Time For The Dems To Earn The Hatred Of The Wealthy And Connected

It is no surprise to regular readers of this column that its author has been increasingly despondent about the direction of the Democratic Party as it abandoned its strong moorings as the party of working people and became the party of late-term abortion, transgender rights and political correctness. The party has become too "woke" for its own good.

Now, in this moment of crisis, the Democrats have an opportunity to reclaim their mantle as the party of the people, the party of Thomas Jefferson battling Alexander Hamilton over fiscal policy, of Andrew Jackson battling the banks, of Woodrow Wilson standing up to the trusts and the monopolies and levying the first income tax, of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal and Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society. The recent stimulus bill called for congressional oversight of the distribution of a half-trillion dollars to corporations—oversight demanded by the Democrats to ensure that the money goes to help corporations maintain their payrolls, not reward their executives. They were right to insist on these provisions.

In a signing statement, President Donald Trump rejected congressional oversight as mandated in the law. Democrats should insist to know where this president, who is so committed to appointing originalist judges, finds the authority for signing statements in the Constitution. Could it be among the penumbras?

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Not many voters on the fence about Trump will take the time to research case law, but the Democrats might want to make copies of the president's signing statement and mail it to all Americans, highlighting the passages where the president insists there will be no oversight.

Now, according to Politico, officials at the Federal Reserve are indicating that they do not feel bound to insist that corporations comply with government-imposed norms about how the money should be spent. Democrats should return to Washington as soon as possible, and call Fed Chair Jerome Powell to testify about his understanding of the law.