President George W. Bush walks with President-elect Barack Obama as he arrives for a visit at the White House on Monday. Obama is expected to sign executive orders on stem cell research, emisions, and international family planning. (Jim Young/Reuters)
From stem cells to emissions, Obama set to reverse Bush policies
The president-elect will issue many executive orders soon after taking office. Experts say he’ll reward traditional party constituencies but tread lightly when it comes to national security.
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer/ November 11, 2008 edition
Reporter Linda Feldmann discusses the Bush administration policies most likely to be reversed by Obama.
Washington
In some ways, a president is never more powerful than when he first takes office. He’s just won election, the voters have given him a mandate. And on some issues, when he sits down at that big desk in the Oval Office, all he has to do is wave a magic wand – otherwise known as a pen – to change government policies. No congressional approval is required (at least when money is not involved.)
The flurry of executive orders that President-elect Barack Obama is expected to sign soon after inauguration follows in the modern tradition of American presidents. When partisan control of the White House changes, so does the government’s approach to a range of policies. During the campaign, Mr. Obama signaled areas where he plans immediate changes:
•Stem-cell research. Obama has promised to reverse restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research put in place during President George W. Bush’s first year in office. Mr. Bush’s position sought to satisfy religious conservatives, who objected to open-ended use of stem cells taken from human embryos for research on diseases. Obama is responding to the concerns of scientists who say the existing stem-cell lines are inadequate.
•International family planning. Obama intends to lift the so-called “gag rule” that bans international family-planning groups that receive US funds from discussing abortion as an option. This rule was introduced by President Reagan (then known as the Mexico City policy), and with each subsequent change of partisan control in the White House, the rule has gone – and come back.
•Carbon-dioxide emissions. Obama has said he will reverse the Bush administration’s decision to block California from regulating greenhouse gases from vehicles. Under the Clean Air Act, California had sought to make air-quality standards more aggressive than national regulations, but Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency said it preferred a national approach, not state-by-state. Seventeen states are set to follow California’s lead.
“One of the things he’ll be doing is trying to reward key partisan constituencies,” says Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “Stem cell does that, [as does] international abortion policy.”
One area that will be trickier is national security, in which Bush issued orders aimed at fighting the war on terror post-9/11. In theory, there’s a danger that Obama overreaches, moving too far, too fast. But legal experts expect him to move cautiously in this sensitive area.
“Those are extremely delicate, and I’m certain he’ll be very careful with those and not do something peremptory or off the cuff,” says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
So far, advisers to Obama’s transition team have reportedly compiled a list of 200 executive orders or administrative actions the new president can carry out soon after taking office.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues to promulgate new regulations and orders, meaning Obama’s list could get longer.
But not every Bush administration action Obama objects to can be reversed easily. This past Sunday, on Fox News, Obama transition co-chair John Podesta mentioned the impending sale of leases for land owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management in Utah. Once those leases are sold, it will be hard to reverse.
The land in question, about 360,000 acres, some of which is located near national parks, would be open for oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials say the drilling would not be environmentally harmful. But Podesta disagrees. “I think that’s a mistake,” he said on Fox.
Podesta said Obama has yet to make final decisions in the areas where he would change course.
“But I would say that as a candidate, Senator Obama said that he wanted all the Bush executive orders reviewed, and will decide which ones should be kept, and which ones should be repealed, and which ones should be amended,” Podesta said on Fox.
Long before Obama’s election, interest groups have been working up policy wish lists of what they would like to see an Obama administration undertake.
“We have a long laundry list of things,” says Cathy Duvall, national political director of the Sierra Club.
But she mentions two items her organization would like prioritized: regulation of CO2 as a pollutant and granting California its waiver on vehicle emissions.
Comments
2. Patsfan5555 | 11.11.08
It is disappointing that Obama’s very first actions as president will be to encourage the destruction of innocent human life by using taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem cell research and abortion overseas.
3. Michael Hurst | 11.11.08
First restore the Constitution to pre Bush days. Next hold Bush accountable and all of the benefactors of his corruption accountable as well.
In most of our nation when a drug dealer is found guilty their assets are seized and sold at auction. The same should apply to all of the organizations that are War Profiteers, Haliburton for instance. Wall Street corporations and greedy bankers and others of their ilk should also have all that they have gained taken from them as well. Lawyers and Lobbyists that funneled our money into their corporate pockets should see the the inside of our prisons for a long time.
For too long we have put in prison the individuals at the bottom of the financial spectrum and rewarded the gross criminals at the top of the money pile.
If I break a law, justice is only too swift, if the rich do the same crime they aren’t even charged.
