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Mr. Sandman 09-07-17 See Michael's latest cartoons HERE
What Democrats Have Wrong on DACA and the Dreamers
The issue isn't illegal immigration—it's the limits of executive authority.
5:10 AM, SEP 07, 2017 | By IRWIN M. STELZER THE WEEKLY STANDARD
“This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man's laws, not God's—and if you cut them down . . . d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.”
So spoke Paul Scofield’s Sir Thomas Moore in A Man For All Seasons. Critics of President Trump’s decision to toss out his predecessor’s DACA policy might take another look at that film. Trump has given Congress six months to legislate and if they fail to do so, he says, “I will revisit the issue.”
When it comes to policymaking, if you ask the wrong question, you get a wrong answer. The wrong question is: “Do you want some poor kids who were dragged here illegally at the average age of 6, have a lower incarceration rate than the native-born population (according to the Cato Institute), and, in many cases are working hard at jobs and in schools, thrown out of the country?” The answer to that question, for most people, is, “Of course not.”
But now ask the right question: “Are you willing to subvert the Constitution and allow the president to appropriate power that the Constitution reserves for Congress in order to allow these young adults to remain here illegally?” And the answer to that should be, “No.”
If you feel that the Constitutional constraints on the president’s power should be ignored, are you willing to set a precedent that would allow the current resident of the White House to—with a stroke of the pen—lower taxes on the rich? Close down newspapers that displease him? Bar immigrants of a certain religion?
If it only took a pen, and there were no meddlesome Congress and courts, Trump would barely have time to tweet, he would be so busy writing executive orders. Surely members of Democratic party who are trembling with fear that our democracy is about to be replaced by fascism do not want to relax constitutional constraints on presidential power. Especially when all they have to do to get what they want is vote to legalize the presence of these Dreamers on whatever terms they deem appropriate. Which their leader in the Senate says they are prepared to do, although the specific terms remain his to know and ours to guess.
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The issue isn't illegal immigration—it's the limits of executive authority.
5:10 AM, SEP 07, 2017 | By IRWIN M. STELZER THE WEEKLY STANDARD
“This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man's laws, not God's—and if you cut them down . . . d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.”
So spoke Paul Scofield’s Sir Thomas Moore in A Man For All Seasons. Critics of President Trump’s decision to toss out his predecessor’s DACA policy might take another look at that film. Trump has given Congress six months to legislate and if they fail to do so, he says, “I will revisit the issue.”
When it comes to policymaking, if you ask the wrong question, you get a wrong answer. The wrong question is: “Do you want some poor kids who were dragged here illegally at the average age of 6, have a lower incarceration rate than the native-born population (according to the Cato Institute), and, in many cases are working hard at jobs and in schools, thrown out of the country?” The answer to that question, for most people, is, “Of course not.”
But now ask the right question: “Are you willing to subvert the Constitution and allow the president to appropriate power that the Constitution reserves for Congress in order to allow these young adults to remain here illegally?” And the answer to that should be, “No.”
If you feel that the Constitutional constraints on the president’s power should be ignored, are you willing to set a precedent that would allow the current resident of the White House to—with a stroke of the pen—lower taxes on the rich? Close down newspapers that displease him? Bar immigrants of a certain religion?
If it only took a pen, and there were no meddlesome Congress and courts, Trump would barely have time to tweet, he would be so busy writing executive orders. Surely members of Democratic party who are trembling with fear that our democracy is about to be replaced by fascism do not want to relax constitutional constraints on presidential power. Especially when all they have to do to get what they want is vote to legalize the presence of these Dreamers on whatever terms they deem appropriate. Which their leader in the Senate says they are prepared to do, although the specific terms remain his to know and ours to guess.
read more