...After the November 2010 elections, the president — who was suddenly facing a Republican majority in the House after having enjoyed two years of Democrat rule — now had no choice but to compromise with the opposition party if he wanted to get things done legislatively. The thing is, the president didn’t want to compromise — he wanted to enact his agenda. And so he admitted quite plainly that where he could not legislate, he would regulate and do an end run around Congress. In a press conference on November 3, 2010, he discussed how he would apply that method to energy policy:
So I think when it comes to something like energy, what we’re probably going to have to do is say here are some areas where there’s just too much disagreement between Democrats and Republicans, we can’t get this done right now, but let’s not wait. Let’s go ahead and start making some progress on the things that we do agree on, and we can continue to have a strong and healthy debate about those areas where we don’t.But energy policy isn’t the only way that President Obama has penned legislation with his own hand instead of choosing the constitutional route — bills getting passed by Congress, arriving at his desk, and then signed into law. On labor laws, immigration, marijuana use, voting rights, the Defense of Marriage Act, regulating the Internet, and making appointments, this president has circumvented the legislative branch via administrative fiat whenever his agenda stalls....
