Saturday, February 16, 2019

The Border, The National Emergency, And The President

     President Trump has followed through on his promise that, if necessary, he’ll declare a national emergency to get the border wall built. Congress has forced his hand with the spending bill, which he must have felt he could not veto without doing more harm than good. I’m concerned about the bill’s “poison pills,” but perhaps Trump is counting on their blatant infringement of the executive branch’s Constitutionally assigned powers to prevail in the courts.

     However, Mark “Mad Dog” Sherman notes that the screeching from the Left has already begun:

     Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she will introduce a bill with fellow Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro to stop President Donald Trump’s planned emergency declaration. New York’s Ocasio-Cortez, who was speaking on Instagram, didn’t provide specifics but Castro previously said he’d offer a joint resolution.

     There are several facets to the declaration of emergency and the reactions to it. Not the least of them is this one: A presidential declaration of national emergency cannot make, overturn, or modify an existing law. Neither can it abridge a recognized right, with certain exceptions permitted for “cases of Rebellion or Invasion” (e.g., habeas corpus). What it can legitimately do is (re)allocate federal resources, including personnel, to specific priorities: a perfectly legitimate use of executive power. As it's the president’s Constitutional duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," this is entirely within his purview, and no Congressional emission or court ruling can legally affect it.

     Let the socialists in Congress chatter and whine. They can do nothing except beclown themselves. I hope Trump is aware of that. I hope he's also aware of this: the bill he's just signed is the Republican Congressional caucus's statement that “We want no part of this border security business. If we support you, we lose our Chamber of Commerce supporters. If we oppose you, the conservative base will attack us. So we're throwing it into your lap, Mr. President. Excuse us as we pusillanimously exit stage right.”

     Are there any actual spines available for transplanting into Republican politicians?

5 comments:

mobius said...

I wasn't worried. It looked to me, that he got what he wanted.

NITZAKHON said...

Francis, my apologies; I've been trying to refrain from self-referencing except occasionally but given the paranoid thoughts I had today, I hope you will exercise some forbearance as I attempt to get the word out one what I think might be a grim harbinger:

https://redpilljew.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-immigration-bill-et-tu-rinos.html

I hope, I pray, I'm wrong. But as I've observed before, in my career I've been pretty good at taking clues from here, there, and waaaay over yonder and putting them into a picture that, with some annoyance to my colleagues at work, showed me to be right annoyingly (to them) often.

Sam L. said...

There might be one or two, but I don't know them.

Andy Texan said...

Give the Corps of Engineers a direct order to build the entire wall over the next 9 months and not stop until it's done. Limitations placed in the spending bill should be ignored. Further, he should let the courts enforce their own anti-wall orders. Then we can have it out in 2020.

Maddog said...

Thanks for the link, Francis!

Mark