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What's the deal with Executive Orders? · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant's warming up,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: getting ready to uh carry this jam out to its conclusion.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I was literally stretching. I know, it's as if you know, well,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I was telling everyone else, not you. Oh yeah, people
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: out there in podcast land. Yeah, who. I was just
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: speaking to you. How is everybody great? Need to get
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: used to this. It's been a while, it has been,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: but it feels good to be back in the saddle. Yeah.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: My saddle still smells like me gross. Yeah, it's pretty gross,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: like leather and geez. Yeah, but I found it has
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: staying power. Um to you? Doing good? Yes, In the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: last like six months, nothing big changed. Two weeks. It's
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: been longer than that, Hasn't it a little vacation? Yeah?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We don't need talking about that though. It was great
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: fun California all the way way to go California, California.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Isn't that Board to Death's bands song? I don't know.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Jason Schwartzman, Oh yeah, sure, Yeah, was it Coconut Records. Yeah,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: he's had a couple of bands. I didn't recognize it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: when you called it Board to Death. Well, it's his
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  Speaker 1: new name. That's Board Death with the haircut. All right,
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  Speaker 1: we should get going here, Chuck. Yes, did you know
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  Speaker 1: that President Barack Obama is planning to take over virtually
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  Speaker 1: the entire U S economy and infrastructure? Uh? No, I
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  Speaker 1: did not know that. Yeah, well, or you Jim Powell
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  Speaker 1: Kato Senior Fellow and author of the book FDRs Folly
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Wilson's War, Bully Boy, The Triumph of Liberty. Well, those
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: are other books. Those are books, not just the book. Um,
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  Speaker 1: you would have known this already because Jim Powell sent
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  Speaker 1: out the alert via the Cato Institute and Force Magazine.
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  Speaker 1: I think that Barack Obama had created this plan a
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  Speaker 1: temp page blueprint of for season control um of the
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  Speaker 1: economy of things like water, usable water, civil transportation, all
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  Speaker 1: forms of energy, all commodities and products, health resources like drugs,
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  Speaker 1: biological products, etcetera. Um under the auspices says there's an
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  Speaker 1: extra is in there of Executive Order one three six
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  Speaker 1: zero three? Is that that we can't wait thing? It's
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  Speaker 1: part of it, um, And and now that you bring
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  Speaker 1: it up, that we can't wait thing is basically this
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  Speaker 1: idea that um Obama is saying, I can't deal with
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  Speaker 1: you Congress any longer, so I'm just gonna start issuing
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: proclamations like that. So I get the impression from Jim
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  Speaker 1: Powell that he he is against executive orders. In Jim rule,
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  Speaker 1: I can't say that that's necessarily the case, because he
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  Speaker 1: could be a conservative pundit, and if he is, he
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  Speaker 1: may just be against Obama's executive orders. One of the
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  Speaker 1: keys to executive orders is that you're cool with them
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  Speaker 1: if you're guys in the White House. But the moment
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  Speaker 1: another guys in the White House and starts issuing them, Oh,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: like this guy is falling and like Nazism is rising again,
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  Speaker 1: and it's just bad, you know. But it is true.
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  Speaker 1: Obama did issue this very sweeping proclamation. Now this isn't
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  Speaker 1: just on a Tuesday. It's supposedly a preparedness plans called
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  Speaker 1: the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order. UM, so there's
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  Speaker 1: an emergency that has to trigger this, and it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: even necessarily it won't be triggered. But the point is
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  Speaker 1: Obama can issue a proclamation proclamation like that, and as
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  Speaker 1: it stands right now, it is law because it's an
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  Speaker 1: executive order, and we're about to talk about those. So
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  Speaker 1: this whole mystery, this whole mystery intro is going to
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  Speaker 1: be explained in the next stroke of the pen. Law
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of the land. Kind of cool. Paul Paul Bagala said
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  Speaker 1: that he was a Clinton advisor. He was, and that
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  Speaker 1: pretty much sums up what the in a broad stroke,
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  Speaker 1: what an executive order is. Um, it's a directive. Marriam
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  Speaker 1: Webster defines it. It's not true. Whoever wrote this article
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  Speaker 1: defines it as a directive hand fresh too? Man? Oh
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  Speaker 1: is it? It's pretty nice he's citing stuff from like March.
