Washington Examiner editors are watching closely for President Obama to engage in unaccountable rulemaking before he exits the White House.
As current polls and election exit polls showed, President Obama is almost as popular now as he has been in seven years. Even so, the election results, both for president and for Congress, showed that voters don’t want his policies anymore. Obama certainly has no mandate to make any major changes on his way out the door.
House Republicans were therefore right this month to pass the Midnight Rule Relief Act, which will allow Congress to overturn such regulations en masse.
We are also especially disappointed by Democrats’ short-sightedness in opposing the measure along party lines. Because this is not just about Obama, it is also about his successor and every president who follows. Democrats’ excuses for opposing the bill were wholly disingenuous. They argued, for example, that this would allow Congress to block an executive action necessary for national security. But if Congress believes a last-minute executive action is truly necessary for national security, then presumably it will not repeal it.
This is really about the ability of one president to cause headaches for the next. The EPA is rushing to put new oil, gas and ethanol regulations into effect that will harm the economy. It is also rushing to implement the Clean Power Plan before Trump’s appointees take over.
