A couple of weeks ago, frustrated by Congress’ repeated refusal to appropriate funds to build a wall along the American-Mexican border, President Donald Trump declared a state of national emergency. He made no effort to disguise the fact that his declaration was intended to allow him to circumvent Congress’ constitutional control of our nation’s purse strings. The president intends to redirect already appropriated Defense Department funds from buying bombs and bullets to erecting his wall.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the practicality (or even the possibility) of building an impervious fence several thousand miles long on our southern border, what’s troubling is the constitutional and potentially anti-democratic impact of the president’s disregard of congressional power.
