Who cares about limits on executive power?

[EasyAce]

By Kevin D. Williamson
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/who-cares-about-limits-on-executive-power/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=first

One of the most amusing parts of the Trump impeachment has been watching Democrats rediscover the Constitution, limited government, checks and balances, etc.

Have they heard about Bernie Sanders?

Part of the case against Trump is that he misused executive power by ordering the government to do things that he did not have the legal power to order the government to do. In principle, I welcome Congress’s raking Donald Trump or any other president over the coals for that. Presidents are dangerous and should be kept on a short leash.

But even as senators are delivering these really enjoyable lectures about defending the powers of Congress against executive arrogation, Senator Sanders is out there on the campaign trail promising to issue dozens of executive orders in order to circumvent Congress, which shows no signs at the moment of being prepared to go the full Sanders, shrieking maniacally from coast to coast with its collective dress over its collective pointy head. And it is not at all clear that the president actually enjoys the unilateral power to do the things Senator Sanders vows to do unilaterally.

Senator Warren, likewise, has a flatly unconstitutional view of presidential power, if her campaign rhetoric is to be believed.

But, Constitution be damned, “We cannot accept delays from Congress,” Senator Sanders says. But of course we can. Congress gets to choose for itself what laws it will enact and what laws it will decline to enact. The president is not a dictator . . .