The Liberty Sphere's Political Buzz: Executive Orders

The buzz in and around the Beltway today is that a ton of executive orders await President Barack Obama's signature that will signal a major shift in policy on several fronts.

It is to be noted that executive orders require no act of Congress or prior Congressional approval.

First on the agenda will be an executive order immediately lifting all foreign aid restrictions implemented by the Bush administration on funding of overseas programs that promote abortion and infanticide.

As a legislator in Illinois Obama had a distinct history of being on the record as one of the most ardent advocates for wide-open abortion, and in one case in particular, outright infanticide.

The President has already made it known that one of his first targets as Chief Executive will be foreign aid restrictions set up by George W. Bush that barred any U.S. dollars being used to fund abortion-related causes overseas.

We can expect Obama to lift those restrictions immediately, and thus, the U.S. will once again become one of the world's biggest exporters of baby killing.

Second, many believe that there is an executive order awaiting Obama's signature that will revamp from top to bottom the export-import of firearms and ammunition. One dealer states that a shipment of Russian-made ammo, already bought and paid for, has been detained at port due to the anticipated executive order.

Others believe that yet another executive order will ensue which will mandate the encoding of all ammunition. This, of course, will involve totally reinventing the manner in which ammo is manufactured. And the outgrowth of such a program would be federal registration of all ammo purchases.

Some insiders vehemently dispute that such a move will be made. But even if it turns out to be true, this process will take some time--enough time for patriots to pitch the proverbial fit and cause one big ruckus.

For now, I am putting my money with those who say this is a possible proposal and not a done deal. Obama at present cannot afford to stir up massive ill will in the electorate when he is going to need to use a truckload of political capital and good will to get some critical things done in the financial sector.

And this brings us to the 3rd area of executive orders that will involve the present financial 'crisis.' Obama and his team will capitalize on the hysteria in the electorate over the supposed 'worst economy since the Great Depression,' which is not true of course. But they will seize on the perception to make draconian changes in the manner in which America does business in its business sector.

Look for Obama to continue with the Bush plan of giving broad powers to Treasury, expanding the government's meddling to include a bit of everything, particularly the auto industry, manufacturing and big labor, print media, Hollywood, and 'alternative energy,' such as 'big wind.'

Since Congress has already given the Executive Branch broad powers to expand the role and scope of government in these areas, look for a scurry of activity on the economic front in short order.

And one more thing--we can expect an executive decision very shortly on immediate reductions in troop levels in Iraq...along with an surge of troop levels in Afghanistan. Thus, anti-war extremists are not going to be very happy with the end result. The Obama plan is troop-shift.

This is anything but 'bringing the troops home.'