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Comment by krapp | Hacker News Reader

Contrary to popular belief, executive orders aren't laws and don't have the force of law. An executive order couldn't legally reduce the age of eligibility for Medicare.

The only reason Trump gets away with it is because Congress is complicit in the authoritarian fiction of the President's "plenary authority" even to the point of obviously illegal things like undermining budget allocations and not doing their actual jobs.

As soon as a Democrat gets in, Congress will miraculously become pedantic sticklers to the rules. This kind of corruption and blatant malfeasance is something only Republicans get away with, at least in the modern era.

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With a big enough blue wave in 2026 and 2028, congress may be willing to turn a blind eye to a Democratic president doing extralegal things. I will not be shocked if this genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Throughout my life Republicans have been more creative about bending the rules, but the Democrats have reliably learned how to copy their game each time.

> The only reason Trump gets away with it

The reason he gets away with it is because Obama was celebrated for doing the same thing[0].

[0] https://www.npr.org/2014/01/20/263766043/wielding-a-pen-and-...

Bro, Obama hasn't been President for a whole decade, you can stop blaming him for things. It's OK, he had two terms, he can't hurt you anymore.

I don't know why you're talking like this, but perhaps you should go back to the kids' table for a little longer.

And SCOTUS, who deemed Biden's loan forgiveness an abuse of power, but not Trump's attempt to wipe out the entire department.

Dems keep losing, in part, because they're following the rules the other team is openly flouting. There's no real pleasant answer to that in any direction.

And I think it is entirely plausible that Dems are quickly concluding that if they continue to be the only ones following the rules, they may never win another election. I think we may be in for a rough ride.

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