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Senate Candidate Claims Harry Reid Is Conspiring To Let Obama Run The Country Unilaterally

CREDIT: ALICE OLLSTEIN
CREDIT: ALICE OLLSTEIN

MCDONOUGH, GEORGIA — -David Perdue, the Republican candidate for Georgia’s open Senate seat in one of the tightest races in the nation, told a crowd of supporters this weekend that Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid is in cahoots with President Obama to allow him to govern through executive orders.

“Why is [Reid] blocking those bills?” Perdue said to a group of Republican activists in a small town south of Atlanta. “To allow Barack Obama to run our country and our government using executive orders and regulatory mandates without Congress!”

Perdue said it was important for Republicans to take control of the Senate to thwart this collusion. “I’ll be just one vote, but I’m going to fight every day against that.”

The argument that President Obama has abused the executive powers of his office has been a popular theme among Republican lawmakers and candidates this election cycle.

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The president has said repeatedly that he resorts to executive orders only when Congress refuses to act on urgent matters of national importance. And with the current Congress passing the fewest substantive bills of any Congress in modern history, it has become a more frequent tactic to accomplish certain goals.

As for Perdue’s claim that Majority Leader Reid is in on the scheme, both of Congress’ majority leaders — he and Republican House Speaker John Boehner — are tasked with scheduling votes on a tiny fraction of the thousands of bills introduced every year. Members of the minority party in both houses have voiced frustration when they don’t get a vote on a bill they care about, and have tried several tactics to force the majority to hold one. Democrats in the House tried to force votes on immigration reform and unemployment insurance when Boehner refused to allow those bills to the floor, while Republicans in the Senate have tried to force votes on approving the Keystone XL pipeline and repealing the Affordable Care Act. Those same Senate Republicans have filibustered hundreds of bills that Reid has brought up for a vote, from background checks for gun purchases to the nominee for Surgeon General.

Still, the idea of the president going overboard on executive actions resonates among many Republican voters, including Gene and Sandy Yancey, who lead the Grace Church of Georgia and came out to Perdue’s rally this weekend. Sandy Yancey told ThinkProgress she fears this November “might be our last election ever.”

“There’s a rogue government and they consider our Constitution tissue paper, toilet paper!” she said. “Right now we’re in the crux between freedom and slavery for 300-plus million people. That’s what the rogue government wants to do. To me, [this election] is our last great hope for freedom.”

Her husband agreed, adding that he’s “concerned about every one” of the president’s executive orders. “Obama is trying to enslave us and become a dictator, using his executive orders and bypassing the Congress,” he warned. “It’s a horrible thing we’re drifting into and we need to stop it on November 4th. The only thing we can do is try to vote for these people to give us a little freedom, a little longer to be free.”

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The Yanceys told ThinkProgress they fear the President will “confiscate anyone’s food, clothing and shelter” and “declare martial law.”

Nearly every past president, Republicans and Democrats, have used the constitutional power of the executive order, and many have used it far more than President Obama. To date, he has signed 192 executive orders — -on issues ranging from LGBT workplace rights to immigration. To put that in perspective, Ronald Reagan signed 381, while Teddy Roosevelt issued a whopping 1,081. Of course, President Obama has a few more years in office, but he’s been averaging about 33 orders per year, fewer than any president going back to Grover Cleveland.