Why is Memory So Short But Tales are so Tall?

Rand Paul today criticized President Obama’s 23 Executive Orders to finally put gun violence prevention in the forefront of federal concern because he believes that The President is overreaching his authority.

 

He cited President Obama’s developing “King Complex” as a possible cause for overreach.

He also says that he is filing legislation to “nullify” some of these Executive Orders.

Fat chance of that ever happening. Rand Paul tells tall tales, but has the shortest memory in the US Senate.

Did any of Barack Obama’s orders do anything to curtail the sale of assault weapons in this country? Anything to limit the number of cartridges a magazine can hold? Absolutely not. No, all of Obama’s orders dealt with ways the federal government – the Executive Branch of the federal government – goes about his job.

That, I think, is well within The President’s purview.

And Rand Paul’s memory is so short. Well, maybe because he was in college hazing innocent freshmen rushers that he didn’t get the news that, in 1986, Ronald Reagan issued an Executive Order to ban the import of assault rifles. Banning import of any class of foreign weapons, too, is within the presidential purview as the 1968 gun control act made it so.

Barack Obama didn’t do any of that, on that level.

And the cynic in me says that Reagan did what he did to give American armorers a leg-up on their foreign competitors.

Barack Obama has issued 144 Executive Orders thus far. Compare that to Dubya’s 291, his father’s 166 (one term) and Ronald Reagan’s 381.

Rand Paul is either a naïve buffoon or a liar with the memory of a mayfly.

Either way, the shoe fits.