Here are excerpts of a Los Angeles Times editorial taking issue -- no pun intended -- with Trump's "highly questionable idea" of declaring a "national emergency" so he can appropriate money from other agencies and employ the military to build The Trump Wall. You remember -- the "big beautiful wall" Trump promised Mexico would pay for.
The problem with Trump's 'national emergency' plan is much bigger than any wall
Los Angeles Times editorial board, Feb 2 2019 3:05 AM
When President Trump agreed to end the historically long government shutdown on January 26, he said the fiasco he triggered would be repeated in three weeks unless Congress came up with a deal on border security that he could accept. Since then, however, Trump has signaled that he doesn’t care what lawmakers do — he may not force another shutdown but he is determined to build his border wall, with or without Congress appropriating the money.
Trump has been floating the idea of ignoring whatever deal lawmakers strike, declaring a national emergency at the southern border and using emergency powers to fund the wall. But defying Congress' dictates on how federal dollars should be spent would be legally iffy, set a horrible precedent — and carry more than a whiff of authoritarianism.
Some observers point to the 1982 Military Construction Codification Act, which states that when a national emergency "requires use of the armed forces," the Defense Department "may undertake military construction projects not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces." That strains credulity. The military doesn't need a wall to perform its work on the border, which isn't being overrun by enemy soldiers or even by migrant civilians, who are crossing in numbers far lower than in 2000. Instead, the system is being overwhelmed by the number of families seeking asylum.
The bigger problem is that Trump could set a precedent for future presidents to usurp Congress' constitutional power over the federal purse by treating political disputes as national emergencies. Presidents cannot dictate how lawmakers spend tax dollars; they have to persuade Congress. And clearly, Trump is not doing so.
Lawmakers should not be cowed by the President's posturing into wasting billions of dollars on an ineffective border wall. And if Trump carries out his threat to spend the money anyway, the courts should remind him that the President's emergency powers have limits.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/edit...202-story.html