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  Speaker 1: It is fresh. Yeah. Uh, directive handed down directly from
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  Speaker 1: a president or governor because it's gonna have on the
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  Speaker 1: state level without input from the legislative or judicial branches.
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  Speaker 1: And that's basically it. It's like, I'm the president and
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  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I want to sign something into law
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  Speaker 1: and not ask anybody else, right, And usually the reason
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  Speaker 1: why is because either there's an emergency and Congress is
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  Speaker 1: stay out of not in session, yeah, um, or Congress
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  Speaker 1: would not necessarily agree with it yea, or or just
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  Speaker 1: is taking an action period. But that's where we get
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  Speaker 1: to the ticklish part about executive orders is there is
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  Speaker 1: a very clear flow of responsibility and in the federal government,
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  Speaker 1: Congress is elected to make the laws and the executive
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  Speaker 1: branch is there to carry out the laws. That's right
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  Speaker 1: with an executive order, the executive branch is making the law. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and the presidents do this um even though the Constitution
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  Speaker 1: doesn't say you can. Well, yeah, but they sort of
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  Speaker 1: like hide behind the constitution under the following statements from
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  Speaker 1: Article to executive power shall be vested in the President
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  Speaker 1: of the United States. Okay, so they're saying like, hey, dude,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you can't seeing the constitution, I got power. I don't
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: have power. He or she he's getting on when you're
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, this could be the future. The
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  Speaker 1: president shall be commander in chief of the Army and
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  Speaker 1: Navy the United States. He or she could say, well,
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  Speaker 1: how am I supposed to do anything? Commander in chief
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  Speaker 1: Army maybe, but can't even sign a law? Right? Well. Plus,
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  Speaker 1: also you use that um because they use executive orders
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  Speaker 1: to direct the movements of the military sometimes. Yeah, well,
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  Speaker 1: times of awards when it's heavily used. Uh. And then
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  Speaker 1: finally he should take care uh that the laws be
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  Speaker 1: faithfully executed. Obviously that should be here. She well, it
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  Speaker 1: is under our ideas of Yeah, but we didn't write
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  Speaker 1: a constitution. No, we wrote a constitution. Somebody needs to
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  Speaker 1: get in just doing those little arrows and should do that. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So that's pretty much the long and short of it,
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  Speaker 1: and that's why it's allowed to go on since George Washington,
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  Speaker 1: since Numero uno, every single president. That's the thing with
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  Speaker 1: executive orders. You don't like executive orders, just wait because
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  Speaker 1: eventually a president that you like is going to start
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  Speaker 1: issuing him. Every single president that we've ever had has
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  Speaker 1: issued executive orders. I think George Washington's um, I think
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  Speaker 1: he issued eight total. So it started out slow. Now
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  Speaker 1: we're up, like President's issued the thousands. FDR who had
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  Speaker 1: the you know, the three term presidency, he issued like
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  Speaker 1: three thousands, something like thirty. That's a lot. But every
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  Speaker 1: single president has issued them. Yeah, I guess in Washington's case,
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  Speaker 1: if we want to go over a little history here, uh,
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  Speaker 1: in April seventeen ninety three, almost in nineteen seventy three,
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  Speaker 1: that would have been a pretty hip George Washington. That
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: would have been Nixon, Yeah, which was a very hip. Well,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: everybody referred to Nixon as like the direct heir of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: George Washington. He was probably he's they two were tied
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  Speaker 1: for first as our greatest president. Nixon says that at
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  Speaker 1: least um he uh, yeah, he instructed officers sedtal officers
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  Speaker 1: to prosecute anyone getting in the way of the war
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  Speaker 1: with France. He's like, you can't do that if you're
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  Speaker 1: getting in the way. Congress is out of session. Let
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  Speaker 1: me just go ahead and make this a lot that. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that was the war between England and Frances. Do not
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: get involved with US and France. Well, just the war
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  Speaker 1: with France. But yeah, it was between England and France,
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  Speaker 1: and like, you know, hey, the America is not getting involved,
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  Speaker 1: and if you do, go to jail, it's on your head. Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And then Lincoln followed, um, Congress is out of session again.
