Lamest Duck Ever?

How many lame ducks does it take to screw in a light bulb? Trick question, lame ducks can't do jack. Or can they? Many people are calling George W. Bush the lamest duck ever, seemingly trying to hide from this economic crisis that we have found ourselves in. Perhaps W forgot that President-Elect Barack Obama doesn't take office until January 20th, and that until then there can only be one President of the United States.

So what exactly is Bush doing during these last couple months of his presidency? He is not as lame as one may think. Although he has appeared to be hiding from important issues such as our economic crisis, the Bush White House has managed to approve of over 60 new regulations over the past month, and there will be many more to come before Obama takes office on January 20th.



These "last minute" regulations that Bush has approved of deal with environmental, security, social, and commercial matters, and will add an estimated 2 billion dollar stress on our economy. Many of these new rules are nonsensical, a waste of money, and do more harm than good. For example, many of these new regulations help corporations that have had a hard time abiding pollution-control laws as well as wilderness-protection laws simply by easing the restrictions that were previously placed on these companies.

There are several other regulations that the Bush Administration has passed over the past month that are very odd. Most notably they have set standards for what kinds of records must be kept by sexually explicit performers and publications. They have also expanded the collection of DNA samples from federal prisoners, have passed a law that allows truck companies to force their drivers to stay on the road for 11 hours without any breaks, and have also forced the Environmental Protection Agency to remove a law that requires truck manufacturers to install a piece of equipment that monitors the vehicle's pollution. Is it just me, or is it completely irresponsible to be passing all of these silly laws while people are losing their jobs, are being kicked out of their homes, and while our economy remains very fragile?

During Obama's campaign he said that he would reverse many of Bush's policies, most notably dealing with stem cell research, oil drilling, and abortion. These last few months of Bush's lame duck session has only created more unnecessary, tedious work for the Obama Administration. Once Bush's new rules take the form of law, they can only be undone through three complicated means. 1) Through a new regulatory rule-making that would probably take years, 2) through congressional amendments to underlying laws, or 3) through special resolutions of disapproval that must be approved by the House and Senate within a few months after the start of the new congressional session on January 6th, 2009. So until W gets out of the White House he will be as lame as he wants to be, and nobody is going to stop him.