Myth- The President can't do anything without the approval of Congress?

Myth- The President can't do anything without the approval of Congress?

Matthew Jones (Political Science Instructor) gives expert video advice on: Myth- The President controls the US budget?; Myth- The President can abolish the IRS?; Myth- The President is responsible for the economy? and more...

Well, the President can do many things unilaterally and obviously I am not going to be able to cover them all, but to give you some of the important ones. The President can make an Executive Order. Executive Orders are essentially laws for the administration, laws for the bureaucracy or laws for the executive branch of government. Because he is the head of the public safety forces, he can determine which laws are enforced more and which laws are enforced less. So when President Clinton was President, medical marijuana laws, which the Federal Government considers illegal, were not enforced that much. When President Bush was the President, he put in John Ashcroft as Attorney General. John Ashcroft put a little bit more priority to enforcing medical marijuana laws.