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  Speaker 1: So it sounds like it began early on in a
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  Speaker 1: more like legitimate form. Yeah. It was also a time
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  Speaker 1: where like Congress got to the job by behind a horse,
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  Speaker 1: so things took time. Congress isn't here yet, right exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Congress is on the way. But there's a big problem,
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  Speaker 1: so you know. And in Lincoln's case, one of his
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  Speaker 1: problems was on the eve of the Civil War, Um,
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  Speaker 1: these militias were getting out of control. One of them
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  Speaker 1: was run by a guy named John Merriman, and he said,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you know what blocked that guy up? Well, he's dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: Right here. They were state militia's, well, militias that were
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: supposedly like, well, we're from the Carolina, so were the
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  Speaker 1: Carolina militia. But really they were militias. Um. Generally, the
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  Speaker 1: Confederate militias were attacking federal troops and Merriman was like
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  Speaker 1: probably the biggest revel leader at the time, so he
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  Speaker 1: locked him up. And Merriman's lawyers were like, hey, dude,
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  Speaker 1: have you ever heard of habeas corpus? And like he goes,
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  Speaker 1: you know what, that's sticky. How can I get around that?
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm suspending John Merriman's right to habeas corpus.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm Abraham Lincoln. If you haven't noticed, check out
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the Beard. I'm a vampire hunter. I'm Daniel de Lewis.
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  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see that movie. Ah me too. Um,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: it was funny. The preview came on the other night
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and Emily thought it was the Daniel de Lewis Spielberg project,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: and then it started breaking out into vampire stuff. She's like,
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  Speaker 1: what is going on? A really strange turn? Um, which
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  Speaker 1: is the idea? I think? So he suspended Habeas corpus.
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  Speaker 1: Um explained it to Congress and they said, you know what,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that's probably a pretty good idea in certain cases, so
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: let's pass the Habeas Corpus Act to allow you to
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  Speaker 1: do this. Yeah, which is a big deal. And didn't it.
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  Speaker 1: It took years and years before anybody ever went back
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  Speaker 1: and repealed it, right, I don't know. It seemed like
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  Speaker 1: it was a while. We talked about it before in
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  Speaker 1: Corpus podcast. Yeah, I can't remember which one it was.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe pardons presidential pardons that actually, so that was not
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  Speaker 1: the first executive order, but that is executive order one. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: In the nineteen hundreds, the State Department started numbering them
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  Speaker 1: retroactively and they went back to Lincoln's Habeas corpus and
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if they knew it was the first one,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know, But then I think and then the
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  Speaker 1: sixties nineteen sixty two, these things started being published in
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  Speaker 1: the Federal Register, the Daily Publication of New Laws, and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: you know office goings on um around Washington, and uh
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: now it's like once it's published in the Federal Register,
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  Speaker 1: its law, and they're numbered. Teddy Roosevelt, he was big
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  Speaker 1: on him. He was the first one that really kind
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  Speaker 1: of went haywire. He was the first one to crack
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  Speaker 1: a thousand. That's right. Those Roosevelt love big government. They
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: weren't related, though, were they They were like eight cousins. Oh,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I don't think I knew that. Wow, look at you
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: teaching me presidential history. It's like my my forte Is
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  Speaker 1: it okay? Because it's certainly not mine? Uh So, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt was pretty He wielded a heavy stick. Um,
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  Speaker 1: and then f DR just went berserker in World War
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  Speaker 1: one and two. Teddy spoke softly but carried a big stick.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah that's the term. Or was the FDR that said that.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't mean we did a big heavy stick? Was
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the term? I was just saying. I was making a
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: play on that. No, I know, okay, but I can't
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  Speaker 1: remember if it was Teddy or FDR that said that.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I think it was Teddy. Okay, yeah, walk tall and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: carry big sticks. You're thinking of Joe Don Baker. Alright,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: moving on, Yeah, where are we now? We are in
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  Speaker 1: World War One and World War Two? When Congress said,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: you know what, it's okay f DR because there's a
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: lot going on. Well not just that between world from
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  Speaker 1: World War One the depression in World War two, it
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: was like it was Boogie fever on on executive orders. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he had no idea. On his first day in office,
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  Speaker 1: he closed the banks for four days. Yeah, which is
