The commander-in-chief has authority over defense resources. That's for starters.
And congress itself spent $310 billion in unauthorized appropriations in FY2016 so they have no legal or moral ground to stand on. Unless they want to start talking about authorization for the $17 million paid out from their hush money slush fund since 1997.
And you can bet the administration can find a few $billion sloshing around a $3 trillion plus budget.
This whole thing was about Democrats wanting to score political points against President Trump, but failed. His approval rating actually rose after his sotus address where he explained the border crisis to the nation
https://www.mercatus.org/publication/unauthorized-appropriations-continue-grow
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-congress-plays-by-different-rules-on-sexual-harassment-and-misconduct/2017/10/26/2b9a8412-b80c-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6dab83da4c86
This fake emergency sets a precedent not only for future administrations, but, most dangerously, for the current administration. What will the 45th president do with his new emergency powers? He can spend our money on anything he chooses and construct the lies to cover his actions.
"the president had no other option given the bipartisan spending compromise that denied him money for his coveted wall"
He has the same option as any other president that doesn't get what they want from Congress. He can give up or try again another time.
There was only one true statement that I can recall in Trump's rambling, pseudo nervous breakdown style of a speech when he declared a national emergency. He was right when he said he'll be sued in district court and lose, it will go to the appellate division and he'll lose there, and then it will go to the Supreme Court. And with two new Trump lackeys now in place, it will be Chief Justice Roberts who will determine whether or not we have two functioning branches or government or three.
It’s only dangerous if they let him do it. They can.
So what say you, Republicans? Are you friend or foe? Are you co-conspirators or patriots?
7
@Matthew - I think we know the answer to your question.
There is no precedent for a national emergency on calling for DACA recipients to remain in the US either, but Democrats never said a word when President Obama called for one to accomplish this.
The article complains that if this fake "emergency" is allowed to proceed "Republicans won’t be left with much room to complain..." if Dems do the same thing. This observation does not do justice to the perverse atrophy of our governmental institutions, in which the legality of virtually any conduct is determined by the political affiliation of the administration asserting it. The most serious problem we face is whether our institutions are strong enough to withstand the partisan abuse heaped upon them day after day after day.
Rubio’s comment stating that we have a crisis at the southern border is as wrong and as bone-headed as possible. Stop giving this guy cover! The only crisis we have is a fevered mind controlling the levers of Republican power in the country.
1
I can’t add anything. I remember posting two years ago that he was committing impeachable offenses.
2
If this fake emergency is allowed to stand. We won't need Congress anymore. We will have a full on presidential dictatorship ruling our Country. No more United States.
2
If this holds up in court, the wall is a small price to pay for when a Democrat gets in the Whitehouse and declares a national emergency on climate change.
2
Seeing Trump make so many false statements to push his campaign promise we know the man lies and is corrupt. When Trump was in the Oval office with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador (spy chief) bragging about getting rid of crazy FBI director the Russian problem should be over. By the way here is some top secret intel from Israel to show you guys what I can deliver to you guys if Putin keeps quiet about my corrupt deals with Russians. Since Trump has met privately alone with Putin on several occasions is it possible Trump has passed on the names of agents we may have in the Kremlin or top secret data we get from the 5 eyes intel countries all as showing his good faith and loyalty to Putin as much as he can. I hope our intel chiefs realize this guy cannot be trusted.
2
This action is not making America Great. Never has the USA been led by such a delusional leader(?), and I’m including Nixon’s drunken conversations with Abe’s portrait in the White House.
3
"But to many on Capitol Hill, it is the declaration itself that could become the emergency."
Yup.
1
Sad to think there are many who believe Trump’s tales
2
@MEH - Trump’s tales are believed only by the worst among us.
Sorry, Obama started this by invoking executive power to establish his national health insurance and dreamer immigration programs. Now it’s time for the other side, so quit your complaining.
1
The man has turned himself into a Venezuelan style dictator. All he lacks is his own private army. What he’ll get is a revolution since the majority of Americans don’t want to pay for this damnable senseless wall.
2
Republicans believe the border issue outweighs our Nation’s gun violence epidemic? Really? Nothing could be clearer than that Republicans will shriek “Emergency!” for any issue that they think will add political value. And this is not a bipartisan thing, Repubs own this stinking garbage. I actually think the border issue is serious especially with the caravan waves being organized by flatly dumb, illegal and illegitimate groups like Pueblo Sin Fronteras (more like Pueblo Sin Ley (Law)). But the hypocrisy will be remembered through 2020 for every Republican who supports Trump through this - right down to the last defeat.
1
"...But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who had suggested misgivings of his own, said he would back Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration...'
Mitch is the real culprit in this drama! He is the puppet master!!
2
An emergency is something needing immediate attention or it will be a terminal situation and die on paper or in reality without emergency actions
Trump is taking funds for his campaign
Not wall building.
He lied and lie daily
Will he get 25 years in prison
Please Mueller ..... get him out of our realm
2
Pelosi tried to stick it to Trump and Trump is using his own tactics. The president had no other option but to surrender or fight back. He chose to fight back. If Pelosi had given him a reasonable amount of $4 to $5 million to construct barriers to control illegals in exchange for DAKA and TPP, it would have helped her base and advanced national interest of controlling illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking. Hispanics and Haitian people in Florida should be real mad at her. She put those people in jeopardy because of her ego. So, Trump would easily win Florida. He will win in Virginia too because real racists and rapist who are Democrats are ruling there and they don't want to resign. Because of that Trump will win even if he lose PA, WI and MI. With AOC fighting real hard for common people by driving out Amazon from NY and creating Green New Deal, Trump may even win NY. If Trump win in court for his emergency declaration, liberal base will become depressed. If Mueller doesn't report real collusion crime, liberal punditry and fake news will be in real trouble. Nobody will believe them and Trump will become the truth teller and fact checkers will become liars. The dream of deplorables.
1
Exactly how will the wall help in FL, the PR’s come legally by air, and the Haitians come by sea. We have so many Mexicans that the majority are born here. So in 2020 Fl will still be up for grabs and easily go for the Democrats if the PR’s get out the vote.
Republicans will have no trouble crying, "Foul," in the future, if a Democratic President pulls the same stunt. Hypocrisy poses no problem for them. A few will grumble about democracy and the Constitution and then will support Trump. Rubio always does. They have done that daily for 2 years. I'd like to see the NYT contact more Republican Senators and expose their views. Do not merely interview the few who are standing around in the hallway hoping for a little publicity. Rubio will support Trump. Congress gave Obama little choice. The moment Obama was elected, Mitch McConnell announced that Republicans would ensure that Obama accomplished NOTHING. This was not about policy. This was about the Party and the Man. For them it is always about the Party - never about the country. Shameful. The only solution - get them out.
2
The GOP will do nothing. It's what they do when it comes to Trump. When we are rid of them for good (a party of cowards they will wilt into irrelevance), that is how they will be remembered.
1
To me, the most disappointing actor in this latest power grab is not President Trump, of whom I had little hope as to his fidelity to the Constitution and historic political norms, although even he has gone beyond what I anticipated; but Senate Majority Leader McConnell, with whom I may heave disagreed on many issues, but thought he was a constitutional and institutional devotee. Apparently my assessment was wrong. Having advised the President not to utilize theoretical emergency executive powers, once the President did so he caved, again, without regard to Congress' powers in Article 1. I used to at least admire his fortitude, but he has time and again proven to be nothing more than another Trump lackey.
