Interim Dean Stuart Shaprio assesses the post-midterm strategy of the White House in this opinion post from The Hill.
“So — presidents then turn to the other tools in their arsenal, specifically — as President Obama famously declared — the “pen and the phone.” In particular, after the first two years of their terms, Presidents Clinton and Obama increasingly used regulation (“the pen”) as a policy-making device. It is generally impossible for Congress to restrict the issuance of regulations that implement an already existing piece of law (unless that regulation comes in the last six months of the president’s final term).”