Executive Orders

Preparing for some unspecified national calamity, the president has issued an executive order, which carries the weight of statute law without having to go through a bickering legislature.

Sec. 102. Policy. The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency. The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness. The authorities provided in the Act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.

Sec. 103. General Functions. Executive departments and agencies (agencies) responsible for plans and programs relating to national defense (as defined in section 801(j) of this order), or for resources and services needed to support such plans and programs, shall:

(a) identify requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand;

(b) assess on an ongoing basis the capability of the domestic industrial and technological base to satisfy requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency, specifically evaluating the availability of the most critical resource and production sources, including subcontractors and suppliers, materials, skilled labor, and professional and technical personnel;

(c) be prepared, in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements;

So in time of peace, or declared national emergency, or declared potential  threat, the various secretaries of the various agencies are authorized  to essentially nationalize anything they want, divvy up the spoils  between them, and institute a draft of both executives and workers into  such available slots, military and civilian, as may be required.  Getting drafted to be the CEO of the newly nationalized Ford Motor  Company would certainly be a plum assignment for someone closely  connected to the administration.  Sounds like O'Bummer is getting ready to fight WWII using the same  strategies and tactics as FDR. Isn't there supposed to be some  congressional oversight over this?

I read the whole thing so you don't have to, but let me tell you the whole thing is a scary, far-reaching power grab. All these actions can be implemented on any excuse or none at all. RTWT and ask yourself if there's anything he can't do under any circumstances at all.

Update: Apparently this is a boilerplate update to an E.O. first issued in 1939, which explains the part about getting ready for WWII nicely. This thing has been around that long and has been updated by every president since. Issueing the thing on Friday at 5:00 PM when bad news is usually set out in order to avoid media attention has the exact opposite effect. You'd think they would have figured it out by now, but I guess not.