On his first day in office, President Trump has signed a record number of executive orders as the first step in enacting his second-term agenda. In some cases, these orders – basically interoffice memos giving instructions to employees in the executive branch – can drive govt policy. In others, they’re mostly symbolic. In all cases, they’re a symptom of a Congress that isn’t doing its job.
In the constitution, President was given very limited powers. The founders intended for Congress to be the dominant branch of govt, with President serving to defend the system from Congress getting too powerful and being able to act decisively in war or emergency. Over time, however, there were many functions that Congress decided that it didn’t really want to fulfil: either they weren’t worth the time, or were too technical for members of Congress to be able to deal with effectively, so they delegated them to the executive branch.
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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