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  Speaker 1: actually pretty cool considering that he platformed on this New
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  Speaker 1: Deal and the first thing he did was issue an
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  Speaker 1: executive orders starting the new Deal. It's like hitting the
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  Speaker 1: ground running for three terms. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, hats
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  Speaker 1: off to him. Agree. So that was the first of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: thirty two. You said, And the reason why FDR was
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  Speaker 1: able to issue so many are well, there's several reasons. Um,
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  Speaker 1: he was popular, he had a lot of crises to
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: deal with, and um, well that's pretty much it. So
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  Speaker 1: he he was definitely a believer in centralized power. But
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  Speaker 1: again that kind of flies in the face of the
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  Speaker 1: division of power in federal government as sketched out by
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the constitution, right. Um, So not all executive orders are happy,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: happily received, or even grudgingly received. Some are just outright rejected.
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  Speaker 1: And some presidents weren't as popular, which might have had
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a little something to do with that exactly. So you've
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  Speaker 1: got Roosevelt seting this president thirty five fifty two executive orders.
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  Speaker 1: You know they stand. He was doing things like season
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: control of minds of industries. Um. He's set up like
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: cartels for um, everything from like garment industries to the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: theater industry. He he created the Works Projects Administration, which
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: is like we have murals around the country and a
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: bunch of orchestras and a lot of parks and everything
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: because he'd put people to work in the depression through
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: government spending. Right. Interesting like straight up Kanzie and economics. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But he did all of this through executive orders. I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: wonder if the National Parks stuff was executive orders from
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  Speaker 1: my Teddy. I don't wonder too. I bet that went
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: through Congress maybe, so. I don't think Teddy liked talking
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to Congress. He just liked that big stick. But the
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  Speaker 1: point is Roosevelt, the second FDR, set this huge precedent
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: that made it look like, okay, well, presidents have a
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: lot more power. Apparently America is cool with this. So
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Harry Truman comes along and finds out the hard way
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that that's not necessarily the case. Yeah. Um. He sort
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of pulled a similar move to FDR as far as
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: wanting to take control of the steel industry. Um. During
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: the Korean War, they they regulated the price of steel
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and fixed it at a I guess a cheap rate
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to help out, you know, Uncle Sam, Donald Douglas and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: mcdhal douglas. And then that was great, except for the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: workers all of a sudden weren't getting paid like they
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: normally do because we're gonna go and strike exactly. And
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Truman was like, hey, we're in the middle of a war.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: And they said, we don't care. And he goes, oh, yeah, well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: let me send in some ringers to see what happens.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: That's right. And they said, you know what, Ah, talk
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: to these guys the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, maybe
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you can strike up a bargain. And they went, screw
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you guys. And he said, all right, we'll talk to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: these guys, the Federal Wage Stabilization Board, and they went,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: screw you guys, and he went, well, if you're gonna
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: go and strike, why don't I just seise control of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: your factories on the night before. Here's the thing, though,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: there's a provision in UM and I guess federal law
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: called the Taft Hartley Act UM, that says, if there's
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a big strike that's going to affect like national security,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: there's like the nation has interests in a strike not happening.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: The UM, the President and or Congress can call I
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: think maybe just the president can call upon the Taft
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Hartley Act that and invoke the sixty day cooling off
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: period where it's like, no, you have to go to work,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: you have to you guys have to go back to
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the table for sixty days, right and figure this out,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: or give us sixty days to figure get our ducks
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: in a row. He didn't do that. He just sees control.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And that being all, combined with the fact that he
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: wasn't very popular UM, led to this executive order of
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: his being overturned by the Supreme Court. Yeah, led to
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the steel mills basically sued UH in the famous case
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Youngstown Sheet and Tube, the Sawyer the Youngest Town ruling
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and UM Supreme Court said, yeah, you know what you
