Guest Post by Allan Brownfeld: ARBITRARY EXECUTIVE POWER: EXACTLY WHAT THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION HOPED TO PREVENT

ARBITRARY  EXECUTIVE POWER:  EXACTLY WHAT THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION HOPED TO PREVENT

                             BY
                    ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
—————————————————————+
In recent years, the division of powers and system of checks and balances so carefully written into the Constitution by the Framers has been eroding.

The power to take our country to war was clearly given to the Congress.  Yet, we have have gone to war in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places without a congressional declaration.  Both Democratic and Republican presidents have embarked upon such wars, and both Democrats and Republicans in recent days have permitted them to do so.

We are now engaged in various trade wars in which Congress has played no part.  The executive alone has announced tariffs on various countries and products and has even “ordered” American businesses to prepare to withdraw from China.  When asked upon what legislative basis he is taking such action, the president points to legislation passed by Congress which gives him such powers in “an emergency.”  The term “emergency” is never defined.  Thus, members of both parties in Congress have given the executive powers which the Condtitution clearly assigns to Congress.

Now, President Trump, eager to fast track his border wall, for which Congress has not appropriated funding,, has instructed aides to  move forward billions of dollars worth of construction contracts seize private land through eminent domain  and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved in the project.  He also reportedly told worried authorities that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break the law.to get the barrier built before the 2020 election. When aides have suggested that some of his orders violate the law, the president has told them to proceed, and is reported to have promised to pardon them.

Congress has been strangely silent about this dramatic growth in arbitrary executive authority, particularly Republicans.  It is hard any longer to recognize the Republican Party as what it once was—-the party of limited government, fiscal responsibility, free trade and fear of executive power.   

The federal deficit will expand to about $800 billion more than previously expected over the next decade, as recent increases in spending  are on track to push the deficit into levels of debt unseen since the end of World War ll.   The annual U.S. deficit will come close to hitting $1 trillion in 2019:  an unusually high number during a period of economic growth, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)reported.  Driving that number is spending as well as a large tax cut on corporate and individual taxes passed by Republicans in 2017.

The CBO report declares that, “Deficits are now expected to be larger than previously projected.  To put debt on a sustainable course, lawmakers will have to make significant changes to tax and spending policies.”

The Founding Fathers feared the growth of arbitrary government power.  They did their best to create a system that would prevent it, but they were afraid it might not work.  In The Federalist Papers, James Madison wrote:  “It may be a reflection on human nature that that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.  But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?  If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.  In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this:  you must first enable the government  to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

Partisan politics often causes people to defend policies they later regret—-because it is their own party which is implementing them and they want to remain “loyal.”  This a strange kind of loyalty, when principle is abandoned for temporary partisan gain. It is ironic to hear Republicans condemn Democrats as “socialists” (which some are) while embracing a president who single-handedly “commands” American business about what it should do and is ready, without proper legal authority, to, on his own, engage in costly trade wars.  Is this not government controlling the economy—-which, after all, is what socialism is?

I remember a different Republican Party.  For a number of years, I worked in Congress with such thoughtful and principled Republicans as Reps. George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Phil Crane and Jack Kemp.  Sometimes we disagreed.  But they were always guided by a deep respect for our system of constitutional government.  They did not view their Democratic counterparts as “enemies,” but sought,as often as they could, to form coalitions to advance the best interests of the country.  That’s how we ended segregation and won the Cold War.

We need a Republican Party like that again. We need one which fears arbitrary executive power.  When and if such a party will reappear is difficult  to,predict.  What we have now is something quite different, and quite diminished.