Here Come the Presidential Executive Orders

From an email response I sent a friend during the budget ceiling negotiations last August regarding the options available to the Government and the Fed:

I have some arcane knowledge of the workings of the Fed and see no impediments there. As to the trust funds, the enabling legislation either exists or could probably be more easily written than the ceiling legislation.

I keep coming back to the President though. Executive orders give so much latitude, especially when couched in state of emergency terms, that my reading is the Exec can do pretty much as he pleases,

Back in 2008 some barrister types were making that argument re: climate change policy, potential constitutional crisis be damned.

The link goes to a 213 page PDF under the imprimatur of the University of Colorado Law School titled:

THE BOUNDARIES OF EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY
Using Executive Orders to Implement
Federal Climate Change Policy

Since that Aug. 2 email Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has called on the President to declare a State of Emergency, bypass Congress and unilaterally hire 15 million unemployed at an average $40,000 and the President has stated “We’re not going to wait for Congress.”

Here's the latest, via UPI:
WH: Obama to use executive authority more

President Obama likely will use executive orders more often as he does all he can to grow the economy and spur job creation, a White House aide said Monday.

Changes by executive order don't "substitute for the action that Congress absolutely must and should take … it is simply a part of doing everything you can: Focusing on what is the No. 1 issue for most Americans, which is an economy that's not growing fast enough, an economy that's not creating enough jobs," White House spokesman Jay Carney said during a media briefing aboard Air Force One en route to Las Vegas.

Obama announced Monday the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) took three steps to help responsible homeowners refinance and take advantage of low mortgage rates.

Why use the executive order?

"Because we have to do everything we can," Carney said....MORE 

Which of course raises the question: Why now? Why not in 2009? Or 2010?
Ya got me.

Here are this week's EO's:

White House Announces Mortgage Refinancing Overhaul Through Executive Order
Obama issues order aimed at preventing federal data leaks
Obama's latest executive orders affect veterans
Obama's Executive Order of the Day: Easing Student Loan Payments

They are coming fast enough that the National Archives are only current through mid-August.

It should be an interesting year or five.