Blog Stage Two

The following article by the New York Times regards President Trump's recent declaration of national emergency over the border wall and Nancy Pelosi's (speaker of the house) effort to overturn the declaration. The article is written in anticipation for the house vote Pelosi has scheduled this upcoming Tuesday. This article is important to read because it discusses a larger problem than the surface level fight for border security, it outlines the fight for the defense of balanced powers on part of the entire legislative branch and checks and balances of government branches established in the constitution. President Trump's declaration, if it prevails, is a bigger issue than unlawfully redirecting funds towards the construction of the border wall. Essentially, the act will establish a precedent that will forever change the balance of powers. The legislative branch takes charge in government spending, and with an overreaching executive who hopes to unconstitutionally redirect up to 3.6 billion dollars of military construction funding towards the border wall fund, what does that say for future executives? What's to stop future presidents from overreaching? If the resolution led by Pelosi does not pass, it gives the executive branch power over the legislative branch in areas that were not intended by the founding fathers, fundamentally taking away power from the branch of the people. The big controversy here is: will congressional Republicans unite with Democrats to defend legislative powers, defecting their party and support for the president? Nancy Pelosi invited Republicans to vote for the resolution, appealing to them by calling for the defense of Congress's "power of the purse," or power over government budgeting. Pelosi doesn't doubt that the resolution will pass, however, if the resolution gets majority vote the president may still veto the resolution. This means 2/3rds of Congress must vote on overriding the veto, which is doubtful. We will see what happens this Tuesday at the house vote...