executive orders: who did it the most?
TBOGG, 6/25/03, reports a tempest in a teapot over which recent President or White House Occupant is the most E.O.-happy, emanating, of course, from some loony-right rumor that Bill Clinton routinely ruled by edict because he couldn't get his way in Congress. FALSE! Here, from some raw numbers in TBOGG's blog, are the averages and ranking. Note that Bush II and Clinton are running neck-and-neck (I assumed that Bush's count was correct as of 6/20/03), both of them in the same ballpark with Reagan and Bush I. This crude analysis begs more questions than it answers -- Why the drop-off beginning with Reagan? How many of the E.O.s were essentially ceremonial? How many were made in response to perceived immediate emergencies? What effect of hostile Congresses? I don't know, and neither do any of the rumormongers of the Right-Wing Web.
| President |
took office |
weeks in office |
Exec. Orders |
avg/week |
rank (1 = most) |
| Hoover |
Mar-29 |
209 |
1011 |
4.844 |
2 |
| Roosevelt |
Mar-33 |
630 |
3728 |
5.920 |
1 |
| Truman |
Apr-45 |
405 |
896 |
2.210 |
3 |
| Eisenhower |
Jan-53 |
417 |
486 |
1.164 |
9 |
| Kennedy |
Jan-61 |
148 |
214 |
1.446 |
5 |
| Johnson |
Nov-63 |
269 |
324 |
1.203 |
7 |
| Nixon |
Jan-69 |
290 |
346 |
1.192 |
8 |
| Ford |
Aug-74 |
127 |
169 |
1.329 |
6 |
| Carter |
Jan-77 |
209 |
320 |
1.533 |
4 |
| Reagan |
Jan-81 |
417 |
381 |
0.913 |
10 |
| Bush I |
Jan-89 |
209 |
166 |
0.795 |
13 |
| Clinton |
Jan-93 |
417 |
364 |
0.872 |
12 |
| Bush II |
Jan-01 |
126 |
110 |
0.874 |
11 |
Last Updated on 6/25/2003
By Professor Pollkatz
Email: drlimerick@lycos.com