What Could Sanders Accomplish By Executive Action Alone?

Which Democratic candidate would be this bold, would do what any Republican in the country would do — simply dare to say, "Make it so" when executive power is clear and available?

by Thomas Neuburger

During the 2016 primary race it became apparent that Bernie Sanders was offering more than just a revolt against entrenched elites; he offered a revolution in the way our government functions. That revolution would be executed along three branches or lines of action, two of which he had complete and personal control of.

First, he would revolutionize the norms by which the past forty years of neoliberal government operated — years that started with Reagan and continued through each administration since — by not doing what each administration before him had done as a matter of course.

These acts of not-doing would not only save the nation enormous grief, they would save progressive activists and voters enormous time and energy. From this 2015 piece on the subject, here's my imagined Sanders speech on "What I Will Never Do":

If you elect me president, here's what I will never do —

    ▪ You can count on me never to push a plan to cut Social Security and Medicare. Not one person outside of government will have to spend one minute trying to prevent me from privatizing — or cutting in any way — these vital programs. Not one minute. And if Congress proposes these cuts and it reaches my desk, you won't have to spend one minute asking me to veto that proposal. It's vetoed the minute it arrives.

    ▪ I will never negotiate a so-called "trade" deal that sends American jobs across our borders. No one will have to spend one minute asking me to stop a deal that hurts American workers. I will support only trade deals that increase American jobs, that create new workers in this country, that increase our balance of payments, and nothing less.

    ▪ No one will have to spend one minute stopping me from granting coal, oil and gas leases on lands or in waters controlled by the Department of the Interior. Not one minute. Drilling in the Arctic? You won't even have to ask. The answer is already No. New coal leases? Not one. Dangerous and deadly-to-the-climate offshore drilling leases? Those days are over.

    Soon I will tell you what I will do to aggressively bring down carbon emissions. But if I don't start here, with what I won't do, how will you know I'm serious?

    ▪ You will never see me even contemplate extending tax breaks for the very rich, as we saw all too often in our recent past — for example, during the negotiations to extend the Bush tax cuts, or negotiations at the end of the last fiscal year. Any such deal that reaches my desk will go straight back to Congress for renegotiation.

    If Congress wants a bill, they can give me one I can sign. If they want to shut down the government over tax breaks for the very very wealthy, they will shut it down, and I will explain it that way to the American people. If they want me to sign a bill, any bill, they need to understand — tax breaks for the rich can never be a part of it.

In other words, you'll never have to lobby me to not do what I said I would never do. You can spend your precious time, your precious energy, in other ways. There are many things I will do as well. Some I will do alone, using the power of the Executive Branch. And some I will ask your help to do because we need help from others. But the things I listed above, and many more besides, will never be contemplated.

I hope you agree that sparing you the constant effort to stop these wrong acts is indeed an accomplishment, and one you'll be glad, even eager, to have. It's one I'll certainly be glad and eager to give you.

Thank you.

I could have added that Sanders will never do what every president for the last third of a century as done — pardon or fail to prosecute criminal behavior by other elites, including those in their own donor class (like Jon Corzine, one donor-criminal that Barack Obama's administration failed to prosecute). 

Unlike most other Democratic candidates in the current cycle, Bernie Sanders won't just save you from Donald Trump (or any other Republican candidate who rings the populist bell), he'll also save you years of time you can spend more productively than endless trying to please-please-please-beg-and-force him not to do what Democrats like Barack Obama seemed eager do almost daily.

But this was just the first part of an imagined three-part speech.

The second part would deal with what Sanders could do — should he be so bold — by executive action alone, without Congress, without leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell reaching in to muck up the operation. There's much more possible under executive action than any Democrat will allow you to contemplate — or if you do contemplate it, they'll admonish you that it's "best to pass a law instead" (because that's what Republicans always do when they have executive power, right?).

The third part of the speech would detail how Sanders would solve problems that could only be solved with true progressive legislation despite the machinations of conservative Democrats (including Nancy Pelosi; she deserves that appellation now) and their Republican partners.

Let's hold the "How I Will Pass Legislation" topic for another time; it touches on Sanders' unique theory of change. (For a preview of that theory, listen to the first part of Sanders' interview with Joe Rogan.)

What Could a President Sanders Do by Executive Order?

Here's a sample of what Sanders will do (not could do, will do) by executive order as soon as he's elected. This is from the latest "Bern Notice" authored by Sanders campaign writer David Sirota (emphasis mine):

Here’s an open secret: right now, your federal tax dollars subsidize giant CEO pay packages as well as corporate efforts to bust unions and offshore jobs. But when Donald Trump is defeated in 2020, that will end with a stroke of President Bernie Sanders’ pen -- and big corporations like Amazon, Honeywell and Boeing will have to either change their behavior, or lose their government largesse.

At issue is Bernie’s brand new Workplace Democracy Plan, set to be introduced by Bernie today at the Iowa AFL-CIO convention. The initiative is a comprehensive package of reforms designed to strengthen workers’ ability to form unions.

One provision in the plan is a pledge to immediately issue an executive order banning federal contracts from being awarded to companies “that outsource jobs overseas, pay workers less than $15 an hour without benefits, refuse to remain neutral in union organizing efforts, pay executives over 150 times more than average workers, hire workers to replace striking workers, or close businesses after workers vote to unionize.”

If I'm not mistaken, the U.S. government is the nation's largest employer, by a lot. Just as a federal Jobs Guarantee program would set a de facto floor on wages and working conditions by directly competing with the private sector for workers and offering more than their current "junk jobs" offer (explained by Stephanie Kelton here), a ban on federal contractors who do any of a list of wrong things, a ban that can be enforced by executive action alone, would change corporate behavior immediately and effectively.

This just scratches the surface. A total ban on new federal oil-and-gas leases, with an aggressive expiry of current ones, started immediately, would immediately change the economics of the fossil fuel market. Much of the much-discussed Student Loan Forgiveness program could be executed without legislation, since the government holds most student debt.

And so on.

Who Among the Current Democratic Candidates Is Bold Enough to Act Without Congress?

Despite all this, the question one should be asking isn't, "What can be done by a bold Democratic president?" though the list of what could be done is wonderful to contemplate.

The question one should ask instead is, "Who among the current candidates would dare use executive power in this way?" Would Harris? Would Biden?

Would even Warren, with her love of the inside game and use of others as leverage, dare to act when the only leverage she had was the power of the president to simply "make it so"?

If for you the Democratic primary is more than a year-long reality game show, with contestants striving to to outdo each other in capturing the public eye, in entertaining us spectators during our once-every-four-years Survivor-like ritual cage match — if the Democratic primary is more than just that for you — shouldn't the willingness to act be a primary, perhaps the primary, consideration in choosing who will run the executive branch for the next four years?

The question, it seems, almost answers itself.