Trump shouldn’t divert funds to build wall

Fortunately, it appears that the federal government will be open at least until Feb. 15.

If he doesn’t get his wall funding in that time, the president seems headed toward declaring a national emergency to divert funds from what they were allocated for by Congress so he can build his wall, which is unnecessary but will fulfill his campaign promise — except for the fact that during the campaign he said that Mexico would pay for the wall. Evidently that check got lost between Mexico City and Washington.

We now, and hopefully will continue to, operate in a Madisonian democracy comprising three branches of government. Sequentially in the Constitution they are legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch is responsible for allocating funds, which it does not seem willing to do regarding Trump’s wall.

There are many reasons for this, including the fact that a large portion of the land that would be needed to build the wall on is not owned by the federal government. That is one of the many reasons not to build the wall that Trump promised during the campaign.

Just because Congress is not willing to allocate funds for Trump’s wall, it doesn’t mean that he can just declare a national emergency to get what he wants.

The larger issue here is the Madisonian democracy we are governed under, and if the president is allowed to divert funds allocated by Congress, what else will he do? And what doors does that open for the current president and future presidents?

The national emergency law was implemented to allow presidents to act in an emergency situation, such as President George W. Bush did after 9/11.

The reality of this situation is that there is no compelling case for building this wall at all, due to all information available.

I would respectfully ask everyone to think this situation over; and contact your members of Congress and let them know your thoughts.

Steve Deming

Clermont