Obama's executive order #13603

This came up in conversation and I tracked it down. From the Federal Register (PDF):

National Defense Resources Preparedness
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

PART I�PURPOSE, POLICY, AND IMPLEMENTATION
Section 101. Purpose. This order delegates authorities and addresses national defense resource policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the "Act").

Sec. 102. Policy. The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contrib-uting to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency. The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness. The authorities provided in the Act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.

Jim Powell wrote an excellent article at Forbes a year ago (to this day actually) that outlines the powers that Obama can claim:

Obama's Plan To Seize Control Of Our Economy And Our Lives
President Obama has made clear that he�s determined to continue pushing his �progressive� agenda, regardless of constitutional limitations on his power. He aims to have his way by issuing more and more executive orders.

More specifically:

Obama�s plan involves seizing control of:

• �All commodities and products that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals�
• �All forms of energy�
• �All forms of civil transportation�
• �All usable water from all sources�
• �Health resources � drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment�
• Forced labor ( or �induction� as the executive order delicately refers to military conscription)

Moreover, federal officials would �issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources.�

Each government bureaucracy �shall act as necessary and appropriate.�

To be sure, much of this language has appeared in national security executive orders that previous presidents have issued periodically since the beginning of the Cold War.

But more than previous national security executive orders, Obama�s 13603 seems to describe a potentially totalitarian regime obsessed with control over everything. Obama�s executive order makes no effort to justify the destruction of liberty, no effort to explain how amassing totalitarian control would enable government to deal effectively with cyber sabotage, suicide bombings, chemical warfare, nuclear missiles or other possible threats. It�s quite likely there would be greater difficulty responding to threats, since totalitarian regimes suffer from economic chaos, colossal waste, massive corruption and bureaucratic infighting that are inevitable consequences of extreme centralization.

All spelled out in black and white. Read.