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21 Dec 2008 09:11 pm
Conservatives vs The Executive
George F Will has long been a conservative who defines himself by a defense of Congressional centrality and checks on executive power. In other words: a Burkean, not a Schmittian. His column today is excellent as usual, and he notes how unchecked executive power has a habit of extending into realms beyond national security:
Most of the administration's executive truculence has pertained to
national security, where the case for broad prerogatives, although not
as powerful as the administration supposes, is at least arguable. With
the automakers, however, executive branch overreaching now extends to
the essence of domestic policy -- spending -- and traduces a core
constitutional principle, the separation of powers.
Most members of the House and Senate want the automakers to get the
money, so they probably are pleased that the administration has
disregarded Congress's institutional dignity. History, however, teaches
that it is difficult for Congress to be only intermittently
invertebrate.
The proper description for the seizure of the TARP money to spend on something Congress declined to spend it on is ... lawless.
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