Hacker News Reader

Comment by blunte | Hacker News Reader

this is not the US government. this is the mad orange flexing.

Well, that's how the US Government works in practice, so...

Not traditionally. Executive Orders are essentially out-of-band governmental actions. Normally (the normality that preceded the current administration and even the previous one), Congress would produce bills which sometimes would become laws. Those would be the significant policy changes.

Now there are comparatively few Congressional effects and more Executive Orders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_...

It's not really true that it's "not traditionally" the way that government works. The first half of the 20th century is the watermark.

Not that I remotely disagree with you in principle, just want to make the point that this isn't some recent development that we can swing back towards normalcy --- it's been this way and there's no going back.

It's the way it works today, and the way it has worked in the last two presidencies as well. Yes, I'd love a big crackdown on EOs (a drum I've been beating since the Bush presidency).

This insanity started much earlier than that. For one extreme example see executive order 6102 [1]. In 1933 FDR passed an executive order that made it a criminal act for Americans to possess any private gold coins, bullion, or certificated ownership. They were required to turn over all their gold to the government in exchange for about $400 per ounce in inflation adjusted prices. Refusing to do so was punishable by up to a $194,000 fine and ten years in prison. And this was topped off by the "gold reserve act" [2] passed the following year which let the government artificially set the price of gold. FDR chose a 75% increase.

Makes modern executive orders look downright tame by comparison, and this is from a president that would go down extremely positively in history.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act

Reply on news.ycombinator.com