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: should have done this sixty day cooling off period. That's
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: why it's they're dummy, right. I don't think him dummy.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: He didn't. But Hugo Black, who is the Chief Justice
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: at the time, was apparently worried that he defended Truman,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: so he invited him over for dinner, and Truman said,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: quote Hugo, I don't care for that law of yours,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: but by golly, this bourbon is good. Did he really
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: say that that's awesome? By golly? Whenever they were drinking bourbon? Yeah,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: but I wonder which bourbon. I wondered that myself. What
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: do you what do you guess? I don't know, Okay,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know what they drank back then. Yeah, bourbon wise?
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Um so uh. Youngstown was huge though, because it established
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: some standards as far as the powers of authority that
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the president, and they kind of broke it down into
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: three right. Yeah. They didn't just say no, they said,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: here's some guidelines for you and future presidents as far
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: as the Supreme Court is concerned. You have the most
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: authority Mr President or Mrs President when you have the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: express or implied consent of Congress and you know what
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I think. Also, I feel like, if if this thing
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: sticks around, if this digital recording can stick around long enough,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: maybe we should include gender gender neutral president as well. Okay, okay, okay, okay,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: number two, Mr Mrs Gender neutral President number one, just
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to make sure that there's an inclusion number one, Mr
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: President or Mrs President or gender neutral president. Uh, you
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: have the most authority when Congress um has expressed or
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: implied consent. They've given that to you. Right, they're saying,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: lead away, We're we're following you. Number two, you have
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: a little less authority. We'll call it uncertain authority when
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Congress has not imposed the authority because they're indifferent or
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: did they're just not doing anything. Uh. And they call
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: it a zone of twilight that the president takes advantage of. Yeah,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: it's like Congress is waffling. The president knows what he
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: she or whatever um gender neutral assignment that the president's
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: picked wants. And I think isn't this probably when they
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: sneak him in at the end. It depends. Um. I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: think it's also more just like you guys had your
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: chance to act, right, Um, I acted because you missed
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: your opportunity, and so sit down and shut up, and
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Congress basically says, all right, fine, so is that we
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: can't wait a thing with that fall under that it depends.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: So I think that it's like the way that this
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: justice put this, that this is how this is the authority,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the division, the levels of authority. The president has supreme
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: authority to issue an executive order. Whether or not it
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: stands up is based on the test of time because
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you can repeal it, right, it just takes a little time. Right, Well,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: there's some different ways to do it. Um. The first
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: we just saw or what not the first, but one
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of them we just saw. It was a clear example
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of judicial review. Right, that's what the Supreme Court does.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: They're like a a supposedly an unbiased, neutral group of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: referees where the federal or the um legislative branch or
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the people say, hey, can we get a judgment call
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: on this law? This seems wrong? And then the Supreme
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Court says, yeah, you're in a And then what they
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: say basically is like the final ruling on a law. Okay,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: executive order. Since they have the force of law or
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the effective law. Um, they're subject to the same scrutiny
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: judicial review. Well, in Youngstown. The Supreme Court said, Truman,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you can't do that. So that's one way that an
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: executive order can be overturned. Another way is Congress can say,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you know what, we just really disagree with you, and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: we're going to rewrite the legislation that you're talking about,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: but it has to be ratified by Congress, which means
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the president has the chance to veto it. Gotcha. So
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: if you have a really angry Congress and a really
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: angry president, really polarized, they may go at it and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the president may be able to override this with the veto. Lately, yeah,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: it's very polarized. So like what Obama is doing now,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it's like, we can't wait. He's trying to frame it
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: like it's Congress's fault. And then if Congress is feeling froggy,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: they may they may issue legislation that says it. So
