I recently talked about the need for a “Project 2027”—an agenda for a new Democratic majority to reclaim the power of Congress against a president who has systematically attempted to concentrate all power in himself.
I just spelled out that agenda in more detail in a new article at Liberal Currents.
This has to be a realistic agenda, so I set one big requirement:
That agenda should be based on what we can do with a simple majority—and with Trump still in the White House—which is the most likely outcome of the coming election. What can we do, with just the power of a congressional majority, to rein in Trump and reform the system?
And it turns out we can do a lot. Read the whole thing for more details, but the main headings are:
Declare a national emergency of national emergencies.
We should pass a law immediately suspending all emergency executive powers, requiring the president to submit such powers for review by Congress, one at a time, if he wants any of them reinstated by ordinary law.
Take away executive discretion.
Congress seems to only fitfully remember that it can just tell the executive what to do.
The one that is most relevant to my recent comments on Senator Warner:
Rediscover the power and purpose of impeachment.
[A]bove all, it brings public attention to this administration’s abuses of power—and it shows that Congress is actually serious about those abuses. The public won’t believe that what Trump is doing is unprecedented or an emergency or an attack on the foundations of the American system if we don’t act like it is. Impeachment is our way of saying that we really mean it, that these actions are beyond the bounds of legitimate power.
And finally:
Use the power of the purse.
The power of the purse is the big stick the Constitution gave us to keep the president in line. We don’t need to settle just for symbolic victories. We should make it clear that we can make the gears of the executive grind to a halt until the president makes real concessions. This is the leverage we can use to get everything else on this agenda.
But this one comes with a warning:
This will be the toughest piece of advice to convince the timid Democratic leadership to implement. But to assume ahead of time that Congress using the power of the purse won’t work and we shouldn’t even try would mean that we are preemptively abandoning the most fundamental and effective weapon Congress has. Democratic leadership needs to show that they are willing to use all the tools they have.
Using all the tools we have is the basic thread behind this agenda. Read the whole thing.
I’ve been saying that this is why I’m running. We need someone in Congress who has not just the desire but also the determination and the plan to restore the power of Congress and rein in an out-of-control president. This is the plan.
If you agree, vote for me in the Democratic primary on August 4—early voting is already open.
And support my campaign so we can bring this fight to the US Congress!
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