President Barack Obama’s legacy: his massive regulatory agenda.
The Times wrote about Obama’s transformation from “a presidential candidate with deep misgivings about executive power” to “one of the most prolific authors of major regulations in presidential history.”
“Blocked for most of his presidency by Congress, Mr. Obama has sought to act however he could,” NYT reported Saturday. “In the process he created the kind of government neither he nor the Republicans wanted — one that depended on bureaucratic bulldozing rather than legislative transparency.”
“But once Mr. Obama got the taste for it, he pursued his executive power without apology, and in ways that will shape the presidency for decades to come,” NYT reported.
Obama has issued 600 major regulations, with each costing the economy more than $100 million, on issues ranging from minimum wage for federal workers to carbon dioxide emissions on power plants. As the Times notes, Obama’s use of the bureaucracy to write laws has skyrocketed since he learned to use his pen and phone in 2014.
By summer 2015, Obama had imposed 500 major regulations, but in little more than a year, the president has added 100 major rules with more likely on the way, according to an analysis by the right-leaning American Action Forum.
