I am so over this winter thing. I can’t even believe it. We got up over 40 degrees yesterday, but today we are waiting for an icy sleet and rain to coat us in a sheet of ice.
All that caused me to be at the computer most of the morning, and had a chance to listen to the Prime Minister of Israel make that controversial speech in which he opined that he would prefer his country not get obliterated by nuclear weapons. I toggled between news sources to get the reaction across the spectrum. I like to check on the daily press briefing, since you never know what manner of amazing things you will hear.
Yesterday was good. The President’s eponymously-named Press Spokesman Josh Earnest gave us an idea about the next exciting Executive Action the President has on the menu. It is so cool to watch this all happening, one astonishing thing after another.
Just this week we had the FCC vote on something secret- I am not kidding- to regulate the means by which I am typing now. I would probably have a more informed opinion about it, except the new rules are, like I said, secret. I’m sure it will turn out as well as the Affordable Care website.
The day before, another Executive Branch department decided to ban a particular kind of ammunition used by millions of legal gun owners, apparently on a whim. The Illegal Alien thing- what are we supposed to call them these days? “Americans in Waiting?” that is still chugging along, and of course I am delighted that we are going to have more Cubans in the Big Leagues, though I am a little foggy on the whole treaties and foreign relations thing. I thought there was an “advise and consent” issue , but I must have been mistaken
According to Josh, apparently the President is now mulling the concept of raising taxes unilaterally on corporations.
To do so, legally, he avers, he would harness the good offices of the ever-impartial Internal Revenue Service.
That is sort of a new approach for me, not that I am particularly surprised. The Executive Brach has allotted all sorts of cool authorities to itself since the Affordable Care Act was signed. I got out the slim red volume I keep next to the dictionary and thesaurus on Grandma’s old folding-top desk.
My copy of the Constitution is a remarkably small volume, similar to the one that Senator Robert Byrd used to carry in the left hand pocket of his suit coat. As a bonus, it contains the Declaration of Independence, which I understand arose from a tax dispute with some overseas concerns.
I looked up “Power to tax” under the authorities allotted to the three branches of government and found it in Article I. You have to wade through Sections 1 through 7, which deal with the composition of the Congress in two chambers, and terms of service and stuff. Thankfully, the Framers wanted this to be a pretty straightforward, and it is perfectly understandable.
Organization first, then money. In Section 8 we get to this about taxes:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
The summation, is at section 18, which specifically grants to Congress the power:
“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
The same little document then turns its attention to the powers of the President, contained in Article II, Sections 1-4. Section one is fairly long, for this brief document, and deals with electors, terms of office, Executive succession and stuff like that. Section 2 gets into the meat of things:
SECTION. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States…he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments… shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…
That is pretty much it. Oh, there is more, of course. He is supposed to deliver a State of the Union message, “from time to time” and obviously the “he” is a gender-specific artifact from earlier times. There must be a lot of other artifacts I haven’t seen before as well, but my copy is marked 2004, so I think it is pretty up to date. There are some words that indicate the President should “receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers,” which is curious, since apparently the Speaker of the House is doing that this morning, but in the end, the President is directed to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Since the Congress is entrusted to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper,” I am mystified by this whole thing.
Wasn’t the President supposed to be a Constitutional Scholar? What edition of the document is he working from? Is it a teleprompter version?
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303