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: there's this one where UM George Bush set up an
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: executive order about um fetal tissue stem cell banks. I
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: don't remember exactly what it was, but the Congress um
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: they they basically said, um, quote the provisions of Executive
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Order one to Z six, you'll not have any legal effect,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and that was it, but all that since there's no
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: rules for this, Chuck, there's no this. This is all interpretation, Bushead.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: The balls is back in Bush's court. So all it
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: is is legislative tennis between the executive branch and the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: legislative branch. So how far do you want to take it?
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Ping pong? And then also one more thing, the legislative branch,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Congress can just say, well, that's fine, use your executive
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: order to create this new position. We have appropriation, so
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: we're just not going to give any money to it.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: If you find somebody who will do that position, you
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: still got to get the funding if it's something requires funding.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: So those are the ways you get around executive words.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Or a future president can turn around and provoke it,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: which happens all the time or pretty much every time
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and the president takes office. Um, thank you for that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Of course. By the way, you forgot the one court
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: above the Supreme Court. What the Star Chamber? What is that?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You never saw that movie? No? What is that? That
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: was Michael Douglas. There was a secret group of judges
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that would get together called the Star Chamber, that would
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: carry out vigilante justice. What movie is that? The Star chamber.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Oh no, I not eighties. It sounds like two gusters there,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: all right. So the final way is the least authority,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and the president acts on least authority when he has
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: an executive order that is uh, just incompatible with what
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Congress wants, right, which happens all the time as well.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: But again, ultimately, how what how powerful does Congress feel like? Say,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Congress really hates that, but the people are really in
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: favor of it. Will Congress act? Who knows? I've lost
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of faith in the political system, my friend. Yeah,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I say, kind of politan what they want to do
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and not necessarily what the people want. Yeah, behind the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: banner of this is what the people want. That's a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: pretty twenty one century view of American politics. It feels like, yeah, sad,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: too much money going on. We're gonna do it one
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: on campaign finance. I said it, We're gonna do it.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And that will really tell you how kind of dirty
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: it is these days. Um, So let's talk about some
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: controversies in modern day executive orders. For instance, Ronald Reagan.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: If you were a fan of President Reagan, you don't
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: think it's controversial that he really took hold of the
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: economic situation and stripped a lot of the government regulation
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: that he thought was was hampering growth. People that didn't
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: like President Reagan, but I didn't think that was such
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a good move. No, you know what he did, it's
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: pretty smart and broad. He purposefully slowed down UM the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: federal agencies by making them go through all this like
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: um cost benefit analysis figuring out like how their decisions
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: would would impact people. Just kind of hamstrung them. Yeah. Interesting,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: he was like, oh, you you have it pretty easy, hunt. No,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you don't know. You have like eighty extra things that
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: you have to do before you can tell any rules. Yeah,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: here's some forms exactly, and the number two pencils. Interesting.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: It was kind of ingenious really to fight what he
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: considered an entrenched bureaucracy by adding more bureaucracy. That's pretty funny.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Adding red tape. UH. President George W. Bush Um with
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of controversy. Um said in say, you can
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: wire tap private American citizens telephones in America without them
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: knowing about it, And that wasn't even published. That was
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a secret one, you know, super secret. Yeah, only the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: star Chambers saw that. That's right, And uh, a lot
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of people that are fond of civil rights and and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: rights of private citizens said, you know, that's that's not
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: very eight nice. That's not a cool thing to do.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And then his supporters said, dude, the nine eleven hijackers
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and a lot of time in the US on a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: lot of phones, that's a tough one. Man. You want
