Every now and then I come up with questions I'd like to ask the President. Particularly as I was reading Charlie Savage's "Takeover" I had a whole slew of them about executive branch autonomy.
Today, I was reading Granny Doc's diary and thought of this:
When I was in high school learning about the structure of the US government, of checks and balances, I came the to conclusion that the President, even as head of the Executive branch, had little actual power. I did not understand the excitement of choosing a President. I mean, what can he do without Congress's approval?
Enter George W. Bush
So, the president gives an oath of office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
and his constitutional powers are in Article II
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America...
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties,
So, as far as I can tell
* He must execute the laws Congress passes
* He is the head of the military chain of command
* He can negotiate treaties but Congress must approve of them
So, I ask:
Mr. President, under the Constitution which you have sworn to faithfully uphold, you must execute the laws of Congress. Yet, not only have you appended signing statements interpreting these laws, you have even attempted to reverse their meaning. Moreover, you have issued Executive Orders whose purpose is not to execute the laws of Congress, but to effectively create new laws. You claim this as part of "the inherent powers of the Commander-In-Chief of the Unitary Executive", and yet, nowhere is there a source for Time of War to give a President the power to not just flout standing law, but to actually craft new ones. Where in the system of Checks and Balances is the Chief Executive a unitary branch whose whims always trump the others?
My question, Mr. President, I would like you to explicate the source of this radical new Presidential Power you have appropriated. It seems as if, in the words of George Orwell, you are saying "All Branches are equal, but some are more equal than others". The powers you claim as inherent in the Constitution have only existed inasmuch as Congress and the Judiciary have allowed them; that is, they have never been inherent, but rather allowed.
Mr. President, when you leave office, you will leave behind one of two things. You will either leave behind a greater expanded and powerful Executive Branch, a step towards Sinclair Lewis's words: "Fascism Come Draped in a Flag and Cross", or what will be seen as the most flagrant disregard for the Constitution ever by a President which will take years to undo.
In sum, how have you used or amplified the powers of Presidency in ways your predecessors did not?
That's me. What question would you ask?
I could throw some stuff in there about Bush calling himself a conservative but actually being a radical. About him being pro-corporation rather than pro-freemarket. About him being anti-science and pro-dogma (or as he calls it, faith). About him being pro-loyalty, and anti-competence. About him being pro-Machiavelli and anti-American values.