2
@William Mutterperl - Republicans - and in particular, McConnell - have a great deal to hide, and they know that with Trump loyalty is a one-way street. They live in terror of their president’s twitter feed. They dare not cross him. Don’t look for them to change. Like the rest of us, they’re just counting the days until Trump is out of the White House.
I am with Pelosi here. Never thought I’d agree with her again- but she is right. I don’t support this move and I wouldn’t support it even if the president were a democrat, but come on, what do republicans think will happen next time a democrat is president?
National Emergency #1: climate change
National Emergency #2: gun violence
Republicans have to know where this will end... I suppose they just don’t care so long as they don’t have to stand up to Trump.
1
The minute, no, the second, that Dems take all three branches, "emergency powers" should be invoked to:
- Enact health care for all.
- Enact a Green New Deal.
- Enact major gun control measures.
- Enact rules to take on big pharma to lower drug prices.
- Enact measures to strengthen unions.
- Enact infrastructure spending expansion.
Thanks, Donald!
2
The silver lining is that if he gets away with this, I’m seeing the possibility of a President who recognizes a true national emergency, the catastrophic storms and fires escalated by climate change, and diverts billions to speed the development of solar energy technology.
1
Why did Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan strip incoming governors of their their enumerated powers on the grounds of executive overreach even as the party at large, as it is manifested in the legislative branch, refuses to keep the executive branch in check (and balances)?
Why the shameless hypocrisy, Republicans?
2
Just think a future Russian leader like Gorbachev can quote Ronald Reagan and tell us to "Tear this wall down."
But things are truly in the Twilight Zone when you find yourself agreeing with "little" Marco Rubio.
But Trump is right to say this is a national emergency. Only it's not about immigrants, it's about Trump trashing the Constitution and betraying his oath of office.
If Trump is desperate for a wall, give him the four walls of a federal prison cell.
3
" “While Democratic leadership has refused to tackle this issue, I stand with President Trump in favor of funding border security as we head into budget talks for the upcoming fiscal year.”"
And yet it was obviously the Republican leadership too until they lost the House, since they ALSO denied Trump money for his wall over the last 2 years.
Republicans = Liars
3
Underestimating one’s opponent is a classic blunder, one which we’re often warned may lead us to disaster. However, with regard to Mr. Trump, the possibility of overestimation is quite real.
Over the past three years I have listened to news analysts speculate on Trump’s “legislative game plan” or his “policy goals.” I’ve read newspaper articles and editorials, and hundreds of comments to the NYTimes, that credit Donald Trump with abilities he choses to either disguise or to hide altogether.
“Trump pretends to be crazy but he’s not. Crazy people aren’t responsible. Get it?”
“Trump is always four steps ahead. He’s very devious. Democrats don’t have a clue.”
Having been offered so many warnings that I’m underestimating Trump, and having thought about this matter for so long, I’d like to propose two possible conclusions.
1. If, in truth, the bumbling, verbally-deficient, self-contradicting liar we see on television is actually just a character, an intricate invention of Trump’s devious mind — we are in the presence of both intellectual and dramatic genius. The complexity and depth of the hopelessly flawed character whom Trump brilliantly portrays day after day is a marvel of meticuously disguised intentions.
2. Trump is every bit as unbalanced and idiotic as he appears to be. Every bit as arrogant, as boorish and as pathological. His plan is to “lie his way in, then lie his way out.” Later, to deny ever having been there. No policies. No goals. No ethics. Only EGO and NEED.
2
So Mitch McConnell puts the final nail in the coffin for institutionalism among Senate leadership, just as Paul Ryan did with the House.
It took McConnell what - a week? - to go from “an emergency declaration would be a really bad idea “ to “Whatever you want, Donald, I support it.” At one time, it appeared that McConnell looked at the long term and at the concept of the Congress as a co-equal branch of government. Nowadays, his vision extends barely past the end of his nose. Now it’s “All Trump, all the time.”
The day when this craven weasel loses his re-election bid cannot come a nanosecond too soon.
1
Why didn't Trump invoke an emergency during the two years when Republicans controlled the House?
1
I cannot believe that intelligent folks in the house and Senate would approve of this - even Republicans- I studied the Constitution in school and seems to me that there is no proven National Emergency that would give this guy ( notice I refuse to use the word President - he is unfit to hold that title in my opinion!) The President can ask but Congress must agree - and I beg the sane members of Congress and also the courts to see that Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder and psychotically disabled people are not fit to make these important decisions ! We had more issues here with home grown terrorists than anyone coming from another country - and walls can't stop that!
2
What a disturbing and rambling speech. Did I really hear the president of the United States say that we should govern more like China? He really does want to be a dictator.
1
This is what a dictatorship looks like in its early days. If the Republicans don't reign Trump in, they'll be ushering in new reign - and imperial one.
1
Is there any research on which action the founding fathers thought was a more serious threat to our system of government-having sex with an intern and lying about it or an unconstitutional usurpation of Congressional power by a rogue chief executive who governs as an autocrat?
But seriously, does anyone doubt the Republicans' ability to hypocritically support Trump in this case yet wail and moan about how it is such an danger to the nation when a Democrat does something that isn't close to this level of subversion? Or that the Democrats will let them get away with it?
1
When this arrives at the highest court, as it surely will, I think the right leaning members of the Supreme Court will side with their opposite leaning brethern on the basis that the precedent this would create would open a pandoras box of, "emergencies," declared by presidents eager to achieve their stated goals.
8
The law provides a mechanism for Congress to invalidate Trump's declaration of a fictitious "emergency." They should use it, immediately, if not sooner.
20
Hm... it is perfectly OK for Democrats to proudly announce that Cities and States are sanctuaries for illegal immigration and they will not obey the law of the land to cooperate with deportation even for individuals indicted for serious crimes. Oh, and Mr. Obama extended executive protection for the "dreamers' who have no legal right to be here. Now, Mr. Trump comes along and want to take emergency executive action to deal with the calamitous situation along our border to build a wall that would remedy future problems. After the outrageous flouting of the law by Democrats, Mr. Trump is a model of responsibility by comparison.
3
@Alex It's ironic that you come from Philadelphia where our Constitution was signed. Since you are so far from the border maybe you don't realize there is no "calamitous situation along our border" that a wall will help. But you should realize what a serious violation of our republic's founding laws that Trump is creating by ignoring the clear will of Congress.
4
@Alex:
Good grief. That's just desperate.
Obama acted within his Constitutional authority, and didn't declare the situation an emergency.
Not only that, he didn't declare the situation an emergency and then say "I didn't have to do that."
Moreover, he didn't declare an emergency and then skip off to his mansion - where he employs undocumented people - to play golf all weekend.
And Obama certainly didn't believe he could usurp the Constitution and help himself to the national purse.
Besides, more than 30 of Trump's inner ciricle is conviced, indicted, cooperating, or under investigation by the FBI. No-drama Obama had no such situation; nothing even remotely close.
As I said, desperate. Laughably so.
3
@Alex:
HOW, just HOW would the wall remedy future problems?
the wall would be an attempt towards an easy way out
of centuries of responsibilities owed to countries which
have been plundered and devastated by northern greed
and its insatiable desire to live lives of luxury *)
at the expense of almost all of the southern hemisphere.
if you don't finally agree to adopt FAIR ECONOMIC policies
no wall will ever be high enough to remedy future problems.
