Newsweek, November 22, 2010, featured an article “God of All Things,” with President Barack Obama shown with six hands handing out “presidential blessings” in all directions. The sub-title, “Why the Modern Presidency May Be Too Much for One Person to Handle.” The article goes on to quote a staff member who reported, “Some days around here, it can almost be hard to breathe.” A senior adviser added, “sometimes the only way to bring the president important news is to stake out his office and ‘walk and talk’ through the hall.”
This is not a new problem the magazine noted, “The growth is exponential in these last 50 years, especially the number of things that are expected of the president.” Therein lies the problem—we want a king. We want someone to do everything for everybody—a God if you will. Obama wants to be like Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt, a trans-formative president.
Then without knowing it, Newsweek gave the solution. “Both men ran slim bureaucracies rooted in relative simplicity.” They continued, “Neither had secretaries of education, transportation, health and human services, veterans’ affairs, energy, or homeland security, nor czars of pollution or drug abuse…. Lincoln had time to think…. that kind of down-time just doesn’t exist anymore.”
And therein lies the second problem that is at the heart of this column. Most, if not all, of these things are not in Article II of the Constitution nor have they been added by way of amendment as outlined in Article V of that document thus they are unconstitutional. Presidents, in their thirst for power and /or proclaimed expediency, have empowered themselves to the point of “kingship” with their worshipful, unchallenging, party followers (whether democrat or republican) quite willing to look the other way as government grows beyond its ability to be efficient. Its ever enlargement is choking-out the president and he is doing it essentially with his own hands by his enlargement of bureaucracy. At any time he could remind the people of his real constitutional powers but he will not as that would drastically reduce his power that is beginning to look limitless.
The answer to this strangulation problem is simple. We must return to the Constitutional powers of the President as outlined in Article II only adding to them by way of amendment as described in Article V—no exceptions! Under the Constitution the president has but eleven powers. Lets identify them: 1) “commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States” including the militia when called into actual service of the United States; 2) supervise departments (cabinet) each presumably established by the Congress (George Washington had but four); 3) grant reprieves and pardons; 4) make treaties with the help of the Senate; 5) with Senate help fill positions established by law such as ambassadors, ministers and judges; 6) fill vacancies “during recess of the Senate;” 7) make recommendations to Congress on the state of the union; 8) convene both houses on special occasions and handle disputes with respect to convening (Prior to the 20th Amendment, ratified on Feb 6, 1933, Congress convened on the first Monday in December and were out before Christmas—maybe three weeks.); 9) receive ambassadors and other public ministers; 10) makes certain that “laws be faithfully executed;” and, 11) “commission all the officers of the United States.”
Simply stated the president has two supervisory powers over existing organizations and two shared powers with the Senate, otherwise he pardons, recommends, appoints and entertains. That is it!! Notice the absence of power to make any rules and regulations on us. This is the job of Congress alone.
Adherence to this list would drastically reduce the bureaucracy that is choking the President allowing him to be efficient like his two model presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt. Newsweek magazine, without realizing it, identified bureaucracy as the cause of inefficiency–the executive branch has grown too big to be efficient. Two side benefits would result: we would have more liberty and he would have more time to think.
