MY COMMENTARY:
After reading this article, it makes me think this year will be worse than we expected! Sounds like they are going to cram in as much executive actions as possible and make them so that Congress can't overturn them. Can anyone say "dictator"? So, Obama is going to get what he wants even if the people and Congress doesn't like it. He says, 'why not". Exactly, what does he have to loose? He's making those executive actions so they can't be undone and he's not up for reelection so, yea, why the heck not! No skin off his nose since what he's passing doesn't pertain to him or his. He is going to pass the gun control even if the people don't want it. Sure, right now it's only the automatic weapons, but I bet you he will have it worded so later the rest of the guns can go also! He's a snake, and they slither. We can be sure this year will be very interesting!!
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White House chief of staff Denis McDonough pushed back against the notion his president is played out in the wake of his last State of the Union address, promising “audacious executive action” in Barack Obama’s final year in office.
During a breakfast with reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, McDonough responded to the observation that the president’s final speech before Congress lacked the usual pledge to “go it alone” if lawmakers failed to act. Coupled with the feeble executive actions on gun control announced earlier this month, had President Obama rethought the utility of acting unilaterally on issues important to the White House?
“We’ll do audacious executive action over the course of the rest of the year, I’m confident of that,” said McDonough, explaining that President Obama’s decision not to outline specific executive actions was more about a commitment to process than a lack of willpower.
“Process is your friend, but process also dictates what you can do,” McDonough said. “And we do want to make sure that the executive actions we undertake are not left hanging out there, subject to Congress undoing them.”
In addition to gun control, the White House has expressed interest in further unilateral actions on immigration reform, and in working around Congress to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay. But McDonough said the White House is considering executive action on any and all issues, and that the main question President Obama plans to ask himself is “Why not?”
“And so that’s the spirit through which we’ll approach this last year,” McDonough said.