_______________
*) gold, diamonds, coffee, cotton, spices, rare earths, oil ...
1
Round #1 of this constitutional tussle will probably land in John Robert's lap.
Looking to the near future, when a Democrat will very likely occupy the White House, Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi should immediately draft and publish the 3 Emergency Powers declarations that will be declared within the first 30 days of the next Democratic presidency. The genuine emergencies they should address are 1) gun violence, 2) universal healthcare as a basic right and 3) climate change. Only once these genuine emergencies have been addressed and resolved, the Dems might offer to work with responsible Republicans on legislation that would reinforce Article 1 and establish objective requirements for future declarations of a national emergencies.
It's not too late to avert this Constitutional brinkmanship but will require the help of enough Republican senators to override a Trump veto. Democratic leadership should make it clear that if the Republicans bend over for Trump on this "emergency" declaration, they should be prepared to assume the same posture for many more such declarations. If this "emergency' makes them uncomfortable, the next ones are really going to sting.
14
Many, if not most, of the laws on our books are there because good people, or even neutral ones, followed SUGGESTIONS for good behavior. Then some amoral person comes along and violates those suggestions. Now we need a law.
5
What goes around comes around. I suppose the Romans were in this spot 2000 years ago. How well did that turn out?
3
A question for my fellow readers. Are there any among you who have the legal expertise to answer this?
What constitutes "an emergency"? Is there any legal definition or precedent that will be looked at when this reaches the courts?
2
I would like to see some analysis of the effects on the government programs that are to lose their funding under this emergency declaration.
4
I will eat my hat, metaphorically if not literally, if Senator Susan Collins actually stands on principle. Any principle at all, because that would be a first in her too long time as a Senator.
19
I grant you the Republicans sued Obama for unauthorized expenditures and won.
But you don't tell us what these expenditures were? Here is the rest of the story.
The 44th spent to support a law "Obamacare" - and not an emergency. Republicans won in Obamacare because Congress - without one Republican vote - had written into law that no subsidies would be paid that were not collected from the individual mandate.
The 44th opened US Treasury and paid out billions to exchanges - that was no emergency.
As to "Mrs Pelosi has a point."
Indeed, she has.
But the point she has is she overstretched her personal animosity to this POTUS and attempted to turn into a law - in which she spectacularly failed.
I respect Madame Speaker - but if anyone is acting above the law - it is her staging these signing ceremonies.
I think it is so childish and unnecessary even to give an appearance that her signature is the force of law. And she knows better.
That to me - that is way way above the law.
1
This will work our for the Dems. Either
1) this goes to court and Trump loses;
Balance of powers starts to be re-established
2) Trump wins this. We all pay for wall. He loses 2020. Next president declares a national emergency for climate change and we start some version of green new deal
9
I’m afraid that the reasonable and compassionate, whether on the left or on the right, are unconsciously denying the following:
Under the peculiar American democratic system that doesn’t guarantee a popular vote winner becomes a president of the Un-United States (People) of America have enough number of reality show lovers who wants to enjoy thrills and suspenses Mr. Trump offers. They decide the fate of the country, not the Congress or the Reasonable and compassionate. Isn’t it like Argentine, once almost richest country infected by populism?
3
@Josh I'm not sure where you're going there but I think the comparison to Argentina is pretty apropos.
So clearly as soon as Democrats take over the government we'll have an "emergency" about climate change, guns, renewable energy, civil rights, and so forth, and as soon as that's done we should completely eradicate the "emergency powers" act.
6
Homelessness is a national emergency. The Democratic president in 2021 should yank funds from the Pentagon (which apparently doesn't need the money) to build shelters next to Mar-a-Iago (sic) and all other Trump golf courses, using eminent domain and environmental law waivers to ensure maximum adverse impact.
12
@Eero I think yours is the best suggestion yet.
1
I am writing to my Republican senators asking them to vote in favor of the House’s joint resolution and when Trump vetoes it, as he surely will, to vote to override the presidential veto:
“Article I of the Constitution vests the power of the people’s purse exclusively with Congress. To cede a blank check to the president to spend literally billions of taxpayer dollars for his own political purposes—against the bipartisan vote of Congress and the will of the majority of the American public—is not only contrary to the plain language of the Constitution but also contrary to your mandate to exercise your independent power and judgment as senator, not to act as a rubber stamp to an unfettered executive.
“Now, more than ever in our history, we need a legislative branch that will check the power of a man who would be king, not one that would facilitate it. Please stand up for the Constitution, for the independent power of Congress and for those of us who are counting on you to do the right thing.”
I would hope everyone reading here will do the same. These GOP legislators may still fall in line with their limp-spined leaders, but at least they will know we are paying attention—and taking names.
6
Next stop on the Trump train - Trump declares national emergency and suspends freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and dissolves Congress.
5
It seems there are over a dozen Republican Senators willing to stand up to Teump on this:
Grassley, Blunt, Rand Paul, John Kennedy, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Marco Rubio, John Boozman, Steve Daines, Cory Gardner, Josh Hawley, Ben Sasse, Martha McSally and Jerry Moran.
Let's see if they can put the nation above party for the time it counts the most.
7
@D.A.Oh - and when the time comes, most if not all of those Republicans will side with Trump.
I wrote NYT on 11/9/2016 to express my concern about the incoming Trump administration- which was not printed. In my comment, I wrote something to the effect that I was concerned of the precedent a Trump administration would have. Considering the idea of a man with NO PRIOR legislative experience, who ran an awful, buffoonish, and incoherent campaign, occupying the most powerful office in the world, I was frightened about the future. I was worried about the woefully unqualified potential candidates who might consider running for president now that there was precedent. What's to stop future presidents from declaring a national emergency for any signature issue they are unable to find compromise?
Two years ago it was inconceivable to me that any president could speak as inarticulate and behave as incurious as this president does; that Republicans who where previously foaming at the mouth over trivialities such as "Tan-Suit-Gate" and Michelle Obama's sleeveless dresses could stomach the avalanche of assault on the Constitution.
Trump erects structures. He can't license his name to sit atop of his eventual eyesore of his presidential library, so a manufactured crisis at the Southern border will have to suffice to have his "tower".
10
Republicans will let this go through. Only a handful of them really care about small government. National climate emergency, here we come!
4
Yup. What goes around comes around.
First up, national emergancy to address climate change. This is our new normal and you can take it to the bank that the norm busting Trump GOP are just getting started.
But some day its gonna be our turn....
5
What's next, Trump declares an economic emergency and seizes all the bills and money presses for him to guard?
4
What strikes me as most dangerous about this emergency declaration is that it is based on lies. Why can an elected official take such action and spend billions of taxpayer funds on what are proven lies? Why is it even legal for a president or any public official to knowingly lie? This is certainly fraud & in this case theft by deception.
11
Sad to see many congressman, such as McConnell, roll over and agree with the emergency declaration. I have heard congressmen argue that it is up to the president to determine whether it is an emergency or not, and it is so because he says so. I feel that if Trump declared that congressmen were a bunch of ducks we would hear a chorus of quacking rising over the Capital.
10
Sometimes you have to destroy the Constitution to uphold it?
All you folks excited at what a Democratic President in 2020 might do?
