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In an interview on 60 Minutes last month, the Republican Speaker of the House, Rep. Paul Ryan, was being asked about his opinions of Donald Trump. One of his answers included the following quote (emphasis is mine):

"We've talked about the Constitution, Article 1 of the Constitution, the separation of powers. He feels very strongly actually that under President Obama's watch, he's stripped a lot of power away from the Constitution, away from the legislative branch of government, and we want to reset the balance of power so that people and the constitution are rightfully restored."

Source: full televised segment (starts at 2:08)

Question: Has power been stripped from the Constitution (e.g. powers or responsibilities of the government's system of checks & balances) during President Obama term?

Oddthinking
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dasMetzger
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    Is this going to be mainly opinion-based? – Oddthinking Jan 08 '17 at 02:53
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    In a definitional sense, no. In a practical sense, perhaps. His use of executive orders at times has raised a few eyebrows, but congress can undo any of them. –  Jan 08 '17 at 02:59
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    This really should be on [politics.se]. – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Jan 08 '17 at 03:46
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    Agreed with both concerns above – Avery Jan 08 '17 at 04:14
  • I'll post in politics, I thought that Skeptics would be a platform for discussing false or otherwise unchallenged claims. I dont see how this would be opinion based. If it is in fact a changing of the fundamental function of the constitution, not sure what is up for interpretation. – dasMetzger Jan 08 '17 at 04:35
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    Congress can't undo executive orders without a friendly president or enough votes to override a veto. And it's exactly things like that that make this difficult for Skeptics.SE. An answer is going to include a lot of original research and/or links to partisan sites. And careful definitions would allow answers to go either way. I.e. answers will tend to explain someone's opinions. – Brythan Jan 08 '17 at 04:53
  • Thanks for the explanation for what it will take to override executive orders. It sounded like Speaker Ryan was insinuating that President Obama took specific action against the constitution. I guess what he's really explaining, in a partisan tone, that Obama used the power of Executive Orders to bypass the Legislative Branch. And 'resetting' the balance of power either means to veto those EO's or simply ensure EO's aren't used by Trump? – dasMetzger Jan 08 '17 at 05:15
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    As a fairly non-partisan American observer of the political scene, I can't see that Obama used executive orders to a much greater or lesser degree than his predecessor in office. Maybe what Mr. Ryan really means is that he doesn't like what Obama did with executive orders. – jamesqf Jan 08 '17 at 05:41

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