Under the Constitution, the branches of government were supposed to have precisely defined powers limited to those specifically enumerated. And why was that, boys and girls? Because Americans did not want to live under anything like monarchial rule. The King could order just about anything he wanted and the people didn’t like it. The Constitution was supposed to establish a lot of “no trespassing” signs for government officials.
Alas, that hasn’t worked out and we now have the prospect of the Obama regime decreeing that we’ll have to abide by its environmental ideas. No legislation — just executive orders. Cato’s Gene Healy writes about the frightful Unified Executive Theory in this Washington Examiner piece.