Blame Mike Johnson for the stalemate in Congress

Whether it is punitive tariffs, aggressive immigration tactics or ill-conceived military actions, Congress has been remarkably obsequious in permitting President Trump to do anything he wishes — even when such actions blatantly violate the Constitution.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is ultimately responsible for such permissiveness.

This was most obvious with the president’s cavalcade of tariffs. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that the tariffs were unlawful. This only prompted Trump to take new actions to keep his tariffs in place, pushing the boundaries of the law and using other statutes to justify his agenda. Though the president has significant authority using executive actions, it is Congress’s responsibility to ensure that all such actions are legal and within the boundaries as set forth in the Constitution.  

Congress is not supposed to turn a blind eye to executive actions. The balance of power between the three branches of government (legislative, executive, judicial) is supposed to ensure that no one branch oversteps its authority and acts unlawfully.

During Trump’s current term, the government has had three partial shutdowns, including the longest full shutdown in the nation’s history. Johnson guaranteed the first shutdown by sending all members of the House home after they had passed a funding bill. This provided no avenue for further discussions with the Senate.

Although this provided House members with leverage, it also resulted in hundreds of thousands of federal workers staying on the job without a paycheck until the shutdown ended. The cost of this shutdown to the nation was estimated to be at least $7 billion in permanently lost GDP. 

Then there were the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minneapolis and around the country. Supporting ICE officers in wearing face coverings is debatable. The ICE policy of entering homes with administrative warrants but not judicial warrants is reprehensible and likely illegal. For the latter, the Speaker’s rationale was that requiring judicial warrants would inhibit ICE officers from executing their operations. Nowhere in the Constitution does it provide exceptions for any of its articles or amendments to facilitate speed over legality.

Johnson’s stance on such issues is at the foundation of the most recent and ongoing partial government shutdown. His rejection of a bipartisan Senate bill to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except ICE is emblematic of how out of touch he is with the American people. Then, his rejection of the Senate’s unanimously supported proposal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security was at first labelled by him as a “joke.” He later backtracked, much to the chagrin of the Freedom Caucus.

Given the homeland security risks emerging from Trump’s war in Iran, this is no time to play dice with the stability of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.

Johnson’s total denial that Trump’s action in Iran is even a war was ridiculous. He continues to demonstrate an unwillingness to support any actions that will rein in the Trump’s military actions, or any actions for that matter. This effectively buys time for Trump to conduct additional military exercises, leading to more deaths and damage to all participants.

The Speaker of the House is the second in line to the presidency in the event that the president resigns, dies or becomes incapacitated. Johnson’s actions do not evince the character or judgement of a person who should be in the White House and serve in the best interests of all Americans and the nation. 

Johnson was elected in a heavily Republican district in Louisiana. The only way for him to be removed as Speaker is if his party turns against him, or if Democrats gain control of the House in the midterm elections.

If anything positive comes out of the ongoing turmoil in Washington, it is that all people, Republican and Democrat, are gaining a glimpse of what happens when Congress shirks its responsibilities. Independent of what our elected officials try to accomplish, ensuring that they do it lawfully and abide by the Constitution serves everyone’s best interests. Given how Johnson has turned a blind eye to the “how,” he bears much of the responsibility for the abusive tariffs, irresponsible ICE tactics, and ill-conceived wars Trump is adopting on his watch. 

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He applies his expertise in data-driven risk-based decision-making to evaluate and inform public policy.

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