I am not surprised 16 states are challenging the President’s state-of-emergency funding for “his” wall on the US-Mexican border. In fact, I disagree with Trump’s disdain for Congress’s bipartisan funding (even though I admire his campaign promises kept). In my opinion, President Trump has stepped one toke over the line toward an imperial presidency, which is what did in Richard Nixon.
Like every president, Donald Trump took an oath to uphold the constitution, meaning he must recognize the power of appropriation belongs to Congress. I disagreed when President Obama ignored Congress after Republicans gained control, and I cannot support Trump in similar circumstances. With this fleeting show of strength, he has opened Pandora’s box.
This power grab calls Trump’s character into question. He campaigned against the “deep state” swamp that was not duly elected by we the people. He criticized President Obama’s executive orders that side-stepped a duly-elected Republican Congress. Until this stunt, Trump was consistent in not straying into the swamp. Now, not so much.
When Trump campaigned, his argument for the wall was twofold. He reminded voters that Democrats in Congress had previously supported the wall, calling out Democrats as disingenuous partisans. He was right in doing so; therefore, he should not now take a similarly narrow action to appease his partisan supporters. Isn’t Trump now just as partisan as Barack Obama was with his DACA order?
Trump also argued that Mexicans were stealing low-skill jobs from native-born Americans. His sense of emergency for low-income Americans was genuine and got him elected. However, there are more job openings today than un-employed Americans, as well as record low un-employment for Americans with only a high school education. In economic lingo, these changed circumstances suggest there is no state of emergency.
President Trump has opened himself to unfavorable judicial reviews; so, why take the risk? His State of the Union address gave him a nice bump in approval numbers. Democrats are self-destructing left and further left. With the 2020 election ahead, the optics of an imperial presidency just create a negative headwind.
Even if America’s commander in chief can divert funds to defend a border that is “under attack” without waiting for Congress to appropriate the money, the court battles will take forever – and Democrats will land a few haymakers. Bottom line: Trump will look defensive and much-needed independent voters will tire of the “immigration” argument.
As a political matter, Trump’s state-of-emergency declaration sets a bad precedent for a mad-lib Democrat like Elizabeth Warren. Wouldn’t President Warren have declared a state of emergency in 2009 to nationalize America’s major banks? And you can bet, after Parkland, she would have declared a state-of-emergency, ordering the US military to confiscate guns at highway checkpoints. Trump’s wall is not worth the trade-off.
True conservatives support the separation of powers – even if that support denies funding a border wall they believe is necessary. True conservatives don’t want Congress to keep surrendering power to the executive branch. Congress is already passing laws that are actually written by un-elected bureaucrats, and this trend must stop before “Your Excellency” replaces “Mr. President.”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) spoke to this last week: “Congress has been ceding far too much power to the executive for decades. We should use this moment as an opportunity to start taking that power back.” Of course, bipartisan legislation is hard, but the Founders gave Congress the power of the purse as a check against an imperial president with self-serving spending habits that could ruin the country’s finances (see the monarchs of Europe).
Candidate Trump swore America would come first on his watch. To conservatives, this meant lower taxes and fewer regulations. To populists, this meant immigration and trade reforms to help working-class Americans. It never meant congressional under-reach or presidential over-reach. Republicans in Congress need to man up on this “state of emergency” baloney, because America is meant to be a constitutional republic – not a monarchy!