共和国总统乔·拜登助手们对他上任第一天对行政命令的严重依赖越来越严格的审查表现出一丝敏感。
总统在短短一周内已经签署了30多项行政命令和指令，旨在解决冠状病毒大流行以及包括环境法规、移民政策和种族正义在内的一系列其他问题。
拜登还试图利用这些命令抹去前总统的基本政策倡议唐纳德·特朗普例如停止修建美墨边境隔离墙，扭转特朗普时代五角大楼在很大程度上禁止跨性别者参军的政策。
参议院共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周四表示，拜登早期对行政行动的依赖与民主党作为候选人成为共识构建者的承诺不符。《纽约时报》编辑委员会发表了一篇题为“放松行政行为，乔”的评论文章
拜登周四将他最近的行政行动描述为通过法令“消除特朗普造成的损害”，而不是“启动任何新法律”。在签署了另外两项行政命令后，他在椭圆形办公室与记者进行了简短的交流，他指出，他正在同时努力推动国会通过他的1.9万亿美元的新冠肺炎援助计划。在被记者问及他是否愿意分割救助计划时，总统回答说:“没有人要求我做任何事情。”
当天早些时候，白宫传播主任凯特·贝丁菲尔德在一系列推特上对拜登的行政命令提出批评，并补充说，“当然，我们也在通过立法来实现我们的议程。首先，这就是为什么我们如此努力地让美国救援计划获得通过。”
麦康奈尔在周四上午的参议院发言中，对拜登作为候选人宣布的“除非你是独裁者，否则不能通过行政行动立法”进行了误导性的抨击。
事实上，拜登在10月份接受美国广播公司(ABC)新闻采访时曾表示，在一次关于他将如何迅速推进向企业和美国富人增税的计划的交流中，有些事情“除非你是独裁者，否则你不能通过行政命令来做”。
拜登和他的助手们，包括白宫的高级经济学家，都说他们认为行政行为是立法行为的苍白替代品。与此同时，他们为政府执政初期大量使用行政行动进行辩护，认为这是解决一个多世纪以来最严重的公共卫生危机和扭转特朗普一些政策的必要权宜之计。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基说:“有一些步骤，包括推翻前政府的一些有害、有害、是的、不道德的行为，他觉得他迫不及待地要推翻这些行为，这正是他所做的。”
虽然拜登比最近的白宫前任更频繁地在户外使用行政行动，但他并不是唯一一个大量使用总统法令的人，也不是唯一一个因为这样做而受到反对党批评的人。
比尔·克林顿在两届任期内有364份订单，乔治·w·布什在他的八年任期内签署了291份订单巴拉克·奥巴马发布了276。特朗普在他的一个任期内签署了220份订单。
麦康奈尔周四嘲笑拜登在白宫的第一周“签署了30多项单边行动，工作的美国人受到了冷落。”他同样批评奥巴马通过行政命令和备忘录“单方面强加他的意志”。
但麦康奈尔对特朗普在共和党总统任期的不同阶段使用行政命令绕过国会的决定了解得多。
例如，8月，在冠状病毒救助谈判破裂后，特朗普签署了一系列行政命令，呼吁推迟对年收入低于10万美元的美国人征收工资税，暂停学生贷款支付，继续暂停驱逐，并延长已经到期的增强失业福利(尽管规模较小)。
麦康奈尔说:“由于民主党人用无助于劳动人民的荒谬要求破坏了幕后谈判，我支持特朗普总统探索他的选择，为最需要失业救济的人获得失业救济和其他救济。”
Biden faces scrutiny over reliance on executive orders
President Joe Biden and aides are showing touches of prickliness over growing scrutiny of his heavy reliance on executive orders in his first days in office.
The president in just over a week has already signed more than three dozen executive orders and directives aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic as well as a gamut of other issues including environmental regulations, immigration policies and racial justice.
Biden has also sought to use the orders to erase foundational policy initiatives by former President Donald Trump, such as halting construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender people from serving in the military.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Biden’s early reliance on executive action is at odds with the Democrat’s pledge as a candidate to be a consensus builder. The New York Times editorial board ran an opinion piece headlined “Ease up on the Executive Actions, Joe."
Biden on Thursday framed his latest executive actions as an effort to “undo the damage Trump has done” by fiat rather than “initiating any new law.” During a brief exchange with reporters in the Oval Office after signing two more executive orders, he noted he was working simultaneously to push his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package through Congress. After being asked by a reporter if he was open to splitting up the relief package, the president responded: “No one requires me to do anything.”
Earlier in the day, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield bristled at the criticism of Biden's executive orders in a series of tweets, adding, “Of course we are also pursuing our agenda through legislation. It’s why we are working so hard to get the American Rescue Plan passed, for starters.”
In his Senate floor speech Thursday morning, McConnell offered a misleading broadside that Biden as a candidate had declared “you can’t legislate by executive action unless you are a dictator.”
In fact, Biden at an October ABC News town hall had said there are certain “things you can’t do by executive order unless you’re a dictator” during an exchange about how quickly he’d push his plan to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
Biden and aides, including top White House economists, have said that they believe executive action is a pale substitute for legislative action. At the same time, they’ve defended the heavy use of executive action at the start of the administration as a necessary stopgap to address the worst public health crisis in more than a century and reverse some of Trump’s policies.
“There are steps, including overturning some of the harmful, detrimental and, yes, immoral actions of the prior administration that he felt he could not wait to overturn, and that’s exactly what he did,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
While Biden has used executive action more frequently out of the gate than recent White House predecessors, he’s not alone in being a heavy user of presidential fiat -- or being criticized by the opposition party for doing so.
Bill Clinton had 364 orders over two terms, George W. Bush signed 291 over his eight years in office and Barack Obama issued 276. Trump in his one term signed 220 orders.
McConnell on Thursday scoffed that Biden in his first week in the White House “signed more than 30 unilateral actions and working Americans are getting short shrift.” He similarly criticized Obama for “imposing his will unilaterally” through executive orders and memoranda.
But McConnell was far more understanding of Trump’s decision to use executive orders to get around Congress at various points in the Republican’s presidency.
For example, in August, after coronavirus relief negotiations collapsed, Trump signed a series of executive orders that called for deferring payroll taxes for Americans earning less than $100,000 per year, pausing student loan payments, continuing eviction moratoriums and extending, albeit smaller, enhanced unemployment benefits that had expired.
“Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most,” McConnell said.
