An excellent article by John Steele Gordon, entitled “Why We Have So Many Shutdowns”, appeared in the January 16, 2019 issue of The Wall Street Journal. You may be able to find it online, but I also saved a copy on the G drive.
I only have a few things to add.
Some people may respond that Congress is assigned spending in the Constitution, but that’s not really the case. The power to tax is given solely to Congress, but it doesn’t say much about spending decisions. So this is a new-ish thing.
Many organizations allow the executive to have a line-item veto: the power to go through the budget and “cross out” any items they don’t approve of. The U.S. President does not, and in fact the last time they were given that power, the law was ruled unconstitutional.
Presidents used to have the power of impoundment. This was taken away 40 years ago.
So, the President has veto power over the budget only. But they can’t veto something until Congress passes it.
In the present case, Trump has vowed to veto a budget that doesn’t include the wall funding he wants. But Congress hasn’t tried to pass a budget yet.
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