The President’s Agenda?

By Andrew Zuelke, Chairman
Constitution Party of Wisconsin

We hear all the time about the president’s agenda and that the other party in Congress is undermining or “blocking” his agenda, keeping him from succeeding and hurting the country.

          So are we to assume that the “other party” should always vote “yes” for whatever a sitting president wants, even if it goes against their own beliefs, else they are “hurting the country?”

            Of course, presidential candidates are asked by voters about their positions on the issues, and it is important to know candidates’ views.  Fair enough. But the president – also governors and mayors – are executive positions, not legislative ones. Presidents don’t make laws; they are supposed to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress.

Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sheriffs Don’t Have Agendas

We never hear talk about an elected sheriff’s agenda or that members of a city council or county board voting opposite on issues the sheriff campaigned on are “obstructing the sheriff’s vision.” Is it because a sheriff carries a gun and badge that we see him differently than a president? Both take an oath to uphold and defend the same Constitution. The only agenda an elected sheriff should ever have should be to protect the public and uphold laws and ordinances.

            In Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution, the lead paragraph reads, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows. . .”

Every four years, we get to hear from presidential candidates about their plans to create jobs and grow the economy if elected. The incumbent tells us how he created x-millions of jobs and that he put Americans to work. Where are the phrases “job creation” and “growing the economy” to be found in Article II? Or, if the economy has been bad during the incumbent’s term, if his predecessor is from the other party, he will say, “When I came into office, the economy was a shambles. It’s taken years to fix the bad economy the previous administration left me.”

unknowns, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

So, individual representatives and senators bear none of the blame for a bad economy and can do nothing to stop a sitting president from doing anything he wants economically? So, for example, President Biden could solely order the printing of more money and cause massive inflation and Congress is powerless to stop him?  Are there no checks and balances between the three branches of government anymore? By the way, how is the impeachment inquiry into Biden going, Republicans? And former President Trump created all those jobs by himself? I think business owners across America choosing to hire people might have had a little say in that, Donald.

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Presidents don’t create jobs. Imagine it’s a mid-term election, and a sitting president’s party has the majority in the House of Representatives. The president hears from an incumbent House party member that he is facing tough opposition from the other party’s candidate. The representative also says that the largest employer in his district (let’s call them the Acme Tool and Dye Company), is planning to lay off 2,000 of their 10,000 employees. This will hurt the local economy and the incumbent’s efforts to win re-election. The president knows he needs this Congressional district to help his party keep their House majority, so he travels to that district to stump for the candidate. Standing in a park across the street from the Acme Tool and Dye’s corporate headquarters, the President says, “Let me be clear to the Acme executives, you are not laying off those 2,000 workers. I am the President of the United States. I forbid it. It is not going to happen.”

Guess what? After the president’s finger waving and angry speech is over, those 2,000 workers will get laid off anyway. The president can’t stop that. It is true that excessive regulations can to an extent harm industries, and a president signing business-friendly legislation into law and opposing tax increases can grow the economy, but a president can’t tell a company what they can or can’t do with their workforce. God help us all if any one man ever has that kind of power in a republic.

          Job creation and the economy are important. But when was the last time you heard Democrats and Republicans defending their voting records on the Bill of Rights, serving as elected officers to vote “No!” in Congress on unconstitutional laws and unconstitutional spending, instead of presidents defending their signings of legislation not authorized by Article 1: Section 8? The only time Democrats talk about rights is when its so-called “reproductive” rights (abortion), “LGBT” rights (news flash: under the Bill of Rights, homosexuals have the same rights heterosexuals have) and voting rights “being in danger” (translation – states requiring a photo ID to vote). The only time Republicans talk about rights is the 2nd Amendment, and, to their credit, free speech rights on campuses and online and fighting for election reform. But for the vast majority of presidential campaigns, both parties’ candidates are focused on economy this and job creation that.

Many Americans harbor this belief that one good president in the White House will singlehandedly create an economic boom and just one bad president will wreck us. As I have written before, if America is so weak that one wrong person in the White House can destroy America, that we “can’t survive four more years of this person in office,” then America is living on borrowed time. We are just one bad president away from losing it all. I’d like to think America is a little stronger than that. We need a lot more focus on each member of Congress and their proposed legislation and voting records on issues and less emphasis on a president’s “agenda” and his so-called “vision for America.”

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