Remember the good old days when the King would just order his subjects to “Make it so!” and then all was right with the world. Me neither. This style of governance has been attempted by the executive branch before though. Back in 2008 when President Obama lost the House he declared that:

“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward in helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating,” the president said.

“I’ve got a phone that allows me to convene Americans from every walk of life, nonprofits, businesses, the private sector, universities to try to bring more and more Americans together around what I think is a unifying theme: making sure that this is a country where, if you work hard, you can make it,” he added.

For a president who wasn’t popular enough to pull the down ballot races across the finish line that is what he is left with. What this mostly means is optics. A president can sign all kinds of executive orders, but they don’t really have any teeth. The reason is that they are not laws. That is why the mask mandate Biden signed is only for federal property.

Executive orders also don’t have any money behind them. Funding for government programs has to originate in the House of Representatives. Even his COVID relief bill may have problems. From CNBC:

Democrats will hold a slim majority in the House and could need Republican support to pass a bill.

Biden’s party will control the Senate later this month, but will need 10 GOP votes to approve legislation unless it opts to use a tool that requires only a majority vote. The chamber will also have to spend its limited time on the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump after last week’s U.S. Capitol attack and confirming Biden’s Cabinet.

That means the bill would have to get through the Senate using reconciliation. That would take all 50 Democrats and the VP as a tiebreaker if Republicans hold the line. That is effective, but doesn’t look good for bipartisanship.

A more dangerous method to effect change is to just reinterpret rules that are already on the books and funded. This is where we the powerless face the most peril from the executive branch.

One example is the Net Neutrality debate in 2014. It was decided that the easy way to clean it up in the Administration’s favor was to simply read the existing rules a little differently.

But in late 2014, as the FCC was finalizing its net neutrality rule in the wake of Verizon, the White House conducted an “unusual, secretive effort” to induce the agency to take a different approach by reinterpreting Title II of the Communications Act to encompass broadband Internet access service providers. If a provider falls under Title II, it is regulated as a “common carrier” that the FCC may subject to a panoply of obligations ranging from price controls to privacy mandates.

This is not the only example of bad reading resulting in government overreach. The Clean Water Act was also put through the foggy prism of the executive branch and out popped the “Waters of the United States” rule. This redefined what were called navigable waters, and turned them into any ditch or mudpuddle. This gave regulators boundless authority over farmers and real estate developers.

The phone and pen method is a showy way to claim your agenda is on track. The real power is hidden in the bureaucratic toolbox.