Letters: Can’t compare abuses by Bush and Obama

Re “Unchecked executive power,” Dec. 8

Expressing concerns about excessive executive power is one thing. But for professors Jacob S. Hacker and Oona A. Hathaway to compare the abuses committed by Presidents Bush and Obama is troubling.

The Bush administration didn’t ignore Congress when going to war in the Middle East; it lied to Congress and to the American public about the very reason to go to war. And if the Republicans in Congress engaged in negotiations that allowed for more open and honest discussions, Hacker’s and Hathaway’s objections would be entirely valid.

The professors would also be wise to address how any president can move an agenda forward with an intractable opposition party, especially one that states from the outset that its top goal is to make that president a one-term chief executive.

I ask how this kind of legislative behavior makes the government function better?

Rodney K. Boswell

Thousand Oaks

ALSO:

Letters: The biggest fish to fry aren’t in Bell

Letters: Government waste? Another day in L.A.

Letters: Republicans are losing another ethnic group