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President Obama 's New Plan For Preventing Gun Violence

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When President Obama announced his new plan for preventing gun violence in January 2016, it included no fewer than twenty-three “executive actions,” in addition to a series of legislative proposals. The message was clear, in the face of congressional tension on gun control and much more. Obama will push changes through the executive branch that he believes to be for the good of the country. “Congress too must act, and Congress must act soon,” Obama said, while making it clear that the White House will not wait for the GOP controlled House. Obama used this power during his first term on a number of famous occasions. The “Mini–Dream Act” executive action, for example, was extremely successful, both in terms of public policy and progressive politics. It helped people in an immediate and tangible way, this was popular with Latinos and Asian-Americans, and may well have won him re-election. Others, like capping student loan payments, were part of the Obama administration’s “We Can’t Wait” plan, began in the fall of 2011, following the debt ceiling mess and the House Republicans refusal to seriously consider the American Jobs Act. “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job,” Obama said at the time. “Where they won’t act, I will.” An executive order, is a presidential order that carries the force of law. Such actions have a long and inconsistent history in American politics. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was passed through executive order,

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