Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Dividing Presidential Powers

A President has a huge amount of responsibility. It is hard to believe that in our time one person can handle it all.

The public has certain reactions to a President simply doing his job, often divisive and counter-productive reactions. The more our national leader is exposed to this, the less effective he or she can be.

President Obama, for example, was set up as "pure evil" by hoaxers. He could not manage aid for the poor without the right wing screaming that he was destroying the character of the country, and deserved impeachment. He could not exist as commander-in-chief without foreign moles wrapped in the American flag, and their dupes, foaming with hatred that someone so un-military would insult the military by commanding the military.

When a president executes laws that were passed to aid the poor, and when he exists as commander-in-chief, he is doing his job.

A dumb senator recently instructed a president he didn't like that he should not nominate anyone to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, and a lot of people bought into the idea. When it was pointed out that it is the president's constitutional responsibility to nominate judges, the dumb senator rephrased his opposition.

A glaring question in my mind is how can the leadership of our Department of Justice serve at the pleasure of the President, without conflicts of interest?

Here are some ways to take some pressure off the president, and to have a better government.

I've already proposed an elected federal panel that would choose Supreme Court justices and perhaps other officials as well.

I have yet to propose a third house of Congress, that would perhaps be better than a "panel." I think I'd call it the House of Supervisors. They could make appointments, hire or fire certain cabinet positions, override vetos, and generally supervise the actions of the executive branch. This house would make sure the president remains only a leader and not an evil dictator. The Supervisors could also perform certain supervisory functions currently handled by Representatives or Senators, which would help those folks stop ducking their responsibilities of crafting legislation, declaring a start or end of war, etc.

The presidency could be divided up by department, with other officials having responsibilities as follows:

1. The senate doesn't need the Vice President to preside over them, and the tiebreaker thing is garbage. The Vice President should have something worthwhile to do that would allow us to judge his performance. I propose putting the Vice President in charge of the departments of Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs. It will be the veep's job to spend that money. When people want to hurt the President, they won't be able to blame him for the previously-mandated huge spending in those departments anymore.

2. When it comes to military command, a president is usually an amateur. And we have had enough unnecessary warfare during our time, due to presidents having control instead of congress.
I propose that a Director of Defense will have the role of "commander-in-chief," and replace the Secretary position. The Director could be nominated or replaced by the House Majority Leader, with both actions confirmed by the Senate. Term limit 11 years.

3. Department of Justice and FBI should be independent of the president. I was saying this long before Trump proved me right. Maybe Attorney General should be elected, and not in a presidential election year. FBI director can report to Congress.

Outside of Defense, Justice, HHS, Veterans Affairs, and FBI, the President still will have most of the departments to worry about, which should be plenty.