Trump Isn’t King, and Congress Isn’t Coequal
It is common today to think of our branches of government as coequal, as Daniel Henninger writes in his column “Trump’s Imperial Presidency?” (Wonder Land, Jan. 23). But this is incorrect. The Founders would say our branches are coordinate, that each has its own role. The government must write the law before it can enforce or interpret it, meaning that Congress is the central branch of our system.
Our system of checks and balances doesn’t equalize the branches, for Congress still wields substantial power over the other branches. Congress can design the courts and executive departments and even remove the president. Yet the president and the courts can’t interfere with Congress and must faithfully execute and interpret its laws.
Unfortunately, our government today bears little resemblance to this constitutional vision. It is, as Mr. Henninger writes, closer to an imperium, with the president as elected emperor. The blame for this situation belongs to Congress, which has over the last century ceded de facto lawmaking powers to the executive branch and its legions of unelected bureaucrats. This violates an essential maxim of our constitutional order: that the preservation of liberty requires that the executive, legislative and judicial powers mostly be kept separate.
The imperial presidency also challenges the idea that our government is a republic. It isn’t enough for everybody to get a vote. In a republic, all voices must be heard, and public policy must meaningfully incorporate the views of a broad cross-section of society. The president, as one man, can’t reflect the vast diversity of our nation. Only Congress can.
Perhaps congressional dysfunction isn’t a consequence of our civic malady but its cause. By divesting itself of power, Congress has robbed the people of meaningful input into the rules that govern them. If some wish to “Make America Great Again,” as President Trump and his supporters proclaim, the executive should return to Congress the powers that, under the Constitution, it never should have had in the first place.
Jay Cost
American Enterprise Institute