F. Peter Brown: Joe Biden Embraces an Imperial Presidency
Joe Biden has embraced an imperial presidency by issuing a bevy of executive orders (more than 40) within the short time he has been president. He has especially sought to undo the Trump legacy.
“The Imperial Presidency” is the name of a book by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger published in 1973 that addressed the growing power of the federal executive, which is still alive and growing today.
For conservatives and libertarians who strongly believe that it is Congress, not the president, that ought to make law, the flurry of executive orders by Biden is a discouragement (although not an unexpected one).
The United States was founded on the principle of the Congress being the most powerful of the three branches of government, and its enumerated powers were laid out in Article I of the Constitution.
The Congress was supposed to be the rule-maker, not the president or federal bureaucrats or the federal judiciary. However, Congress has delegated too much of its powers to the bureaucrats.
Article II of the Constitution dealt with the presidency, and the Founders’ vision of the presidency was remarkably different from the presidency of today. Notably, the president was commander in chief and possessed the veto power.
However, the founders would have been aghast at the wanton use of executive orders by Biden (although Trump also used them).
The modern presidency has become much more monarchical than the Founders intended.
Executive orders can have an appropriate role, but the outsized role they currently possess is terrible.
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One of the most important of Biden’s orders regards his decision to rejoin the Paris climate accords. According to The Heritage Foundation, if the U.S. joined the Paris agreement and carried out its proposed energy regulations, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost and GDP would shrink by 2.5 trillion dollars by 2035.
Surely the United States can come up with better ways to combat climate change than by joining such a flawed agreement. According to the National Research Economic Associates, the results would be even worse if we met all our commitments to the deal, including a loss of up to 6.5 million industrial jobs by 2040.
Another Trump policy that is being reversed is the construction of the U.S. wall with Mexico.
The wall would have brought a great decline to the stream of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border. Biden is blocking the construction of the wall by terminating the national emergency declaration used to fund it. Biden has also targeted Trump’s expanded enforcement of immigration law. He undermines the rule of law, one of the greatest principles of American government, by doing this.
Biden also reversed the Trump policy that made it more difficult for people from seven Muslim-majority countries to enter the U.S. Trump’s policy had protected our country from a potential influx of terrorists, while Biden reversed this in the name of equity.
Furthermore, Biden has signed an executive order allowing the entrance of transgender people into the U.S. military. This will serve to disrupt the hallowed culture of our military by letting transgender people into it. It is political correctness run rampant.
Another area Biden has targeted is Trump’s regulatory policy, changing the Trump regulatory approval process. Trump sought to change the federal regulatory culture that has hurt small businesses everywhere in the U.S. Now Biden has signed an executive order against Trump’s regulatory approval process.
Biden also has canceled approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have made a great positive impact on the U.S. economy. The pipeline would have moved the U.S. closer to energy independence.
Biden has wielded the executive pen with abandon, usurping the rule of Congress as a lawmaking body.
Let us hope that the Republicans in Congress can stem the powerful tide of the Democratic Party led by Biden. Biden so far has led the country down a dangerous path with his plethora of executive orders.
It is time for the American people to stand up against the growing power of the presidency over our lives.
We want our president to be a leader, not a dictator. He should be an executive who enforces the laws rather than making them.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
