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And this is the fault of Congress, in my opinion. This EO power needs to be challenged and narrowly defined. It was begun to facilitate existing legislation. Presidents in recent history have used the power to bypass Congress and legislate directly.
I agree, but over the years the congress members of the party which holds the white house has come to be seen as more part of the administration than a member of the institution of congress. Perhaps this has more to do with who the leaders are. Even a Democratic House under the Speakership of Sam Rayburn, Mike McCormick, Carl Albert or even Tip O'Neal would allow a president to usurp congressional power. Now that is going back a long way. The same can be said of the senate leaders at the time.
Of course there wasn't the polarization back then as there is now. Both parties had their liberal and conservative wings. You wouldn't see straight party line votes and when they did occur, they were a rarity. Congress has also ceded a lot of their constitutional power to the administration and different federal agencies over the years also. That way congress can blame the president and the agencies when things go wrong or get over burdened. It also lessens the number of tough votes they have to make and thus helps when re-election time comes. Less for the people to get mad at them.
Yep, most of it is congress's fault.