Even the New York Times is telling Joe to Slow his Roll!*

Whether you call yourself a Democrat or a Republican (or other), it is so important to understand the consequences of the executive actions signed by Joe Biden during the first several days in office.  

While our presidents have become increasingly comfortable taking “executive actions,” Joe Biden has taken it to a new level, signing 40 executive actions by day 9, far exceeding every president in our history.  As a reminder, “executive actions” allow a president to impose policies on the American people without the approval of Congress (which is the only branch with the authority to make policy). While executive actions are not “laws” and are not permanent—the next president can overturn them—they do carry the “force of law” during a president’s term.  

As you might expect, whether we tolerate this “end-run” around Congress tends to change depending on whether “our” party is in power in the executive branch. However, with regard to many of the recently-signed executive actions, I believe every American has cause for concern. 

Here are some of the most consequential of the new policies:

• Imposing new gender-identity rules.
  • Requiring that males be allowed to participate in female sports (among other rules), effectively ending girls’ and women’s sports, destroying their opportunities to prevail in their athletic disciplines.
  • Note: No decent person is in favor of denying another person of the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Our Constitution requires that our liberties end at the point where they infringe on another’s liberties. But this order violates that principle:  it elevates one group’s rights over the rights of a whole class of others (women). 
  • In addition to the impact on sports, these new gender-identity rules will affect churches and other tax-exempt organizations.
• Requiring racial “equity” in health care and other areas. 
  • The concept of “equity” requires distribution of resources based on arbitrarily selected characteristics.
  • Pay attention to the recent change in talking points from focus on equality to focus on equity. Our Constitution requires that all people be treated equally under the law. But equity is counter to equality, requiring people to be treated differently, i.e., requiring takingfrom (or denying resources to) one class of citizens and redistributing to another class. (More on this soon.)
• Rescinded ban on taxpayer funding for international abortion groups, disregarding the voters’ preferences.
  • This order highlights the power of the executive order to defy the will of the American people. According to one recent report, polling by Marist and the Knights of Columbus shows: 
    • More than 3/4 of Americans oppose.
    • A majority in Biden’s own party is opposed.
    • Nearly 2/3 of self-described pro-choice Americans oppose. 
    • 85% of independent voters oppose.
• Canceled Keystone Pipeline; reversed President Trump’s environmental deregulation.
  • Expected to cost 11,000 American jobs.  
  • Will erode our energy independence.
  • Contributing to rising fuel prices.
• Recommitted the US to the Paris Climate Accord
  • Requires taxpayer-backed financial investment and loss of freedoms and jobs for Americans, while other countries are not held accountable for their carbon emissions or for their fair share of financial investment. 
  • Cannot work as long as China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, does not cooperate. Though it recently “pledged” to aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the Beijing regime admitted that China’s emissions would peak in about 10 years. Last year, China was approving new coal plants at the fastest rate since 2015. 
  • Note that if oil prices fall as a result of our reductions in demand due to our coming climate-change regulations, China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, will have much to gain. 
• Action allowing skyrocketing prices on Insulin
  • Instantly put the life-preserving drug entirely out of reach for many who depend on it.
  • Under President Trump, drug prices decreased for the first time in 52 years. Starting out with the highest prices of any country in world, under the “Favored Nations clause,” we were on track to pay the lowest price a drug was offered anywhere in the world.
• Mask mandate in federal buildings and on federal property, both inside and outdoors
  • Note: Many are questioning why there is no mandate to re-open schools across the country, in line with the latest scientific evidence
• Ended travel ban for Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen
  • Ban was originally instituted by Obama-Biden administration, and was supported/extended by Trump based on security concerns; yet, current administration alleges the ban was rooted in religious animus and xenophobia.
• Stopped construction of our (already funded) US-Mexico border wall. 
• Imposed a moratorium on most deportations.
  • No exception is made for the over 90% of illegal immigrants who’ve committed criminal acts.
  • Court battles have ensued and at least one judge has ruled against.
  • Administration justifies the acting citing concerns over processing the huge number of deportations during the pandemic, yet at the same time is incentivizing more illegal immigration by talks of amnesty and by ending construction of the border wall (even as we are predicting an imminent border crisis as it is reported that caravans are again making their way toward our border).
• Rejoined the World Health Organization (the WHO)
  • We will again provide generous financial support to the global organization that, at best, refuses to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for, and, at worst, was complicit in, the well-documented coverup concerning the original outbreak of the virus, which sparked the pandemic. 
  • The US had withdrawn its participation (and funding) in an effort to push for accountability, leadership change and reform.

Actions are also being taken in Congress at a breakneck speed. Moves are being made to legislate mail-in voting across the country (unconstitutionally taking the power away from state legislatures to determine the issue), as well as to grant statehood to D.C. (a constitutional “jurisdiction” that is the size of, and is run like, a city).  More on these items coming soon…

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. 

Ronald Reagan

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* www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/opinion/biden/executive-orders