There may be at least one silver lining: the end of the State of the Union address as we know it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to President Trump suggesting that, because of the shutdown, he should either postpone the address or submit it in writing.
It's not widely known, but the Constitution requires that the president deliver some version of a State of the Union message.
Article II, Section III states that the president "Shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." President George Washington read "From time to time" as "Annually," and a tradition was born.
To paraphrase one of the standard cliches of the speech, the state of the State of the Union is weak.
In a constitutional system that gives the legislative branch the whip hand, there's no justification for letting the president take an hour of national TV time to attempt to bully members of what is supposedly the superior branch of government-to their faces, in their own chamber.
While Trump is unlikely to be moved by arguments for presidential reticence or legislative supremacy, he should do Speaker Pelosi one better and scrap the State of the Union address entirely.
https://www.city-journal.org/state-of-the-union-address
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to President Trump suggesting that, because of the shutdown, he should either postpone the address or submit it in writing.
It's not widely known, but the Constitution requires that the president deliver some version of a State of the Union message.
Article II, Section III states that the president "Shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." President George Washington read "From time to time" as "Annually," and a tradition was born.
To paraphrase one of the standard cliches of the speech, the state of the State of the Union is weak.
In a constitutional system that gives the legislative branch the whip hand, there's no justification for letting the president take an hour of national TV time to attempt to bully members of what is supposedly the superior branch of government-to their faces, in their own chamber.
While Trump is unlikely to be moved by arguments for presidential reticence or legislative supremacy, he should do Speaker Pelosi one better and scrap the State of the Union address entirely.
https://www.city-journal.org/state-of-the-union-address
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