Power imbalance
Recently while at my son’s home, I had a chance to go through Khizr Khan’s book on the Constitution (“This Is Our Constitution: Discover America with a Gold Star Father”). It’s a very good book; unfortunately, a study of our Constitution with its 26 amendments is incomplete without trying to understand how our government currently works.
Over the years, Congress and the Supreme Court have altered different articles in the document with laws and rulings. Thus if one searches the document for tariffs, he/she will find that Congress — in Article 3, Section 8, Clause 1 — is the branch that has the power “regulate commerce with foreign nations.” But in 1928, the unruly houses of Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which enacted broad tariffs and worsened the Great Depression. This ultimately resulted in Congress transferring this power to the president and upsetting the balance of powers the framers intended.
This is not the only incidence of the executive branch getting extra weight in governance. Most of our recent occupants of the White House have acted with restraint when exercising their added powers; however, we are currently experiencing abuses of these powers that are dangerous to us and the entire world. Laws can be changed to reinstate the proper balance. levied a temporary sales tax earmarked to help the victims and the community to recover. And the recovery worked; the victims and the town have totally recovered. But 82 years later, the sales tax is still in effect and escalating even through the flood’s victims are no longer alive.
The lesson should be obvious — government funding to help our neighbors get back on their feet no matter how temporary the funding may seem, never is.
The poor are always better off in a nation with the most rich than in a nation with the fewest rich. World organizations such as NATO and the like, combined with diplomatic action and the will of the people, can implement democratic ideals within these countries.
The discombobulation of immigrant policy here at home may be at least partially mitigated. The resolution of immigration problems is imperative.