The framers of the U S. Constitution gave Congress power over the purse – the power to appropriate money and to borrow it or raise it through taxes, in order to compel the president to negotiate. Our nation’s first plan of government, the Articles of Confederation, had no president. When the framers gathered in 1787 to write a second, more effective plan, they reluctantly created the presidency. Reluctantly, because the worried that a president would accumulate too much power, as they had seen the kings of Europe do. To prevent that, the founders created checks and balances. In the words of James Madison, the Constitution’s chief architect, each branch of government is “effectually checked and restrained by the others.” “An elective despotism is not the government we fought for,” Madison wrote in Federalist 58. An executive branch with the power to borrow and spend freely would be that.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 17:56:32 +0000
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