Common Defense: Too many emergencies

Just as it’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, the president gets the benefit of the doubt on what constitutes a national emergency

ANALYSIS — Like many other Americans in these trying times, I find myself exhausted living through two simultaneous national emergencies.

I’m speaking, of course, about the situation along our southern border with Mexico and the ability of Saudi Arabia to counter Iranian aggression in the Middle East.

Wait, did you think I meant something else?

Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration felt that both of these situations posed enough of a threat to the American way of life that it declared national emergencies in order to address them. In both cases, it was circumventing the express will of Congress. Continue reading.