Barack Obama in To Save America, by Newt Gingrich

On Energy & Oil: OpEd: Fast-tracking green energy projects took two years

On Energy & Oil: New coal plants ok if they pay for greenhouse gas emission

On Environment: Stimulus bill earmark for LA-Vegas mag-lev railway

On Environment: Greenhouse gases declared dangerous to public health

The announcement deliberately coincided with the climate change conference, which aims to establish an international treaty to reduce greenhouse emissions. Of course, the president cannot implement a treaty by himself; he needs the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate. So the EPA's announcement was actually a threat to circumvent the Senate's constitutional prerogatives. Obama was indicating he would commit the United States to carbon-cutting goals reached at Copenhagen, and if the Senate refused to approve a carbon-cutting treaty or to pass capo and trade, Obama would simply use the EPA to regulate carbon whether the Senate likes it or not.

On Government Reform: Used signing statements, like Bush, 17 times in 2009

After taking office, however, Obama suddenly became enamored with signing statements. In fact, in 2009 Obama used signing statements to object to specific legislative provisions 17 times. Obama stopped issuing statements after some Democrats objected that he was breaking his campaign pledge. Promise salvaged?

Actually, no--it just got worse. The Obama administration still ignores parts of legislation they sign; they just stopped issuing signing statements announcing their intention to do so. Instead, the administration feels justified in ignoring objectionable provisions as long as they have previously expressed concern about them in a "statement of administration policy."

On Health Care: Promised time for Congress to read ObamaCare bill

As the debate over health reform heated up that summer, the president made another pledge: "I just want everybody to know, Congress will have time to read the bill. They will have time to debate the bill. They will have all of August to review the various legislative proposals. When we come back in September, I will be available to answer any question that members of Congress have. If they want to come over to the White House and go over line by line what's going on, I will be happy to do that."

Did the health reform debate live up to the president's standard? Hardly. The American people were promised a fair, bipartisan, transparent process. But instead the Democrats wrote trillion-dollar, 2,000-plus page bills in secret with no republican input and no public oversight.