If we even have an election...Now that Trump has called his first “National Emergency”, what will stop him from calling another NE to cancel an election he cannot win?
2
When do we get our version of the Enabling Act?
I want someone to explain what is a Gun Control National Emergency and compare that to what is happening at the border. We just made an illegal border crossing attractive to everyone. So that is the bill passed under this noise.
So the Democrats are going to send Army and Army reserves to seize all guns in the country? Shutdown Gun and Ammo manufacturers? what exactly this hollow threat means?
Then what is Environment protection emergency? Does everyone stop driving vehicles older than 10 years? Stop fracking? stop burning coal? Stop building power plants?
Getting tired of the Democratic party and their propaganda. They are all about power, politics, and tyranny dressed up as compassion and humanity. Watch out Americans.
2
This is a country with no leader at the helm. The people who should know how to right this ship are at best ignoring the obvious and at worse, goading Trump on. When you let the likes of a Trump into your house, you pay the penalty. Fear the outcome of this fake emergency because it will be the opening for future rouge presidents to do the same. But I am not convinced that the House and Senate will take proper action and neither will the courts. Where does that leave us?
27
@Paul Raffeld There are leaders at the helm. Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, etc. pulling the strings of Trump.
1
@Ellwood Nonnemacher
Good point.
This is all a game to Trump. Always has been, since his first campaign bid. He has no care or interest in the workings of our gov't nor the constitution, he is in fact in dereliction of his duty and the oath of office he wore to uphold. He wants complete autocratic reign. This is a given, and has been obvious from the get go. What truly troubles me is the depths of impotence, incompetence and, dare I say, collusion of the Republican body in Congress. They are the ones throwing away our democracy, and true to form, McConnell is subversively leading the way. What's in it for him I wonder?
30
Money!!!! And secondarily, POWER.
8
@Fromjersey
If Trump is criminal number 1 in destroying our democracy, McConnell is a close 2nd.
4
I agree with all the people saying the power of the president needs to be curbed. The US is supposed to have checks and balances. The trump presidency if nothing else has shown how creeping executive powers have grown in the past 20-30 yrs. case in point some executive orders, the ability to send drones/troops without a declaration of war by congress, and this declaration of emergency for a pet project that is not an actually national emergency.
This needs to be addressed. For too long people have relied on the honour system regarding the president’s powers.
19
@Anna
"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
~ Samuel Adams
10
We agree. Problem is republicans in the senate and on SCOTUS and heading up the Justice Department disagree. That’s the hitch.
6
@Anna
The honour system regarding presidential power is founded upon the president's honour....
1
A better solution would be declare the southern border zone to be a new national park. Three hundred feet wide ("..as wide as a football field is long, folks"), from the ocean to the gulf. Charge admission, a dollar a car. I think Yosemite and Yellowstone are something like seven dollars a car, if not more. Twenty five cents for foot traffic. Offer yearly windshield sticker discounted rates. No problem with funding anything then, and the park service personnel would be a welcome addition to the efforts of the border patrol.
7
Pelosi needs to immediately introduce legislation to rewrite the National Emergencies Act. Pass it in the House, send it to the Senate, and draw a clear line of demarcation about who has a spine and who does not.
27
Others have said it here, but it bears repeating ... the solution to executive overreach is to curb the power. We cannot rely on the good counsel and graces of any president to exercise the proper discretion and caution when, as in this case, the president does not possess the wherewithal to do so.
The Congress MUST ACT to reshape the body of law in this context. That is the permanent and appropriate fix.
21
What Congress has to do it to pass a law restricting the carte blanche that it negligently handed to presidents in previous laws. It is either that, or hand the power of the purse to all future Presidents, including emergencies on abortions, gun violence, health care, LGBT rights, opiods, pollution, climate change, legal immigration, etc, etc. Many are far more legitimate emergencies than the manufactured one that Trump may be able to implement because of the poorly constructed laws that handed him the authority.
11
Trump is not "pav[ing] a dangerous path forward" -- at least when it comes to himself. All he cares about is satisfying his base. In fact, this is a win-win situation for Trump.
If the courts uphold his declaration of an "emergency," Trump gets to brag to his base that he "won." If the courts reject his move, he can tell his base that he stopped at nothing, and tried everything (government shutdown, declaration of emergency) to get his Wall, but there was only so far his presidential powers could reach. Another win for Trump.
As far as the future is concerned, I might have said that our Constitution is the loser. However, the next time we have a Democratic president and a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, I'm confident we can count on the Republicans in Congress to resurrect the Constitution's limitations on Executive power by putting up endless barriers to prevent any presidential "overreach" (including passing legislation and overriding a presidential veto) -- and we can also count on the right-wing justices to back up those actions up.
17
Democrats’ persistent challenging of Trump’s border security plans will be the thing that gets him re-elected in 2020.
Mark my words.
3
@Michal
It isnt Democrats - Trump said his emergency is not an emergency. Stats show more terrorism suspects at the Canadian border. Trump is lying to the public. In a sane world he would have lost his job already.
8
As many other have pointed out, most drugs and terrorist and human trafficking victims don’t come through that border, so this has nothing to do with true border security.
His own Republicans didn’t find his wall last year either. If voters don’t see that, they clearly prove they just want a dictator, since most of the speech was lies and since they don’t care that his promise about Mexico paying was also a lie.
Those people would not suddenly switch back to democrats if democrats had given in on the wall. They would have counted is as a trump win. I am glad that democrats didn’t give in, as trump voters wouldn’t have been swayed.
2
The next Democratic President who attempts to negotiate in good faith with intransigent Republicans, like Obama did on the ACA, should be impeached for political incompetence.
12
1. Climate Change
2. Gun Control
3. Tax the Rich
4. Medicare FOR ALL
5. Abortion Rights for All Women
The list goes on, and on. THESE are the " National Emergencies ", for the NEXT President, in 2020. A DEMOCRAT.
Thanks, Trump.
65
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Let's get started on drafting these declarations. An instant Democratic Party presidential platform, Voila.
The real result? The “emergency “ will be in the courts until near the 2020 election, together with suits by the landowners so nothing will actually happen
7
And the GOP will be in tatters, having thrown away their family values and small government principles for Trump.
13
Thank you for stating clearly that the declaration itself is an emergency.
But let’s be honest: the overarching national emergency, the one that threats our democracy and our national security, is named Donald J Trump.
36
How incredibly demonstrative of the growing rift in the Republican Party, as they are faced with the long term threat of a precedent that could easily be used against them in the future while at the same time are faced with the short term suicide of undermining Trump. Sad for our country’s and our constitution’s integrity, how many will continue to take the easy way out.
8
Once you read the transcript of today's Rose Garden appearance, any lingering doubt 45 is delusional will disappear. No one would seek advice from a lawyer, doctor, psychologist, etc. from someone like that.
42
@John - it also raises the question of just how long are we willing to be bullied and told to Sit down!? I admire that reporter’s restraint.
In effect, Trumps's unjustified emergency declaration amounts to government by presidential edict. And those Republicans in Congress who ignore their oversight responsibilities by supporting his abuse of power make us wonder why we need them at all.
18
There really is a basis for declaring a national emergency.
The basis is that Donald J. Trump is President of the United States.
21
It is indeed a perilous path if you don’t agree that border security is important.
3
It is so important that it could not be dealt with for 2 years while Republicans held all the power.
