Obama not a dictator

The assertion by Mindy Wright in her Feb. 4 letter that President Barack Obama is a dictator lacks certain facts.

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that executive power shall be vested in a president. Obama has issued 167 executive orders in five years, for an average of 33 per year. By contrast, President Ronald Reagan issued an average of 48 a year. President George W. Bush averaged 36 per year, attaching statements to over 100 laws that he signed.

Signing an executive order requiring federal agencies to only hire contractors that pay their employees $10.10 an hour doesn’t ring of abusing his executive power. When two out every three people in the country favor increasing the minimum wage, the House of Representatives finds it more important to vote to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act over 40 times, and won’t even bring the minimum wage law to the floor for a vote, then it’s time for Obama to do what presidents ordinarily do.

If Republican leaders in Congress decided to work with this president on any issue, his use of executive orders would be a nonissue.

Joe Speranzi

Spokane