Republicans just failed to defend the constitution from Trump
So who will?
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In other news, I recently went on The Lowdown podcast to discuss the first week of the Trump administration with
, who writes the excellent newsletter. Check out the episode here!The Trump administration has now rescinded its executive order from earlier this week which illegally froze a huge chunk of government spending. That’s good news in the short term. But the last few days also amounted to something of a stress test of the constitutional system, letting us see how it might endure a more sustained attack from Trump in the near future. And the news there is not good.
The constitutional issue here is, very simply, the “power of the purse” - who controls taxation and government spending. The constitution is exceptionally clear that the answer is Congress. The Appropriations Clause and the Spending Clause say that Congress imposes taxes and authorizes government spending. The executive branch, of which the president is the head, cannot do this without Congress. It also lacks the ability to refuse to spend money that Congress said should be spent.
Control of the purse strings is the source of much of Congress’ power. Almost everything that the government does requires money, so the ability to decide how money is spent allows Congress to ensure that the executive branch actually follows and enforces the laws as intended. Congress can ban political corruption and fund the FBI to prosecute it, but if the president can just decide not to spend any money on prosecuting corruption cases then the law may as well not exist.
So when the Trump administration attempted to freeze huge portions of federal spending earlier this week, it was a bit like dropping a constitutional neutron bomb on Congress. Under “normal” circumstances, we would expect Congress to stand up for itself - to fight tooth and nail to defend its powers. Unfortunately, Trump’s MAGA Republican Party currently controls Congress, and they have different priorities.
Rather than speaking out to defend their branch - and the constitution - Congressional Republicans instead mostly stayed quiet. And those who did speak out did so in order to defend Trump’s move.
If you want to see how deep the rot goes, look no further than Rep. Tom Cole, who as chair of the House Appropriations Committee is basically the personal embodiment of the power of the purse. Here’s how this champion of Congress reacted to Trump’s unconstitutional executive order:
“I’m not a lawyer, I can’t pontificate on what’s legal but I suspect what’s happening is what most Republicans would be supportive of. Appropriations is not a law, it’s the directive of Congress. The lawyers disagree about what’s law and what’s not. Right now, I think it’s a legitimate exercise of executive oversight in areas they now control.”
This is utter blather. Appropriations are the “law” and nobody outside of a few right-wing constitutional cranks disagrees about this. And “I’m not a lawyer” is a crazy cop-out for anyone in Cole’s position - a bit like the Secretary of Defense saying he didn’t realize that it was his job to defend the country because he hadn’t read the National Security Act (hey, with this Defense Secretary, that could actually happen).
To understand what’s happening here, you have to go back to one of the fundamental flaws in the U.S. constitution, and why the constitution is so unprepared for a figure like Trump.
The Founders thought that the U.S. constitution would work because they expected each branch of government to be filled with ambitious and power-seeking people who would naturally try to maximize the power of their own branch. So although they foresaw the possibility of presidential abuses of power, they thought Congress and the courts would naturally act to punish these abuses and insist on their own powers and rights.
But what the Founders didn’t reckon with was the emergence of political parties which consolidate control over multiple branches of government at once. In that situation, members of Congress might let a president get away with abuses of power because they care much more about their own future within the party than they do about Congress as an institution. If a party like that was headed by someone unscrupulous enough and they controlled both the courts and Congress, they could tear down the entire constitution without the other branches raising a peep.
And that describes the MAGA movement to a tee. It’s defined by its devotion to the current president and its scorn for laws, norms, and the constitution. In this party, standing up for any of those things doesn’t make you a hero - it puts a target on your back. Often quite literally.
Republican voters today will punish or reward members of Congress based on how slavishly they go along with whatever Trump wants, not how well they uphold the law.
And although the Trump administration has rolled back the funding freeze for now, anyone paying attention in the White House will have noticed how easy it was to steamroll Congress. In other words, if the architects of this attack on the constitution want to come back to try again with a slightly better plan, they can be pretty sure of success. And that’s what is now keeping me up at night.
Thanks for reading America Explained. This post is free. If you haven’t already, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, which allows you to read every post and access the full archive. We only need a few dozen more paid subscribers to get into the “hundreds of paid subscribers” category, which means Substack will promote the newsletter more and hopefully bring even more readers our way. Having more paid subscribers also enables me to put more time and energy into the newsletter.
In other news, I recently went on The Lowdown podcast to discuss the first week of the Trump administration with
, who writes the excellent newsletter. Check out the episode here!Other posts related to this topic:
Trump's attack on the constitution begins
Trump has been talking about using recess appointments to fill key positions in his administration. That's a massive constitutional power grab.
Congress is acting like a Parliament
When the Founders were putting together the constitution, parties were never supposed to be part of the deal. But recently, they're making Congress act in some really unusual ways.
I read the Vox article you embedded and it didn't surprise me. Since the article was written the felon has released his kraken which only emboldens his base.
And we wonder why we don't have moderate people (either party) with great ideas running for office... especially at state and federal levels!
I am a moderate Independent that lives among a 60%+ MAGA voting county in a blue state https://www.zipdatamaps.com/counties/state/politics/map-of-partisan-voting-index-for-counties-in-washington
I am very careful about how I express my views because everybody knows where everybody lives out here.... and we've got an active gun culture here. The MAGA community here seems to be getting worked up and feverishly overexcited with all the blatant lies being force fed to them. This is not gonna end well imho.