5
@Richard Winchester
Democrats believe that border security is important. Is it an emergency situation? er, considering that border crossings are down dramatically from what they've been in the past, the answer is No.......
2
Ignoring the difference between a wall and border security is just arguing in bad faith.
1
There are four 'national emergencies' in America:
1 - gun violence
2 - climate change
3 - the opioid epidemic
4 - Donald Trump
55
@Andrew
Add infrastructure and affordable housing .
Oh yea , and a new tax bill .Too many corp's
parking their $$ elsewhere and the .01 percent
is paying mere crumbs .
"Like the health care dispute, the emergency declaration is virtually certain to end up in court and also be challenged in Congress."
Which is why Republicans in the Senate are installing as many partisan Republican judges as possible -- so they simply ignore laws they don't like and get Republican-backed courts to rule that it's OK to ignore laws they find inconvenient.
15
@Kip Leitner - and the Republicans have dedicated decades to filling the courts with partisan judges. Republicans read the writing on the wall and knew there would come a day when their party could only maintain power by ignoring the rules and breaking our laws.
"But Republicans also fear that once Mr. Trump takes the emergency route, future Democratic presidents will follow suit and declare an emergency to deal with issues dear to their hearts, be it climate change, gun safety, immigration or health care. Republicans won’t be left with much room to complain should that happen."
Nonsense.
Should such a situation arise under a Democratic President, the Republicans will whine and complain loudly----and without a hint of shame.
30
So when do we take to the streets? Are protesters going to be shot? Hoping our system of checks and balances works.
14
Can we please start calling this what it is? It's an attempt to seize dictatorial powers unconstitutionally.
And there is only one response appropriate from every elected official who has taken an oath "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Those elected official who fail to respond can't hide behind "following orders" when they are made accountable for their inaction.
27
There is no danger here for Trump and his prime directive aka preserving, protecting and defending whatever Trump Organization profitable advantage that he is hiding from the American people in his personal and family income tax returns and business records arising from his occupation of the Oval Office of the White House.
Democrats lack the arrogance and hubris to make this ever work for them. Moreover as long as the Republican Party represents the voting white majority in Presidential elections this is a trick that only they can play and hope to win.
2
Trump may just given the next Democratic president a pathway toward stronger gun control, climate change prevention, and health care for all Americans; all of which are considered emergencies to most Americans.
15
@David
I might just trade a little wall to fix these issues.
2
@David - I doubt a Democratic President would declare a national emergency on false pretenses.
Trump could care less about what happens to the Republicans after he’s no longer president.
12
@Ran
If the southern district of N.Y has enough to nail him
after he leaves office , he certainly will care.
1
Not my president. My tax money should be appropriated by Congress, Trump has no right to spend it on nonsense.
Enough is enough.
20
Deat NYT:
What exactly is "dangerous" about President Trump precisely following the process set forth in an express statute -- used dozens of times by prior presidents -- that gives him broad and exclusive authority to declare a national emergency, and reallocate funds to address it?
The Times frames nearly every national political story so to paint President Trump as illegitimate, risky and the personification of the authoritarian "other."
This reflexive anti-Trump framing is deeply irresponsible, and only intensifies the hatreds dividing our country and obscures the appropriate ground of decision to be followed by our courts in resolving political disputes in a democracy.
Congress created this mess. It expressly authorized the President of the United States to declare national emergencies and reallocate funds to address them. The statute confers an exclusive executive emergency authority to the president, acting as commander in chief.
This authority is broad and virtually unreviewable.
Let's not create a false constitutional crisis where none exists.
6
@Jorge
So glad to hear that you'll be supporting the Democratic presidents who will declare national emergencies over health care, global warming, and gun safety--real emergencies.
1
@Jorge
The NYT didn't fabricate or imagine this crisis. The Constitutional crisis arises when a president declares an emergency when none exists and exploits said "emergency" as pretext to ignore the decision of Congress on an issue that it has repeatedly and very recently addressed, specifically border security.
Indeed, Congress has helped to create this slow motion mess. However, Congress included several mechanisms for review of emergency declarations in its original legislation but the most important one, which preserved Congress's exclusive role in appropriating funds, was declared invalid by the SCOTUS and now we are left with a law that has been stripped of a vital safeguard. Trump has found a weapon in the White House left lying about by a lazy Congress and the safety mechanism has been removed. We are all about to get hurt.
@Jorge
You’re missing the forest for the trees. Trump is the national emergency. Look at his lack of respect for every law he doesn’t like. The difference between this and prior real immergencies like disaster relief is that he did not get the money legally, so he has decided to circumvent the law. We’re this a real emergency, instead of a fulfillment of a campaign slogan, action would have been taken long ago. Sadly, the loose language in the Statute is wide to interpretation. However, look out for setting a precedent; didn’t work out too well for Harry Reid and the SCOTUS.
He should have just issued it as an Executive Order.
It worked for Obama. Isn’t that how we got DACA?
3
"Republicans also fear that once Mr. Trump takes the emergency route, future Democratic presidents will follow..."
So true. And then what? A government of one branch, the Executive, or otherwise known as a Dictatorship. That's where this is headed, and sadly the Republicans have done nothing to stop it.
6
Democrats on Capitol Hill now must prove that they are as competent and resolute as their Republican counterparts have been in the past.
Democrats must use the power of the purse and the notion of separation of powers to make short work of Donald Trump’s Declaration of Emergency, arising from an imaginary immigration problem Trump created.
Those of us who have been loyal to the Democratic Party and have donated generously are in no mood to permit Donald Trump – probably already the worst president the nation has ever had – to run rings around Democratic Senators and Representatives.
Any elected Democrat in the Senate or Congress who gets weak-kneed about this should keep his or her mouth shut and let Speaker Pelosi do her job.
7
The dotard despot strikes again by going against the will of the people and Congress.
But, I believe it is all show from the carnival barker. He will lose in court, and if the GOP shows some spine, lose in Congress. Then, he can further stoke the fires of hate toward Democrats, liberals, brown people and further perpetuate the lies he tells daily.
At times I long for the days of Nixon. He was a crook, but, I believe he still believed in the people, the rule of law, the Constitution and put the country first, as opposed to the imperial president and grifter from Queens.
6
So, President Thanos has dusted the Constitution.
Will Captain Justice strike down the National Emergencies Act as an unconstitutional delegation of powers? After all, "we don't do that here." USA Forever!
This has all the hallmarks of the road to tyranny. It starts with a fake emergency that grants a frustrated ruler additional powers and ends with tanks on the lawn. The road between can be long and bloody.
5
In his announcement he said, "I didn't have to do this, but . . ."
That's a fine phrase for trying to defend seizing power to respond to a dire emergency.
It is like a middle schooler saying, "There was no fire, but I pulled the fire alarm because . . . "
What a fool.
14
Here are some real emergencies:
- Gun violence
- Health issues including broken coverage and reduced life expectancy across board
- Climate change already creating economic stress; today’s 6-year olds could live to face worldwide famine, disease, and migration that would make today’s look like vacation.
And why shouldn’t the D president use Trump’s method over apoplectic congressional Rs?
10
"Emergency": "A situation, esp. of danger or conflict, that arises unexpectedly and requires urgent action." (Oxford English Dictionary).
"Hypocrite": "A person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs." (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
Here's what we don't have at the Southern border: an emergency.