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to be able to thwart those terrorist plots. Yeah, you do.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a quagmire. It is a quagmire. Um.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: And then what else? Obama's basically on day one famously
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: said I'm closing Guantanamo, no more water boarding or any
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: of this enhanced interrogation stuff. And then what's the third one?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Let's create a task force for detention policies? Right, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: then he signed another executive or two years later saying like, okay,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Guantanamo can stay open. And definitely that was probably not
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a good idea. Apparently they're thinking like a significant amount
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: of money into the facilities. They're adding a soccer or
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: as the yeah football, um, they are adding programs like
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: life life education programs like balancing your checkbook or getting
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: ahold of your finances or getting your g D. They're
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: turning it into into what resembles a very much a
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: state prison. It's which basically says you're here for a while. Yeah,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I guess that part's good. I don't know that I
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: care that these people can play soccer though, Oh yeah,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a lot of people who are like,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: they don't need to play soccer. I don't know, though,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: play a little soccer. So I would be such a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: bad president. What do the waffler? Dude, I just waffle
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: over the place. That's a bad idea. Maybe it's a
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: good idea. Well, that's funny that you said that, because
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: one of the presidents most known for waffling, especially in
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: his first year, UM Bill Clinton was also very famous
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: for his executive orders. Apparently it was like a president
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: with issue executive oars and it was like one of
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: these things and everybody would humble. But Clinton made an
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: art out of it. He waged a war through executive order.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Like remember the Balkan War. Yeah, you, the US entered
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: it with no um declaration of war from Congress. As
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Congress had that um before them
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and they voted, no, we're not going to declare war.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: So Clinton just did it himself. He didn't officially declare war,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: but through an executive order, he for he told the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Air Force to go join NATO air strikes in the Balkans.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: He committed ground troops through executive order to NATO, and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: he froze the assets of a bunch of Yugoslavian leaders
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: in the US, which were like three acts of war
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: that he carried out through executive order. I noticed that stuff,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: though I know they did. It was huge at the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: time when we're just too young, and I mean people noticed,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't like when times are great economically, a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: lot of this stuff is way more apt to slide by.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I think, well, I think also we're looking at it
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: like ten fifteen years on to where it's like total hindsight.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It's like an older statesman now he's not like the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: sleazy scumbag that he used to be, or that's his
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: appearance at least he does. But he still does that
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that two things. I saw an interview with him, like
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that was recorded five days ago. He still do it. Yeah,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: it's thinking and then he gave like this brilliant answer. Um,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: but yeah, he was big on He was big on
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: those things as well. And his advisor was the one
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: who said stokeing the pen law of the land. Right,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: what were the last minute ones called the midnight Midnight regulations.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: That was the one that we talked about. I think,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: corpus boy, we've been around the block at this point,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we've done some political stuff. So that's the executive orders.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Huh yeah, look for one coming to a piece of
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: paper near you, especially if Romney ones. I mean, that's
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: like the first day executive orders, like traditionally now a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: political way of saying I am totally different from this guy.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: And here, here, and here three examples, you know, and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: they'll they'll trumpet that in the in the campaigns. They well,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: here's what I'll do right away. Yeah, I declare craft
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: cheese awesome. So that's it. If you want to learn
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: more about um executive orders, type executive in or orders
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: for the handy search bar at how stuff works dot
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: com and that will bring up this pretty cool article.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: And I said, search bar is time for listener mail.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to do this, Chuck, I know, I just
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: said it's time for us for mail. It's actually time
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: for plug fests real quick, because it's gonna be like
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the fastest plug fest ever. You ready, Um, so we
