Congress Questions Executive Authority (at last)

As I was going through this morning’s news feeds, I found two back-to-back articles from The Guardian (which, hopefully, at least a few readers may know began as the Manchester Guardian) involving efforts of the Legislative Branch of our government to have as much say as the Executive Branch. Mind you, I suspect that the current President of the United States may not be informed about what the Constitution has to say about both of those branches. Fortunately, there are members of the Congress who are better informed about these matters and have decided to push back against some of the President’s latest efforts.

The first of the two articles involved the President considering withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in 1949 to create an alliance that would deter any threat from the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact countries. The second involved providing funds to aid Israel’s defense forces. For the second half of the twentieth century, Israel had reason to be threatened by all of the countries on its borders. (Full disclaimer: My first job after receiving my doctoral degree involved teaching graduate and undergraduate computer science at the Technion, often called, with a nod to the state of Massachusetts, the “Israel Institute of Technology.”)

The focus of the first article is Mitch McConnell, currently Chair of the Senate Rules Committee; and it concerns the fact that the Senate has a NATO observer group, which is chaired jointly by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis. Both of them are strong advocates of NATO, strong enough for McConnell to agree with their rejection of the possibility of withdrawal.

The leader in the second article is Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She used social media to release a statement beginning as follows:

The Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment.

Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law.

The first page of the first edition of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet The American Crisis (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

I have to confess that, for the most part, I tend to be skeptical of “social media.” Nevertheless, if The Guardian was willing to accept Ocasio-Cortez’ post on X, I am willing to take the same stand. The fact is that we are now back on a “turf” that Thomas Paine first published in 1776 under the title The American Crisis: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Our President may be happy enough with the state of his soul, but it looks like there is a rising tide of those disagreeing with him. Since that tide involves Republicans as well as Democrats, I personally think that it is too serious to be ignored!