Here's what we do have in Congress: baldfaced Republican hypocrites.
11
"National emergency?" So what does Trump do? He flies to Mar A Lago to play a few rounds of golf. This is what is called "bad optics."
14
How about the next Democratic President calling it an emergency appoints 4 new Justices without Senatorial approval?
Enacts a 90% top tax rate.?
Etc etc
12
Why say “Mr. Trump, who made the wall his signature campaign promise in 2016, and his constituency.” every time, without reiterating “and I will make Mexico pay for it”? And repeat, as he did!
Please “Make America Great Again By Removing Trump”
5
If you were to insert "Obama" where it says "Trump" in every article written in the past two years, every citizen in every red state would be storming the White House and calling for the guillotine. The hypocrisy of it all is mind blowing.
13
“We have a crisis at our southern border, but no crisis justifies violating the Constitution,”
The crisis isn’t at the border…..it’s in the White House with a President who thinks he is above the constitution and the law; the complicit GOP is as guilty and corrupted as this President.
8
Montenegro, with its beautiful peace loving people refused to sell out to Putin but the Trumps had no problem kissing his behind all the way to the White House.
6
Trump knows nothing about anything and is mentally unstable, not a genius, and endlessly seeks chaos! Trump's emergency power gambit is intended to impress his ignorant MAGA GOP base, Fox News and hate radio. How this is going to play out in the courts is yet to be seen but predict Congressional Republicans will bluster and then fold for Trump.
4
Messrs Bannon and Miller, you always said you wanted to destroy the government. I think you are well on the way to achieving it.
4
A dangerous criminal following a dangerous path, Donald Trump.
2
Trump has for years hired illegal immigrants to clean his gold toilets in his golf clubs. Now he wants to wall them out. Who will clean his clubs now, Ivanka?
2
For a guy who has gone bankrupt numerous times, allowing him access to billions of dollars of taxpayers' money for a wall that will never be built, is shamefully foolish.
8
Congress has not worked for the people in decades. They have either forgotten how to work or do not want to. To expect them to get us out of jams such as dealing with a dictator president is way above their intellectual abilities. They have become completely dysfunctional because their brains have atrophied from abdication of their responsibilities. We are idiots for paying these people for not working.
1
In March 1933, the Enabling Act gave Hitler and his cronies the same kind of power over the German legislature that Trump is now exercising over America. And what is America's response? Nothing. We're a nation of spineless sheep, begging to be sheared.
18
What dmabgerois path? Isn’t paving dangerous paths all he’s done for two years? Why is this different? What else is there to expect of him?
The fact that 80 to 90% of, say, heroin, that is seized is seized at legal points of entry does not automatically make the statement that the majority of heroin entering the US comes in over the southern border false, as no one has told us how would know about heroin that was not seized and how it entered the country. I am sure there are proxies for this number, but what are they and who compiles them and verifies the assumptions used for using these proxies?
2
@Eric Key
Yeah, unfortunately there is nothing worse than claiming Trumps statements as "false" or "misleading" by using shady comparisons and argumentations don't hold any water. This is one example. They essentially do the same mistake as Trump, just by accident.
Trump knows exactly what his claims are. It is kindof ironic to then see reporters trying to debunk him and accidentally doing the same "mistakes" that Trump does deliberately.
1
@Eric Key The CBP states that 80-90 percent of the heroin seized is from legal points of entry, not necessarily from the southern border. They made no statement to the effect that the majority of such drugs come over the southern border.
1
It’s exhilarating to imagine oneself as a heroic resistance fighter against an evil dictator.
The reality is far more mundane.
This is not a “constitutional crisis”. We’re not on a “dangerous path”. President Trump is not a fascist dictator in waiting.
President Trump is using powers granted to any president by Congress. Every other president has done the same, most more frequently than Trump.
Trump has a strong case based on statute and precedence. Nearly all legal scholars admit this. Is it strong enough to win in court? We’ll find out.
He’ll probably lose in the very liberal 9th Circuit and probably win at the SCOTUS. But it’s hard to know for sure. If he does ultimately lose, he’ll do what he’s done in other cases. Accept defeat and try an alternative approach.
You see, real dictators don’t follow court edicts. They ignore them or even dissolve the courts.
So everyone can calm down, ignore the hyperbole, and enjoy the day.
Trump is just another president doing what presidents do. The judicial branch will do what it does. The system is working as it should and as it always has.
5
@John. The system is not working when the legislative branch abdicates its constitutional mandate and operates as nothing more than a rubber stamp to an unfettered executive.
14
@John
I'm just happy to see that when we get a Dem in in 2020 we'll have the freedom to act quickly on climate change through emergency powers. That actually -is- a national emergency.
12
@John NO. Other Presidents do not praise Dictators. NO; other Presidents do not lie many times daily. No; other presidents do not hire many advisers from a television network. NO; other Presidents do not ask Russia to give them dirt on their opponent during the campaign. NO; other Presidents do not make profits from business connections and refuse to release their taxes. NO; Trump is not a normal President. Ray Sipe
10
We (meaning this Nation) can not wait until 2020. This guy Trump continues to get worse as he continues to do things that were unthinkable just a few years ago.
Look back just 2 years ago , and see how much power he has simply taken (or given?). Now, try to look forward 2 years...the national landscape may be unrecognizable.
This may sound melodramatic, but, I fear that a crisis of major proportion, unlike anything any of us has seen, is fast approaching. I still hear people say things like “it’s just politics”. No, it isn’t....it has little to do with politics in Trump”s. Instead, it’s now about unfettered power...perhaps, it always was.
66
@Patrick alexander
You are absolutely correct.
It sounds melodramatic.
"The president sees the emergency declaration as a way to get his way over a resistant Congress. But to many on Capitol Hill, it is the declaration itself that could become the emergency."
The president sees this as a test to see what he can get away with when he doesn't get his way.
Yes, this declaration itself has become the emergency as Donald Trump mulls over a lot of other things he'd like to do, under the rubric of "emergency."
If he can do an end run around Congressional power of the purse, he can end run just about everything heretofore considered protected by the Constitution such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assembly, civil rights, election schedules, the rule of law.
In autocratic countries, despots use "emergency powers" to cover everything from martial law to postponement of free elections.
Lest anyone think I'm being hysterical, you only have to study history. Trump's action today is another important step in democracy's decline inside the United States.
97
@ChristineMcM I agree with you, the use of emergency powers is something you often find in history - at the beginning of dictatorships.
12
Presidential oath of office: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Trump has not done any of that. If what he's done is the best of his ability we've set the bar way too low. The GOP complained constantly about Obama's executive orders even as they thwarted every move he made. The GOP has supported Trump to the hilt. They undermined Obama to the point of almost ruining a negotiation with Iran. They too have violated their oaths of office.
America has a national emergency but it's not at the southern border. It's in DC and the center of it is in the White House. The epicenter is the Oval Office when Trump deigns to visit it. We would be better off if he played more golf. Him, McConnell, and the rest of the clowns on the bus.
48
When a President faces an emergency, he should do what Roosevelt did when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Go to congress and ask for what he needs.
73
@Excellency
He did.
He asked Congress for $5.6 billion (down from $25 billion - pre-shutdown sale!) for a wall.
Congress said he didn't need it.
They were right.
