What a pile of crap. Give a link to where you shrieked hysterically over Obama's use of his "pen and his phone."
Actually you do have a glimmer of a point but you misaddress it. CONGRESS cedes WAY TOO much power to the executive branch, but this has been the case for a half century and both parties are guilty.
I'll never forget watching Obama pledge to circumvent congress by rewriting immigration law through executive power and Harry Reid wildly demonstrating his approval. So take your sanctimonious self-righteousness and shove it. You guys FOOL NO ONE!
If this is really a concern, where are all the House Bills written without the constant "The Secretary Shall" as common as commas - everyone a grant of Legislative Power to the Executive Branch, being passed by the House?
There aren't any. They don't want to undo the Legislatively Expanded Executive, they just want at the controls.
The unitary executive philosophy is alive and well...
The Unitary Executive Constitutional Doctrine is simply Article 2, Section 1, Clause 1:
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America
ALL the power of the Executive Branch is held by The President. He alone has stood before the voters. There is no Executive Branch Authority that is not held by the President. All Executive Power is derived from The President's Constitutional Authority. We have no Lord's or Ladies, there is NO Federal Power that is not derived from someone who stood before the voters. The Federal Government has no inherent authority, it only has derived authority, from us, which we grant temporary office holders.
We are not discussing the President's inherent constitutional authority, we are discussing his additional powers, granted him by the Legislative Branch through statute.
The vast executive bureaucracy that now sprawls out from DC is largely possible because of all the endless grants of authority Congress has given to the President. Far too much, but here we are, with Congress complaining about it rather than writing new legislation to take it back. And yes, it doesn't matter which side controls congress, they both take the easy way out and grant Legislative power to Executive Agencies.
... Either embrace it or admit that most of Trump's problems are on account of him bumping up against already ridiculously broad limits of presidential powers. Either admit you think America needs a king or drop the partisan bullshit.
I'm a Constitutional Conservative. I wish Congress would take their power back, but they won't. They won't do a number of things that most want. They won't end the endless wars, they won't reduce our incredible global military footprint. They won't reduce spending. They grant vast powers to the Executive and then whine that their hands are tied, hoping that we won't notice that they tied them.
I think we need a Constitutional Amendment that allows the majority of the State Legislatures, after passing the identical bill, to put it on the President's desk for signature. Once Congress isn't the only game in town, perhaps they will begin to respond to us again, and if they refuse, we work through the State Legislatures.