A Fake Constitutional Crisis
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
The Democrats and their sycophants in the media are screaming “Constitutional Crisis!” Being Trump haters and the guardians of unlimited government spending, they are whining about Trump and DOGE. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.: “The president and his allies’ moves represent ‘illegal seizures of power’ that have thrown the U.S. into a ‘constitutional crisis.’” Angus King (I-ME): “We are in the middle of the biggest constitutional crisis our nation has ever seen & every day we’re inching further from the democracy our founders created.” Only John Fetterman (D-PA) seems to have kept his cool, saying that the courts will decide what is or isn’t constitutional: “There isn’t a constitutional crisis, and all of these things ― it’s just a lot of noise.” Who would have thought that Fetterman would continue to be the only Democrat who makes sense rather than nonsense?
Did the Democrats think that Joe Biden’s actions constituted a constitutional crisis when he ignored court orders, including that of the Supreme Court in his efforts to forgive student debt? The courts said that it was unconstitutional. Biden ignored the ruling and bragged, “The Supreme Court blocked it. But that didn’t stop me.” Sounds like a constitutional crisis to me that the left chose to ignore. Hey, Republicans, why wasn’t this an impeachable offense?
The left only screams “constitutional crisis” when they are not the ones violating the Constitution or advocating an overthrow of it. The left routinely ignores the Second Amendment and hates the electoral college. Doesn’t the left always proclaim that the Constitution is flawed and needs to be rewritten? How is it that all of a sudden they have embraced the sanctity of a document written by a bunch of slave holding old white men? Isn’t it amazing what Donald Trump can do?
So far, Trump is facing over 70 lawsuits. He has won some and lost some. On those that he has lost, he said he will appeal. To date, there has been no indication that he will ignore the courts like Biden did. What Trump is doing is trying to exert control over the entire executive branch of the government. So is that unconstitutional?
Perhaps the Democrats are confused over our form of government and to what constitutes the executive branch. Primer: the federal government consists of three branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. The executive branch includes the president’s cabinet and a myriad of federal agencies such as the SEC, the FCC, CFPB, FAA, FTC, USAID and a host of others, including the financial regulatory agencies the OCC, NCUA, FDIC and the FED. All agencies whose leaders are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate are within the executive branch.
Trump says that he has the authority to fire the boards and leaders of these agencies since he has authority over the executive branch. He also asserts that he can have control over their spending even though some budgets are appropriated by Congress and others come from the charging of assessments. Trump argues that these agencies are not “independent.” His argument is that insulation from presidential authority runs counter to Article II of the Constitution. The president should be able to supervise how they do their job. Trump says these agencies have become unaccountable for their actions and should be reined in. These agencies have exceeded their constitutional authority.
Who holds the independent agencies accountable for their actions? If they are part of the legislative branch, then it would be the Congress. However, they are part of the executive branch. Shouldn’t the responsibility then fall to the president? The constitutional crisis may well be the lack of accountability of these agencies. I think Trump wants to have a clear ruling from the Supreme Court on the independence of these agencies and their oversight. The hope is to rein in the bureaucratic state.
Constitutional crisis? More like constitutional cleanup.
