The Assumed Powers of Any U.S. President: What Are We to Do?

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post

Recently this writer came across a YouTube which discusses some unimaginable circumstances and actions that the voiceover claims are little-known, but apparently imminent in the United States. The actions as discussed, unfortunately, result from Presidential Executive Orders (PEOs), which were designed to and supposedly will take away: our rights as citizens, our cars, food and farms, healthcare and welfare services, and relocate us to relocation centers at the federal government’s whim plus, there are PEOs that give FEMA control and powers Congress cannot do anything about for at least six months and which affect supposedly free persons in the United States of America.

In that YouTube, the PEOs that are of concern to the voice-over are listed below. In checking out which president of the U.S. issued them, I find that President John F Kennedy issued most. One has to wonder why such extreme dictatorial measures were self-assumed and consequently placed into what may become future presidents’ armamentaria for despotism and one-man rule. No president seems exempt from being capable to proclaim and implement dictatorial powers or invoke those as granted by former presidents in preceding PEOs, or those issued in the future.

PEO No.               Established Power(s) for

JFK 10990 Reestablishing the Federal Safety Council

JFK 10995 Assigning telecommunications management functions

JFK 10997 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of the Interior

JFK 10998 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Agriculture

JFK 10999 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Commerce

JFK 11000 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Labor

JFK 11001 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

JFK 11002 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Postmaster General

JFK 11003 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency

JFK 11004 Assigning certain emergency preparedness functions to the Housing and Home Finance Administrator

JFK 11005 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Interstate Commerce Commission

JFK 11049 Providing for the carrying out of the Public Works Acceleration Act

JFK 11051 Prescribing responsibilities of the Office of Emergency Planning in the Executive Office of the President [1]

LBJ 11310 Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Attorney General [2]

GRF 11921 Adjusting Emergency Preparedness Assignments to Organizational and Functional Changes in Federal Departments and Agencies [3]

Even though PEO titles sound unassuming or benign, reading the actual documents tells somewhat different stories.

In a constitutional republic, which the USA is supposed to be, how is it possible that any president can assume one-man rule, or basically become a dictator, whenever he decides he wants to without having to get approval from Congress? Does that work the same as going to war without Congressional approval? Remember, the U.S. has a “checks and balances” and separation of the powers form of governance. And, the U.S. Supreme Court cannot stop him, either. How come? Well, once PEOs are published in the Federal Register, they become the ultimate irrevocable law of the land and sitting president to use at his or her discretion or whim. That’s the imperial quality of PEOs which, by the way, are not granted per se in the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence should be a clue as to why PEOs are not granted.

The Founding Fathers were greatly averse to kingly rule and dictates, and definitely did not – and would not – empower any chief executive with powers of kingship. PEOs are ‘assumed’ powers by presidents that should not have been allowed to prosper as long as they have, in this writer’s opinion. The only president who issued no PEOs was William Henry Harrison [4]. The president who issued the most PEOs was Franklin D Roosevelt – a whopping 3,522! [4]

While watching the YouTube under discussion, one ought to be concerned about something that is not even taken into consideration. It is the PEOs of Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th president of the USA. Apparently, whenever Mr. Obama has not been able to get his way with Congress, he’s able to get what he wants by issuing a PEO, or so it seems to many political analysts.

One PEO that readers may find interesting is No. 13641: Adjustment of Certain Rates of Pay wherein pay/salary raises were given to various government employees. Take a look at this:

SCHEDULE 6–VICE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS [6]
(Effective on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2013)

Vice President……………………………………………………………………………………..$240,000

Senators …………………………………………………………………………………………..$174,000

Members of the House of Representatives……………………………………………………..$174,000

Delegates to the House of Representatives……………………………………………………$174,000

Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico……………………………………………………..$174,000

President pro tempore of the Senate……………………………………………………………$193,400

Majority leader and minority leader of the Senate……………………………………………..$193,400

Majority leader and minority leader of the House of Representatives………………..$193,400

Speaker of the House of Representatives………….……………………………………………..$223,500

Do readers think we are getting our money’s worth from the above? What will the 114th Congress pay rates amount to? Perhaps “sequester spending cuts” [7] should also apply to Congress and elected officials who take perks for granted.

President Obama has issued PEOs numbered 13489 (1/21/09) regarding “Presidential Records” through 13654 (11/21/13) “Establishing an Emergency Board to Investigate Disputes Between the Long Island Rail Road Company and Certain of Its Employees Represented by Labor Organizations.” [8] All need to be studied in depth, in this writer’s opinion.

Personally, this writer considers PEOs undemocratic, draconian, and dangerous, especially when invoked POE powers assumed by a president cannot be challenged by Congress, the Supreme Court, or the electorate, i.e., we, the voters. Consequently, there would be too much power assumed and taken by a president, who easily could morph into a King George III [monarch from 1760 to 1820]; perhaps a Stalin; or even a Frankenstein, if he so desires. What can we do about that, especially if there’s a do-nothing, seemingly lame Congress regarding impeachment, or a ‘snow job’ like we got with the passage of the Affordable Care Act when apparently no one in Congress read the bill before voting it into saddling healthcare consumers with inordinate inequities that people who had health insurance did not experience before, no matter how bad the healthcare system was perceived!

Perhaps the only remedy available is what this writer calls a bifurcated option, which unknowingly is held by the voters, i.e., 1) the ballot box vote, and/or 2) impeachment for members of Congress and/or a president, unless those options become suspended or taken away by a PEO. It can get quite scary, can’t it? However, in order to exercise the bifurcated option, voters need to become very well versed in government and civics, plus not cave to party line politics or media spin. Since 90% of media outlets in the U.S. basically are controlled by six corporations: GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time-Warner, and CBS [9], voters need to seek out reliable sources such as the alternate media on the Internet, which the controllers really want to discourage any way they can.

Perhaps, as a New Year’s resolution, citizens ought to resolve to become more involved in how government works; learn what really is going on in federal and individual’s respective state governments and agencies; find resources to tap into to help understand and delineate the issues; and keep a level head as to what we want for the USA. Who knows what manufactured crises 2014 will bring, especially since we have midterm elections coming in November.

We cannot afford another round of what we had with the 113th Congress. Maybe it was just an unlucky number, but I don’t think so. In this writer’s opinion, the next couple of years leading up to 2016 are crucial as how we will fare as a nation. It’s crunch time! As Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel opined, will we allow the USA to become “Like the Stasi”? Didn’t Merkel liken the NSA to the infamous German security service? [10] Chancellor Merkel ought to know; she lived under such a real-life regime.

For this writer it’s Stasi NO; U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights YES! What is your choice?

Notes: 

[1] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:John_F._Kennedy/Executive_orders
[2] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Lyndon_B._Johnson/Executive_orders
[3] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Gerald_Ford/Executive_orders
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_executive_orders
[5] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Portal:Executive_Orders
[6] http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-04-11/pdf/2013-08626.pdf
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_sequestration_in_2013
[8] http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/obama.html
[9] http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
[10] http://rt.com/news/merkel-calls-nsa-stasi-408/

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).