Regarding the recent budget bill passed by the House of Representatives, Rep. Tim Cole states, “We’re not going to have a Republican Senate and a Republican House restrict a Republican president from the legitimate exercise of executive authority.”
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse through Article I, Section 8, which specifies the powers of Congress in detail, including the ability to set taxes, tariffs, and other means of raising federal revenue, and to authorize the expenditure of all federal funds. Additionally, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 explicitly states that, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” It is the job of Congress to write laws to control taxation, tariffs, and federal spending.
In his book, “A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” Neil Gorsuch quotes James Madison, “[t]he accumulation of all
powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Allen Slight
Crawfordsville
