From - Wed Jul 29 22:50:27 1998 Return-Path: fiedor19@eos.net Received: from proxy1.ba.best.com (root@proxy1.ba.best.com [206.184.139.12]) by shell11.ba.best.com (8.9.0/8.9.0/best.sh) with ESMTP id AAA12021 for ; Sat, 25 Jul 1998 00:01:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: from eos.net (eos.eos.net [205.133.149.2]) by proxy1.ba.best.com (8.9.0/8.9.0/best.in) with ESMTP id XAA16582 for ; Fri, 24 Jul 1998 23:59:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ns1.eos.net.eos.net (port149217.eos.net [205.133.149.217]) by eos.net (8.8.8/8.7.2) with SMTP id CAA11899 for ; Sat, 25 Jul 1998 02:56:55 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199807250656.CAA11899@eos.net> X-Sender: fiedor19@eos.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0.1 Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 03:01:09 +0000 To: "Forest Glen Durland, CEO" From: Doug Fiedor Subject: News -- better late than never In-Reply-To: <35B7CBE2.49C1647F@uhuh.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Rcpt-To: forest@uhuh.com X-UIDL: 93f671f014ef2504433e5839cd21d514 X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 'Stroke of the Pen' Richmond Times-Dispatch Saturday, July 25, 1998 Editorial Drawing analogies to the Nazi era is an odious practice; other than the Communist horror nothing even distantly approaches the monstrous evil of the Holocaust. But it is not odious to point out that certain arrangements weaken democracy -- and to suggest that eschewing those arrangements is sound policy. It is the difference between advising someone not to leave loaded guns around and calling all gun-owners murderers. One such arrangement was the decision by the Reichstag in 1933 permitting the German chancellor to rule by decree. Ruling by decree certainly weakens democracy. Yet Congress essentially permits unelected bureaucrats to rule by decree -- in the form of regulations -- all the time. Each year the Federal Register grows by thousands of pages, with sweeping effects. Bureaucratic edicts have, for example, subjected the country to "low-flow" toilets, the banning of the refrigerant freon, and costly new vehicle emissions standards. Now the President is getting in on the act. Frustrated by the obstructions of a Republican Congress, Bill Clinton has begun setting policy by executive order. In recent months he has issued orders (a) to extend a moratorium on oil drilling off nearly all U.S. coastlines; (b) to spend $6 million to restore coral reefs; (c) to extend federal anti-discrimination rules to homosexuals; (d) to require the Department of Agriculture to establish an "institute" on food safety; (e) to require warning labels on containers of unpasteurized fruit juice; (f) to establish an outreach program to add nearly 5 million recipients to Medicaid; (g) to ban the use of federal funds for human cloning; (h) to deny federal business to companies that hire illegal immigrants; (i) to require the Department of Health and Human Services to determine which cigarette brands are most popular among teen-agers; and (j) to block the importation of 1.6 million guns for which permits were issued or were pending. Clinton adviser Paul Begala characterizes the administration's tactics thus: "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kind of cool." Actually, no. It is kind of disconcerting -- not merely for Clinton foes, but for ardent liberals who might imagine, say, Jesse Helms wielding the presidential pen in a similar fashion. Political winds change. If Bill Clinton's legacy includes the habitual use of executive orders -- of rule by decree -- that would be a legacy Clinton supporters could come to regret.