I hope that our new president can make justice prevail in our nation, in a manner that is more level headed than I am. I am angry and very tired of being cheated and abused by a government of liars.
The way the French got rid of their aristocracy works for me, but perhaps I’m a bit too extreme.
4. Jonathan wiens | 11.12.08
This must have bin a odd meeting, Obama has just got done running a campaign with one of the main points being Bush has done a horrible job as president; now they are meeting to discuses turning over power.
5. dib (D.I.Benton), Fitchburg, MA | 11.12.08
I’m sure Mr. Bush believes he must do ‘good’ while he still has the power, so I’ll not criticize; but land sales seem important enough to bring up between the two men before any irreversable action is taken.
dib
6. Erin Stidham | 11.12.08
I CANNOT BELIEVE AMERICA VOTED HIM IN! A man who is thinks it is OK to produce HUMAN BABIES for research?!?! To use as LAB RATS?!?! Does he think that the possibility of saving another humans life will make it ok to take the life of an INNOCENT BABY who had NO WAY of defending itself? And that it is OK to have an abortion? HAS HE SEEN HOW ABORTIONS ARE PREFORMED?!?!? He is SICK and I have NO IDEA how he can quote the Bible and make ppl think he is a Christian when he believes this way. *God help us*
7. Mary Rene | 11.12.08
Let’s mandate all-electric cars in the next 4 years, as well as 100% tax deductions or credits on household solar and wind power.
Make oil and gasoline obsolete– yesterday’s buggy-whip!!!
8. Robert G. Clark | 11.13.08
The executive orders I am reading above I do not question. I live in CA so well understand the emission matter. But I do need more clarification on the abortion matter. I do understand abortion if it means loss of life to the mother, but I do not understand abortion if it is to end a pregnancy due to other than medical reasons. A couple should consent to a possible pregnancy before intimacy takes place and put the child up for adoption, not an end to its life.
Bob C.
9. Mark Findler | 11.13.08
Great!!! I am happy to see the the disgusting dirty that little man bush has espoused for many long long years is gonna get cleaned.
Little man bush and cheney are selfish disgusting men who should be jailed.
10. Deidre | 01.18.09
I totally agree that there needs to be change to vehicles. But does anyone realize that so many in the car industry are suffering big time because of this economy? To go and make major changes now won’t help. Our economy can not afford major changes like this right now.
As for stem cell research. Obama is insane. Producing babies for research? PETA would freak if we were talking about dogs, but babies are ok? WHAT?
Abortion…If someone is going to go and do it, whatever. But I do NOT want to be paying for it. Let them pay for their stupid choices. And a child can get an abortion without their parents knowing? Is the man on crack? Other surgeries have to be signed by a parent but not abortion? Give me a BREAK!
11. Catherine | 01.19.09
Please, find out what stem cell research actually entails before running your mouths about how it means to “use babies as lab rats”. You’re embarrassing yourselves. Stem cell research doesn’t COST lives; it does, however, have the potential to SAVE thousands of lives. Time to start living in the year 2009.
12. Bobbi | 01.22.09
I totally agree!! Maybe I’m biased because I am one of the millions stem cell research will save. Abortion will never be banned. Face it. And if it ever is, and only then, should anyone say that stem cell research is immoral. Think about how many developing fetus’ are tossed away for selfish reasons versus how many lives would be saved from embryos. If you ask me, Bush is a hypocrite for denying funding for the research while turning his head on abortion.
13. Lulz Factory | 01.24.09
The whole idea of “sacrificing human life” isn’t so true. If i recall correctly you can get stem cells from afterbirth and the placenta. But I’m not a woman. With the abortion reforms I’m sure it’s not a big deal. I’m all for crack heads getting abortions. If you want children to suffer and end up growing in poor homes, good for you. If abortion is illegal, in steps back alley abortions. I can’t influence anyone. I’m not here to argue, just throw my opinion in the ring.
As for the Emissions regulation… Obama doesn’t have much room to talk about emissions and fuel efficiency after owning a Chrysler 300C. that 5.7L Hemi sure is fuel efficient. California’s just too strict on their emissions I think.
14. Paul | 01.24.09
Obama is far too sensible to fall for christianity or it’s related cons. The joy billions now feel at watching god get shelved for at least four years is almost palpable. It is only due to Bush that so many now reject the corrupt and human rights abusing christian approach, so CAPS LOCK up there might like to consider just why a once powerful nation is now a living example of what not to do.
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1. Cathy Ogrodnik | 11.11.08
It’s about time someone with an ounce of sense and few ounces less of power hungriness is in charge of the most powerful nation in the world. New broom sweeps clean.