Ross Douthat Quotes

If I'm elected president, let me tell you about my first day in office. The first thing I intend to do is to rescind every illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by Barack Obama.

Obama is a tyrant the same way FDR was a tyrant. He has a view of presidential power that states: the government is in control of the country, and the president is in charge of the government. He's taken an imperial view of the presidency.

I've got a pen, and I've got a phone, and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive action. I've got a pen to talk executive actions where congress won't. Where congress isn't acting, I'll act on my own. I have got a pen and I got a phone. And that is all I need.

I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years, 'cuz he ain't gotta worry about getting re-elected.

The administration of George W. Bush, emboldened by the Sept. 11 attacks and the backing of a Republican Congress, has sought to further extend presidential power over national security. Most of the expansion has taken place in secret, making Congressional or judicial supervision particularly difficult.

Here is the operating motto of the Obama White House: 'So let it be written, so let it be done!' Like Yul Brynner's Pharaoh Ramses character in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments,' the demander in chief stands with arms akimbo issuing daily edicts to his constitution-subverting minions.

If I get to be president, what can I do anyway? With Congress and the press, what chance do I have to make basic changes?

The president is supposed to execute faithfully the laws that the legislature has written. So, the executive orders that Barack Obama president is writing are without precedent. Without precedent so with he's rewriting law. It's totally illegal.

It seems with every new day, we have a new veto threat from the president.

We can't wait for Congress to do its job. So where they won't act, I will.

If Mr. Roosevelt can do what he likes without consulting Congress, and we give him our boys, God alone knows what he will do with them.

The President [Theodore Roosevelt] has as much use for the Constitution as a tom cat has for a marriage license.

A man who understands the power of the Presidency, who understands the potential of the Presidency, can get almost anything accomplished.

Never underestimate the power of an American President in his early days.

I do not believe that we [Congress] should allow him [the President] to nullify acts of Congress by executive fiat. There is not one syllable in the Constitution which authorizes the President to exercise such power.

Is there really a way to restrict the powers of the Commander in Chief ... when one man's swiftly pressing the button may be necessary for some degree of national survival?

When a President asserts constitutional powers he needs to be pretty certain he has those powers.

A president in his first year has a mandate and some political capital. When he picks an issue, he can practically roll any Congress.

Any President has authority who asserts authority.

The danger of undue power in the President is not, to me, formidable.

We have not found a way to give Congress control without depriving the President of essential power.

I don’t know if President (George W.) Bush understood how extreme some of the arguments were about executive power that some people in his administration were making.

The social power of the Presidency is one of the most powerful tools a President can use.

Any President can control the agenda.

The concentration of power in the Presidency—in the White House—only grows over time.