No One Asked Me But… (March 6, 2019)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… President Trump has declared the invasion of Latin American immigrants across the border of the southwestern United States a National Emergency. His Democrat opponents are livid.

From the fuss being made one might conclude that this is an unusual step for a President to take. There are cries, from the political left of dictatorial rule by an unstable President who is taking over the government. They seem to have forgotten President Obama’s famous statement when the Republican Congress would not support his programs that he would rule by “pen and phone.” President Obama declared a National Emergency almost twice a year when he was President. I heard no claims of dictatorial take over by the President from any Democrat during those years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims the President is manufacturing a crisis to make it possible to fulfill his campaign promise of a 2,000 mile border wall between America and Mexico. This confirms that this is a political issue. The Democrats who have traditionally supported a border wall do not want to give the President a political victory to use in the 2020 campaign. They seem to forget that for years Democrat Presidents and Congress-people have supported the building of walls to close the border to illegal trafficking of people and crime.

Democrats have for years supported the legislation to build a wall of protection on the southern border of the United States. These Democrats include the likes of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who now opposes “Trump’s” wall. She supported wall legislation in 2006, stating: “I don’t oppose building a fence where you need to do it where the border is porous. I just don’t have a problem with that.”

Democrat Senator Barack Obama supported building a fence on the southern border of the United States. In September 2006, regarding the Secure Fence Act, Obama said, “the bill before us will certainly do some good. It will authorize some badly needed funding for better fences and better security along our borders and that should help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country.” During his 2008 campaign,. Mister Obama supported fencing along the border stating, “Additional fencing on the border is not a comprehensive solution, but it sometimes helps deter people from taking the risk of entering illegally.” He also stated that he believed “…fencing should be built where necessary and agreed to in coordination with local governments, Indian tribes and done in an environmentally sensitive manner.”

Hillary Clinton, who was critical of Trump’s plan during her presidential campaign, also supported fencing along the border and bragged as recently as November 2015 about her previous votes as senator on the issue. At a campaign event in New Hampshire, a woman asked Clinton about securing the border from illegal immigrants. Ms. Clinton’s reply was: “Well, look I voted numerous times when I was a Senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in and I do think you have to control your borders.”

Other notable Democrat Senators who supported fencing legislation include Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Pelosi, in opposition to Trump’s declaration, stated “We do not have a monarch, we have a separation of powers.”

Democrat Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus stated: “What the president is attempting is an unconstitutional power grab.”

I agree with both of these people. The unilateral action by the President is both a usurpation of power and an unconstitutional action. I checked the Constitution and could find no constitutional support for the President to declare a National Emergency. I found that this phenomena of National Emergencies power assumed by the President of the United States comes from the very Congress that now laments the use of this power.

The first President to issue an emergency proclamation was Democrat Woodrow Wilson on Feb. 5, 1917. This proclamation dealt with a shortage of shipping to carry American products throughout the United States and to foreign countries.
With the country in throes of the depression of the 1930’s, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt declared numerous National Emergencies.

Democrat Harry Truman declared a National Emergency during the Korean War. In April of 1952, he directed the Secretary of Commerce to seize and operate most of the nation’s steel mills in order to avert the effects of a threatened strike by the United Steelworkers of America. The steel workers sued the President for overstepping his authority. The case reached the Supreme Court and in the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer the court limited what a President could do in such an emergency.But it did not declare the emergency power itself unconstitutional.

In 1973, a Senate investigation found that four national emergencies were in force: the 1933 banking emergency, a 1950 emergency with respect to the Korean War, the 1970 crisis dealing with the postal strike, and a declaration attempting to curb inflation in 1971.

On September 14, 1976, the 94th Congress of the United States passed the National Emergencies Act. In doing so, Congress codified the Presidential use of decrees of National Emergencies. This law included provisions to cede Congressional legislative power to the Executive branch of government. Under this law, Congress defined 136 powers that are surrendered to the President under a declaration of an emergency. It also provided a process for Congressional over-ride, and a limit as to how long an emergency could last.

The United States of America has been functioning under a declaration of a National Emergency continually for the last 43 years. Since 1976, every President has declare National Emergencies: Carter (2), H.W. Bush (4), Clinton (17), W. Bush (13), Obama (12) and Trump (4).

President Trump has declared three other National Emergencies without opposition from the liberal left. The fuss made about the new National Emergency declaration has little to do with the Democrat objection to the usurpation of power. It has nothing to do with the fact that it is a violation of the Constitution. I am not sure anyone in Congress has read the Constitution, let alone understands it. It has everything to do with the political edge the Republicans, i.e. Donald Trump, might gain if a border wall was successful in stemming the sex trafficking of women and children, as well as shutting down the business of transporting illegal drug, and illegal immigrants across our southern border.

Thought of the week… Hypocrisy is the scarlet letter in politics. – Mark McKinnon