The primary focus of President Obama's State of the Union was to position his 2014 agenda around wielding the power of the presidency through the use of executive actions.

It's a (perhaps overdue) reflection of political reality and a contrast to the way he's implored Congress to act on his legislative priorities in previous SOTUs -- typically coming up empty-handed. With his own approval ratings down and base-driven midterm elections on the horizon, Obama has disabused himself of the prospects of enacting grand bargains here and bipartisan comprehensive solutions there.



"America does not stand still – and neither will I," Obama declared in the thesis-defining lines of his speech. "So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do."



His plan to sidestep congressional opposition by governing through executive action has drawn predictable howls of "tyranny" from the opposition. But if the executive actions the White House is already floating for 2014 are anything to go by, the tyranny will prove to be a modest, benevolent, mostly unnoticed one. If anything, Obama's actions show just how weak the office of the presidency may be -- or at least, in this case, chooses to be.



The most publicized action that the White House unveiled on Tuesday was to raise the minimum wage among federal contract workers to $10.10. The practical effects of this change - how many federal contract workers are earning minimum wage, exactly? - may be minimal. The move does set up a marker for the Democratic midterms, though, on which a legislative proposal to raise the minimum wage for all workers to $10.10 is becoming the banner campaign item - along with immigration reform, the other issue where Democrats hope to box in Republicans.



The president plans to set new fuel efficiency standards for heavy duty vehicles. That's something. His Treasury department will create new, modest retirement savings accounts available to employees whose employers do not offer such benefits. One retirement analyst doesn't expect much from this, and suggests it's more a tactical maneuver to set "the beginning stages of a debate about retirement issues.”



From there, though, the level of tangible effects on policy decreases dramatically.

Many of the other actions aren't actually ... actions ... so much as considerations of possible, distant further action. In one "action," the president "will host a summit on working families to highlight the policies that will ensure America's global economic competitiveness by supporting working families; showcase companies doing exemplary work in this space; and highlight model laws and policies from cities and states across the country in areas such as discrimination, flexibility and paid leave." To call this little gathering an "executive action" or equate it with the power of the presidency is insulting.



There are other "summits" or meetings disguised as actions as well. In another, "the president will convene a group of CEOs and other leaders around supporting best practices for hiring the long-term unemployed". He will have a photo op with some CEOs and ask them to hire unemployed people. Great, that should do the trick. He will be "asking colleges and universities, non-profits and businesses to work with him on ways to improve students’ access to and completion of higher education". And after he asks them and they meet with him, then what? He will also "mobilize business leaders, community colleges, mayors and governors, and labor leaders to increase the number of innovative apprenticeships in America". Mobilize how? Will he give them money to do something, or not?



And then there's the vice-president's review of federal job-training programs, which is about as close to a parody of inefficient, bureaucratic government action as imaginable.



With all of these summits and roundtables, the list of the president's 2014 executive actions sounds less like a governing agenda and more like an itinerary for a three-day bus trip.

