Session 10-Rise of the executive

A big manifestation of the rise of executive power in the USA is the fact that the very first president of USA, George Washington, presided over just 3 executive departments and managed fewer than 2000 federal employees, whereas the current president presides over 13 executive departments and is responsible for 2.7 million civilian employees.

According to the official website of the US govt “presidents use executive orders to direct and manage how the federal government operates.” The current president has faces accusations of abuse of executive power both  by the republicans and the democrats, the executive orders which he has signed include the halting deportation of more than 5 million illegal immigrants and increasing the minimum wage from $7.23 to $10.10 on federal service contracts. On the other hand President Bush used executive orders for not such noble causes, he managed to sidestep the Geneva Convention on interrogation techniques and restrict access to presidential records.