Now The President Will Show What He Can Do Without A Congress He Can Work With

by Stuart Shapiro

Presidencies proceed in stages.  All chief executives know that their best opportunity for passing major legislation occurs in their first year or two.  The GOP victories in November only serve to highlight that point.  Now the President will spend the next two years fighting with Congress over the budget and the debt ceiling.  He will also work on implementing his victories from the first two years and using his powers to make up for legislation not passed.  This has already started.  In the category of implementation:

In a move to protect consumers, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would require health insurance companies to disclose and justify any rate increases of 10 percent or more next year.

State or federal officials will review such increases to determine if they are unreasonable, the administration said in proposing a regulation to enforce the requirement.

And in the category of making up for Congressional failure:

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries next year, targeting the nation’s two biggest sources of carbon dioxide.

The House will try to stop many of these measures but the Senate and the presidential veto stand in the way.  Besides the all important budgetary fights, issues like these will dominate the next couple of years.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.