16
@Excellency, This was a war resolution, as required by the Constitution but we haven't seen once since then. Interestingly, there was only one vote against by House Representative Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist. Others, however argued that a vote had not really been necessary since we had been attacked and were already at war.
2
The next President should disregard Congress as Trump is doing to declare gun violence and 40,000 deaths per year a national emergency, and that the United States should take action to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.
154
@ohio
40,000 deaths per year IS A N EMERGENCY.
3
Dear Dan,
Actually compared to the impact of climate change, 40,000 deaths a year is completely unimportant. After all, as many people die of the flu, or car accidents, and those aren't emergencies. People dying is no big deal, but most species going extinct this century, that's a big deal.
2
There is no crisis upon which to declare an emergency; except, perhaps, in the fevered imagination of the President. Illegal immigration is at an historic low. Immigrants, legal or not, commit less crimes than citizens. Most illegal drug smuggling is done via normal ports of call. Most illegal immigration is overstayed visas rather than border crossings. One of two things led to this declaration: the President has no connection to reality, and actually believes we live in a hellscape; or more likely he's a narcissist who uses fear tactics to keep his base fired up enough to keep him in the running for reelection in order to keep profiting from emoluments. I wonder which is more likely?
32
Keep in mind that the Bush administration refused to deploy troops to New Orleans to save lives and restore order after hurricane Katrina because they said it would have violated the Posse Comitatus Act-- and this wasn't even enshrined in the Constitution, but rather was just an act of Congress.
Yet here, with no lives imminently threatened, the same conservative voices that decried violating an act to save the daily loss of (mostly black) lives are now willing to violate the Constitution to save ... trump's ego.
120
Use your imagination. Once he has established that he has this power, with the blessing of republicans in the senate, then he is quite literally without limits. True, in an immediate sense this is about ego, but it’s also far more dangerous. Please don’t attempt to minimize what it means by making fun of him as a vain, needy egotist. All despots, dictators, autocrats, and tyrants are, but it’s the danger here that needs to be pointed out with urgency.
3
I live in the Netherlands (Europe) and talking to friends and peers we see the United States, at this time, totally disfunctional!
What on earth is going on over there? How on earth do some citizens buy into the idea that a medieval fix (building a wall) will stop what the president is claiming.
I’m sorry but the president you have now is a danger to the whole world and appears to be totally compromised by his past nefarious dealings.
216
@Zeke Zebra
My wife and I have traveled twice to the Netherlands. Beautiful country and people. Unfortunately Zeke too many people in the US have been bamboozled and entrapped by the trump cult. We pray and will work tirelessly to end this miserable alternate reality we have fallen into.
20
@Zeke Zebra
Oh, come on! It's not going to be just a wall. There will be a moat in front, as well as armed guards perched on top with cauldrons of hot oil to pour on the invaders. Yes, it may be medieval, but it's going to be good and fully medieval! (Oh ... forgot to mention the trebuchets.)
14
@Zeke Zebra
The Wall is foremost a symbol, a big construction that says "Keep out!".
It won't be a lost investment. Climate change displacement and unstable regimes will keep pushing people North.
It is morally justifiable if along with it there is an increase in developmental aid and foreign disaster relief.
1
Are you kidding me? Threatening Trump and the current crop of Republican legislators with what might happen in the future, or about dangerous precedents? As if any of them would care? The time for that kind of language is well past. What concrete action are Democrats going to take? Pelosi needs to step up to the urgency of the moment, and the Times needs to stop repeating the tepid “concerns” of Republicans who will undoubtedly continue to vote for their own naked self-interest.
96
Teaching my tenth grades the rise of totalitarianism as we speak. Terrifying to think how easily democracies can crumble.
141
@Jessica Thank you. We need more educators like you.
9
Maybe teach them about the power of public demonstration and civil disobedience. They are going to need those skills really, really soon. We all will. In fact we should already be out there. It’s much later than folks want to acknowledge. This is not a drill.
4
Is there any point at which the congressional Republicans will stop rolling over for this man?
131
@JulieAnn An end-of-WW2 level catastrophic smackdown with this country in ashes from coast to coast should do the trick.
4
@FlickaNash
No.
Our democracy is at a crossroads. Does our government represent the will of the people, or are we governed by the whims of an omnipotent king?
15
"After a certain age every man is responsible for his face" -
Albert Camus, The Fall.
Take a good look at the videos of Trump's El Paso rally; or any of the web news articles this week about the Wall. Decide for yourself if that's the face of a man who's (1) in touch with reality, and with the nation's best interests at heart, or (2) a malignant narcissist on the verge of bringing our 200+ year experiment in democracy to an end.
48
The homespun version " after age forty, you have the face you deserve ".
Absolutely TRUE.
Republicans on a Democratic President:
“Oh what a travesty! Every single day this president is over-spending and overreaching, completely breaching the acceptable norms and parameters of their position! They have drastically increased the deficit by passing unaffordable, unsustainable programs and over-stepped the bounds each and every day! Oh Lord, help us!”
Republicans on a Republican President that passes 3 trillion dollar tax cut, deepens the deficit, drastically increases the debt, passes/tolerates unsustainable corporate welfare programs, over-steps the parameters of their office and infringes aspects of the Constitution and conflict of interest laws:
“We’re totally fine, this is zenith of prudence”
24
Is this Trump's way of deflecting attention away from the Russian investigation?
51
@Steven B
Yes, this Trump's way of deflecting attention away from the Russian investigation? That and a few other things. The next couple months the harsh reality of the GOP tax scam will start to directly hurt many people. Seeing is believing. That tax swipe is the only Trump/GOP achievement in 2 years. By all means, they will drown out that reality in diversions.
Stories of "Amazon, which doubled its profits and made more than $11 billion in 2018, won't pay any federal income taxes for the second year in a row, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported." Meanwhile, corporations still have loopholes and middle-class folks pay more, perhaps get a few crumbs and ultimately get saddled with deficit debt.
You betcha the Trump administration and their enablers don't want the conversation to go there.
The emergency this country is facing is the feckless and illegitimate executive branch, borne of Russian tampering, and intent on enriching itself at every turn. It is the epidemic of gun violence, sanctimoniously enabled by gun money. It is the robbery of the poor to heap untold riches on those already rich. Enough.
27
@Jeff M. Also a legislative branch that prefers power over the Constitutional role it is suppose to play. Point the figure right at Mitch
1
It's wonderful that Trump is standing up for America.
His wall will preserve America for Americans.
1
@Rolf
Erppp, Oh, excuse me, I appear to have just Rolfed in my mouth. Erppp.
6
@Rolf
Yup, once the wall's up we're going to send all those non-American brown people over to Grebbestad.
6
@Rolf please define the term “Americans”
3
Indeed: a path leading to something that looks very much like fascism.
To quote an old Conservative: “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
10
The country is being held hostage by unelected right wing celebrity windbags. Trump is a complete flop from every which way now.
A "non-emergency" emergency is not an emergency. This guy
needs to go.
44
It would be a triumph of the laws of unintended consequences if we finally get a national health care program, reasonable gun control, action on climate change, etc. -- thanks to Donald Trump and his idiotic wall.
60
Emergency powers are the grave of democracy.
