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| Some of the participants in a rally held Sunday, Feb. 17 opposing the "national emergency" declaration. Peaceworks joined our allies in CoMo for Progress in co-sponsoring this gathering outside the Boone County Courthouse. |
As
virtually everyone reading this now knows, on Friday, February 15, unable to
get Congress to appropriate the funds he claimed were needed for a border
wall/barrier, President Donald Trump declared a “national emergency.” He
claimed this would allow him to override the will of Congress and transfer
funds from other governmental programs to fast track wall construction.
Minutes
after declaring an “emergency” and claiming the wall was urgently needed to respond
to an “invasion,” Trump acknowledged: “I could do the wall over a longer period
of time. I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster.” And just a few hours later he took off to
spend the weekend golfing at the Florida White House. Not what one who expect
as a response to an “emergency.”
“Us
vs. them,” fear-based rhetoric has been the hallmark of Trump’s MAGA movement
from Day One. Recall that on June 16, 2015, in announcing his campaign, Trump
declared that Mexico was “sending people that have lots of problems, and
they're bringing those problems with [them]. They're bringing drugs. They're
bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
It
makes little difference to Trump’s supporters that the number of undocumented people crossing the border having declined significantly over the past 15 years.
Moreover, there are fewer undocumented
people living in the U.S. now than there were a decade ago, and approximately
two-thirds of these undocumented residents have lived in the country for a
decade or longer. Clearly, our country is not being “overrun.”
Trump’s
fear-mongering is not limited to the specter of darker-skinned people—most of
whom are branded as criminals—sneaking into the U.S. Another fear button he
pushes regularly is the threat of illegal drugs “flooding” our country. But
critics have pointed out that the vast majority of contraband is being snuck in
through ports of entry and not hauled across rivers or overland through
deserts, over mountains, etc.
In fact, “According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection
statistics, 90 percent of heroin, 88 percent of cocaine, 87 percent of meth and
80 percent of fentanyl seized along the border in the first 11 months of 2018
was intercepted at legal crossing points.”
Donald
Trump might believe that there is an urgent threat posed by the lack of a wall
from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, but somehow the people he’s appointed
to head up our national intelligence services are not on this page. In fact
when Dan Coats, Director of the Office of National Intelligence, along with CIA Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher A.
Wray, provided their annual assessment of global threats to Congress, on
January 29, the supposed threat from across the southern border did not make
their list. They focused instead on cyber threats, Russia, China, North Korea,
ISIS, etc.
The “National Emergency” is a Threat
Trump’s
actions themselves constitute a serious threat that must be addressed. To begin
with, the Big Lie approach to political rhetoric undermines our ability to
engage in rational dialogue on the issues we face.
We
have now lived with Trump’s oft-repeated lies for nearly four years (counting
from the start of his campaign in 2015), and this has compounded already
existing fear and loathing. Anyone who listened to Trump’s rambling talk when
he declared the “national emergency,” should
be able to recognize just how far off-base his claims are. While they should be
able to, a sizeable minority are not. In fact millions have “drunk the
Kool-Aid” and this will make it more difficult, now, and in the future, to
create a society that respects and even celebrates diversity.
To
be clear, American racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and other bigoted
attitudes did not start with Donald Trump. But he has not just exploited the
existing fear and hate, he has exacerbated it, and we really need to work to
turn this around.
The
other threat that this bogus “emergency” triggers is constitutional. Under our
system of shared power, the legislative branch—that is Congress—decides how
much money to appropriate for each governmental purpose. This is called “The
Power of the Purse,” something most of us learned in high school civics
classes, something Donald Trump seems to have missed taking. The executive
branch—the President and the Federal agencies—are then in charge of spending
the funds provided.
The
National Emergencies Act of 1976 was established to allow some flexibility in
times of crisis, but to also put limits on a president’s ability to simply
declare an open-ended emergency. While the act has been utilized dozens of
times over the past four decades, never has it been used to override Congress
and provide funding for something Congress has explicitly decided not to approve.
Never, that is, until now.
This
sets a horrible precedent and should not be allowed. If any time a
president—this one, or any of his successors—decides he or she would like to
override Congress he or she can do so just by declaring an emergency, it will
greatly diminish the role of our elected representatives. While there are
numerous flaws in our electoral system Congress is, at least in theory, both
closer to and more responsive to their constituents than the president.
Speaking
of Congress, it would be a good idea to weigh in and let them know what you are
thinking on this set of concerns. It seems that even those who support the wall
might at least respond to Trump’s power-grab, as it would diminish their power,
both under Trump and, if the precedent is set, under future presidents as well.
Contact
info for Missouri reps. and senators is available if you CLICK HERE. Note that
it is possible for Congress to reject Trump’s emergency claim, but it needs to
be done by a two-thirds majority that can override a presidential veto, so
winning over a significant number of GOP members would be necessary. Please
help as you can, and please share your concerns widely.
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| President Trump announces his national emergency declaration from the White House Rose Garden, Feb. 15, 2019. |
