Yesterday President Donald Trump
ordered the construction of his much ballyhooed wall along the
U.S-Mexico border to begin. Obviously Trump doesn’t see any need to go
to Congress to seek approval for his gigantic, socialist, public-works,
multibillion-dollar edifice. He’s the president. He can issue “executive
orders.” He can do whatever he wants. Who needs congressional approval?
Anyway, Congress might turn him down. Or they might delay construction
by deliberating and debating the issue. Who needs all that when one can
simply issue an executive order to get the wall built?
This is how dictators have always
operated — simply by decree. They don’t need legislatures and,
therefore, they either ignore them or they abolish them. And they expect
the judiciaries to fall into line and support whatever they do.
One of the best examples of this
phenomenon occurred during the dictatorial regime of Chilean military
tyrant Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who the U.S. national-security
establishment put into power, in the process destroying Chile’s
democratic system, and then proceeded to support his reign of tyranny
with cash and armaments for the next 17 years.
Like Trump, Pinochet ruled by decree. His
executive orders were known as “decree laws.” Whatever executive orders
Pinochet issued were automatically considered the law. That’s why his
edicts were called “decree laws.” Whatever he decreed automatically
became the law.
The Chilean congress had no say in the
matter because Pinochet and his U.S.-supported military cohorts had
abolished it. Equally important, the Chilean judiciary, scared to death,
went along with whatever Pinochet decreed, holding that it was all
consistent with the Chilean constitution.
The New York Times is reporting
that Trump might be planning to justify his border wall decree under
what was called the Secure Fence Act of 2006. But that would clearly
just be a sham. That law was enacted more than a decade ago to provide
for the building of a fence along the U.S-Mexico border, another
gigantic socialist measure that obviously did not achieve its purported
goal.
Trump’s Wall is obviously something
completely different from the Berlin-type fence that was built with the
approval of Congress back in 2006. Since that fence obviously didn’t
work, it stands to reason that Congress might not be willing to enact a
new law authorizing the construction of a multi-billion dollar wall.
That doesn’t matter to Trump. He’s the
president. He’s in charge. Given that he is determined to build a wall,
he’s not about to permit Congress or the federal judiciary to interfere
with or interrupt his plans.
Another problem is funding. Trump’s wall
is going to cost billions of dollars. He clearly is not going to use his
own personal resources to build his wall. He says he’s going to make
Mexico pay for it. Really? How? By ordering the Pentagon to invade the
country and see whatever money it can find in its treasury, killing
multitudes of people in the process? I don’t think so.
So that leaves even more debt to be added
onto the ever-growing mountain of debt owed by the federal government —
debt that the hard-pressed U.S. taxpayer is ultimately responsible for
paying off.
The Times suggests that Congress could deny funding. Yeah, right! Does the Times
really think that that is going to stop Trump from building his wall?
If Trump doesn’t care whether Congress enacts a law authorizing his wall
to be built, why is he going to care whether they authorize funding for
it or not? He’s the president. He can issue executive decrees. After
all, surely the Times noticed that Trump has already decreed that
construction of his wall is to begin, notwithstanding the obvious fact
that Congress has not authorized funding for it.
Many years ago, Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev ordered construction of the Berlin Wall to begin. He didn’t
get the approval of the Russian congress or East German congress either.
He just ordered his wall to be built. Just like President Trump
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