By Robert S. Siegel
No, I am not about to accuse President Obama seeking to expand his presidential power into royal powers. However, I do have an obligation to point out a serious problem to my readers. The philosophy of this blog is that separation of powers in the Constitution should be maintained vigorously for the time when your party is no longer in power.
Hold that thought in your mind. I will return to it in a moment.
Joseph Ellis points out in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Founding Brothers, that part of the original appeal for the creation of Washington D.C. in a separate, and at that time distant location from Philadelphia and the other important U.S. cities, was to keep the nation’s financial and political capitals separate. This separation served as a check and balance similar to the separation of powers that created checks and balances between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government. In Europe, which was ruled by royalty, the political and economic centers were the same, as were the people at the center.
During the current economic crisis, the financial and automobile industry centers of power moved to Washington DC and into the Executive branch. The center of power for energy will be there soon (see Cap and Trade, and Alternative Energy Stimulus funding) as will healthcare and the related pharmaceutical industry. The Federal government controls retirement through Social Security and strict rules for retirement savings. The Federal Government is already the nation’s largest single employer.
Can we allow that much power to concentrate within our Federal Government? Within one branch of our government?
Remember that at the beginning of this article I wrote that those in power need to maintain the separation of powers vigorously for the time when their party is no longer in power.
If you are a Democrat, how will you feel when power shifts back, as history shows it always does, to the opposing political party? Do you want the Republicans to inherit this vastly more powerful Federal government? Knowing that government changes hands, do you really want to continue concentrating more and more economic power on the Federal government, particularly, the Executive branch?
How long will it be before the Oval Office is the Throne Room?