12
It’s amazing how feckless Republicans like Rubio declare the unconstitutionality of the President’s actions even while reifying the racist fiction that enables it, namely, that “there is a crisis at our Southern border.” Republicans, how do you not lose sleep at night knowing you support the manifestation of a racist ideology (in the wall), even while scores of children remain parentless and alone at the hands of our own government? Does your God approve of this?
21
Spineless Republicans will moan and complain, and will then quickly fall in line behind the unmentionable in the White House, with very few if any exceptions.
27
Wow, we spent over a trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan but finishing g a border fence we already have 600 miles of is suddenly the end of the world. I fully support this measure and I am bored by this non stop hysteria each time Trump tries to solve a problem. Athe left diminishes the problem, the right eaxagerates it, but it is a lingering problem we ought to deal with.
4
@Alexgri...and, just what is the problem that’s now seen by people like you as. National Emergency?
10
@Alexgri Um, a lot of us protested the expensive folly of macho adventurism in the Middle East and Central Asia too. Not at all sure what your point it--except that you agree that this is an exaggerated problem, and, presumably, not an actual emergency worthy of suspension of constitutional norms.
@Patrick alexander It seen insane to have 1000 miles of unsecured border, with no fencing, when we have so many illegal immigrants, so many drugs pouring in, and whoever has a criminal record in South America can come to the US to start a new life...It is insane to go through so much security at JFK when coming to the US, and have the border wide open in the South. 22 million illegal aliens in the US and more coming, all burdening the ER rooms, the schools, and so forth are a national emergency.
The separation of powers is fundamental to the self-correcting nature of our Constitutional government. It forces compromise and cooperation, however grudging, among the power centers of our diverse society.
Since the GOP seems fundamentally lacking in knowledge about the dynamics of the federal government and devoid of courage to defend the Constitution, this is going to fall to the SCOTUS; will they uphold the clear intent of the Framers when three branches of government, each with distinct powers to balance the other two, were created? Or will they fling a spanner into the self-correcting mechanism that underpins our system of government?
If they get this one wrong, the consequences for these United States and the international rule of law vs. "winner-take-all" brawls may well be the end of all we aspired to be.
75
@Patrick Borunda, I am counting on Justice Roberts to act as the grown-up among the Conservative Justices.
3
@Patrick Borunda
In the absence of good faith negotiations and compromise, the Founding Fathers intended peaceful governing gridlock preserving the status quo ante as the best option. With the exception of the Civil War their structure has worked as planned.
The separation of powers has nothing to do with the " self- correcting nature" of our Constitution. Partisan political parties were not contemplated by the Founders. And thus the persons in the majority have the power to take sides on that basis. There is no obligation to act against your parties interests.
The Supreme Court of the United States is the least democratic branch of our divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states. Followed by the Senate.
1
Striving to be optimistic in these Trump times, but think of it this way. Yes, Trump's emergency is nothing but lies, and yes, the wall will be a worthless waste of money. But all the wall will do is be slightly damaging to the environment, nowhere near as damaging as Trump's destroying EPA rules.
But this sets a great precedent for the next administration. Trump probably will be voted out in 2020, particularly if he keeps failing at everything, and we'll get a Democratic president. That president will be able to declare a climate change emergency, because there certainly is one, and Congress won't be able to do anything about it. Money will go towards saving the environment, finally, and we can easily get it from the very rich.
We can also declare a gun control emergency. Now, gun deaths are not too important overall, because it's just humans dying, and there's no shortage of them. But it riles up Republicans no end to have limitations on lethal shootings, so let's declare an emergency and seize control of bullet manufacturing plants, shutting them down and thus dramatically reducing gun deaths.
There are plenty more possibilities unleashed by Trump's foolhardy move, but one thing is pretty certain, his declaration of emergency will have no real effect except wasting a few billion that could have been spent on better things.
44
@Dan Stackhouse
A few years ago there was a shortage of bullets to be purchased by gun owners. This was partly caused by the wars but mostly by gun owners buying up all avaliable supplies for fear of what you are proposing, shutting down bullet manufacturing. There is now enough bullets (like guns themselves) in civilian hands to last many decades.
Are we on the classical (think Caesar) route to imperial government? The old institutions survive but lose their power as the Emperor takes over. Of course Caesar didn't get over the threshold: it was Caesar Augustus that did that. The U.S. isn't there yet, and the crossing might turn out to be in the hands of John Roberts.
18
And of course Augustus represented the high point of the Roman empire, after that it fell apart to inbreeding, lead ingestion, convict armies, gluttony, avarice, sloth, and so on. Quite possibly America is going that way too, because Clinton was the high point and we've just been on a downhill slide since.
Senator Collins is the star exemplar of Republicans who mouth platitudes and then vote the party line, in her case to effectively abolish Obamacare. She's great at simpering, but has no backbone.
165
@Rod Stevens and Kavanaugh
7
@Rod Stevens
She is even worse than the GOP hardliners. At least they don't bother to lie about their intention to fully support whatever right-wing con is being foisted upon Americans.
17
Oh she has a backbone, alright, just not in the way you or I wish. She’s playing her role in the coup. She is also a co-conspirator.
1
When we get a Democratic President in 2020 she is going to have a field day declaring National Emergencies.
This puts a whole new slant on the Green New Deal. It can be dropped in favor of getting a Democrat elected. What the Democrat can do will make the Green New Deal look mild in comparison.
Trump is the best thing that could possible happen for a socialist take-over of our country.
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@Dan Yeah, it's great to have a dictatorship as long as its yours, right?
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@Dan
"When we get a Democratic President in 2020 she is going to have a field day declaring National Emergencies"
She won't need to because she will be along side a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate.
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@Dan
Assuming that a Democratic President has the fortitude to actually do those things. The pressure from the usual entrenched interests against things like universal healthcare, action on climate change, reasonable gun control, etc. will be enormous.
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If Congress cedes still more of their power to the president (remember, the last war they declared was WWII)-- power invested in them by the Founding Fathers for a good reason: to avoid an imperial presidency-- then we won't deserve to keep the democracy we were lucky enough to inherit.
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@Sixofone
No, dagnabbit!
To say "we" don't deserve to keep the democracy we inherited if Congress cedes still more power to Turnip is to deflect blame on millions of people who had nothing whatever to do with any of these awful people getting "elected," if you can call gerrymandering and voter suppression part of legitimate elections. "We" blockwalk our own precinct and others for Democrats, distribute voter information and campaign literature, send money to Democratic candidates all over the country, and go to rallies and marches for progressive causes. "We" are precinct chairs. "We" are members of three county Democratic clubs, a women's organization, two gun safety groups, and two progressive groups. "We" do not deserve what is happening. Direct the blame where it belongs: McConnell, Republicans who signed an oath of loyalty to party over country, and the willfully misinformed, resentful people who voted for them.
We've entered a vicious cycle by which the side that only has repressive means by which to impose its views has so rigged the system that we now have presidency-level actions that the other side will have to employ in order to retaliate, in order to bring back a semblance of balance.
There is no path to democracy as things stand, between states' rights and a judiciary that has been stacked so out of whack that the next generation of Americans will be forced to stand by, helplessly, as repression and regression rule their days.
Our constitution needs a reboot. Let us hope that the way to a new enlightenment doesn't come at the high cost of lives lost in another fight for freedom.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
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Three sentences.
Some of the diverted monies could come from the military budget therefore harming our ability to protect ourselves. We still have a possible Russian intrusion investigation going on.
Collusion?
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