“So, take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Jesus – Matthew 25: 28-29 (NIV)
It is a dangerous thing when a poor-excuse-for-a-Christian like me quotes scripture. But you know just because I’m not wise doesn’t mean that Jesus wasn’t. So, bear with me while I make a case for the relevance of this passage in today’s political world. This passage was confusing to me as a kid. You know it really doesn’t seem fair. But my Pop said: “You have to read the entire passage for this to make sense”. The “passage” is the famous parable of the talents. And the gist of it is that we are charged with using what we have for good, whatever it is that we have. But there is more, the parable says that if we don’t do our duty, someone else WILL.
There is great wailing and gnashing of teeth these days by Democrats and some Republicans that the President’s Emergency Declaration on illegal immigration on our southern border is an attack on the balance of powers envisioned in the Constitution. This is actually kind of funny – this is hardly the first emergency declaration. I think I read some place that there have been over fifty since the 1976 legislation providing for these actions – PASSED BY CONGRESS and signed by the President. President Clinton declared seventeen, President George W. Bush, thirteen, and President Barack Obama, twelve. President Trump has declared three himself, before this one. President Obama’s declarations were relatively mundane. What really infuriated his opponents were his executive actions, especially those relating to immigration and health care. And executive orders are really just another form of the issue here – are Presidents circumventing the Constitution to get their way?
The shoe is on the other foot now and Democrats are howling. Many Republicans in the Senate are hiding in the weeds hoping they don’t have to cast a deciding vote to oppose the declaration. Now there are those around who say that this declaration is different than those that preceded it since it coopts funding that Congress had dedicated for other purposes and facilitates an undertaking that they specifically refused to fund. Maybe, but like most things in Washington these days it smacks of politics, not anything so lofty as statesmanship or respect for the Constitution. Hypocrisy is totally an acceptable thing these days on both sides of the aisle. Criticizing a member of the opposite party for doing the same thing that someone in my party has done or is doing is routine. I heard former New Jersey Governor Christie say that this began when Democrats failed to call out President Clinton for his lies during the Monica Lewinski affair. That was a stark example but hardly the only one or the first one in my opinion.
Given the lawsuits that are already flying, I would guess that the Supreme Court will have to sort this out at some point since coordination by the executive and legislative branches never works these days. Maybe not. But unless my engineer’s understanding of how things work in passing laws, I think that if Congress is REALLY concerned about this egregious act, they are NOT powerless. All they need to do is to pass an act prohibiting the usurpation of the dollars already budgeted for other purposes and THEN TO BE READY TO OVERRIDE THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO that will automatically be applied. Vetoes are a part of the Constitution too. And I say this to Democrats (of course you think this is a good idea) AND to wavering Republicans. Can you get past your partisanship just once to protect the Constitution if you think it is at risk? If you wonder why the executive branch seems to be gaining power while the legislative branch seems to be withering into weakness or even irrelevance, maybe we need to think about the parable of the talents. In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama laid down an ultimatum for Congress: “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said with respect to climate change. Republicans were aghast while Democrats were quiet. But in the end Congress did what it seems to be predisposed to do these days – it held hearings, it complained, it commented to CNN, Fox and CBS, and then it did NOTHING.
So, if Congress thinks that the President is overstepping his authority, do your duty. Don’t wait for some lower court or the Supreme Court to tell you what to do. Your oath is NOT to the President or to the Speaker of the House or to your party caucus. Your oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and to represent your people. Do it or shut up and let the President act.