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: have a horror fiction contest and and we're hoping our
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: listeners will write, um horror fiction that we can read
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: on the Halloween episode. Go to the blogs at how
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: stuff works dot com find the post Stuff you Should
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Knows Horror Fiction contest Colin. Get your official rules right here,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Read that and then act accordingly. Yeah, really follow the
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: rules closely because we want you to if you've worked
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: hard for this to be you know able to win. Yeah,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: And and look for other mentions than like social media
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, like Facebook and Twitter. But um, yeah,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: go check it out and go write something. It'll be cool. Um.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: And then also Comic Con right yet, we are going
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: to San Diego's Comic Con this year for the first
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: time ever, and we're pretty excited about it. Yeah, yes, right,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and we're going as stuff you should know with Slash
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Science Channel people exciting we're doing. We're we're crossover hybrid people,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: that's right, like uh, the Toyota Prius exactly. We're the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: pre I of the podcasting world. Yes, So Thursday, July twelve,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: we will be podcasting live. Um. We don't have the
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: time just yet, but we will announce that on Facebook
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and Twitter and there will be special guests that will
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: be UH dancing, that will be singing. There will be
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: gnashing of teeth and wailing and perhaps even vomiting live
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: on stage. Yeah, by me, that's right at the very beginning, kids,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I won't be able to see straight. I'll be so nervous. Yes, cool, Okay,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: that was quick plugfest. Not we're getting good at this
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: susy dude every time now, Okay, listener, ma'l Josh, I'm
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: gonna call this UH from a from a pastor to us,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: complimenting us, okay, not from the usual hate mailing. Hey,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: guys and Jerry. I'm a United Methodist pastor and started
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: listening to the podcast a few years ago to pass
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the time on the long ride between the church I
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: was ministering in Duke Divinity School, where I was finishing
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: up seminary. Learning about things like uh cannibalism and delta
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: force really helped break up the constant stream of theology
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and philosophy I was studying. I bet I really enjoyed
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the most recent one on whether or not it was
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: possible to reign frogs. A lot of people that I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: talked to in religious settings that don't shy away from hearing, uh,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: scientific explanations about biblical material. There are plenty of us
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: out there who love science and aren't afraid of it
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: debunking scripture. It actually excites me to hear those sorts
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: of explanations. You've probably been referred to a time or
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: two in these uh in the classes I teach in
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: my current ministry. Setting it tonight, so he talks about
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: some class a couple of heathens like us. Uh. Mainly,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I'm writing to thank you for a few things. First,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: thanks for handling matters of faith with tact um. Whether
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: you're talking aboutvoodoo or karma, you always handle the subject
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: matter in a gracious way. See. I like this guy's use.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I like him a lot. I would argue that we're
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: not always gracious, but I appreciate the compliment. Um. Second,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I remember, back in the Brainwashing episode, Chuck said something
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: along lines up, I'm going to try it really hard
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: not to comment about my Baptist upbringing pastures and religious
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: people in general can be pushy. Chuck, You're passing comment
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: has been a constant reminder to me to not be
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: that guy. Um. And Third, you guys are the ones
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: who introduced me to Kiva and I now make regular
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: loans and have even gotten some members of the congregation
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: on board. It's been great to be a part of it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Keep up good work, Jeff and Jeff dude, Pastor Jeff, Pastor, Jeff,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I would go to your church. Yeah, thank you for
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the email. That was awesome. Please keep in touch. We
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: want to know how your religious career goes. Yeah. And
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: and if you think Chuck and I are awesome and
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: gracious and we take criticism well and we get things
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: generally right, say puppies, Yeah, um, and we do it
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: all without messing up our hair. What do you want
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: to hear from you? All right, Chuck? Yes, we want
• 33:28
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• 33:31
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• 33:35
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• 33:39
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• 33:43
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• 33:54
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• 33:56
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