Thursday, February 21, 2019

Trump's 'National Emergency' Doesn't Exist, Except as an Assault on the Constitution

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26355766/donald-trump-national-emergency-act-explained/?fbclid=IwAR3Z6EY33cBGGFFF4LsXOeekVDid9rvDk-WhX9ux1MRPHTS1yZL6tiXKg90
"The Tangerine Generalissimo already shut down the government in an attempt to force the Legislative Branch to fund his Big, Beautiful Wall, which for years he promised, in no uncertain terms, that Mexico would pay for. He also said it would be concrete and 30 feet high and stretch from sea to shining sea. Instead, the Artful Dealmaker got 55 miles of steel "barrier" as his side got walloped in negotiations, and U.S. taxpayers are fronting the bill. (Whether Democrats should even have given that much up, even to keep the government open, is another question.) But Congress did not exercise its power of the purse—outlined in Article 1 of that "Constitution" we hear so much about—in a way that Trump liked, so he has decided to seize the funds by declaring a national emergency when there is none."