Have you read the U.S. Constitution? Outside of a high school history class I suspect most citizens haven’t bothered. It’s a shame, because it is America’s chief governing document. All government authority over the people, granted to it by the people themselves, starts with the Constitution. Unfortunately for America, most of the members of Congress assume many of you haven’t read it. Truth be told, I’d guess many of them haven’t read it either. But by all accounts, they’re counting on things staying that way.
Please permit me to give you a terribly brief refresher: Article I creates the legislative branch (Congress), Article II creates the executive branch (President), and Article III creates the federal judicial branch (Supreme Court and inferior courts). There are seven articles, and there have been 27 amendments. Each of the three branches of government have been granted specific powers unique to each one. Just as importantly, each branch has been given powers to check the other branches. Congress gets to make public policy, but if challenged the Supreme Court can decide whether it’s constitutional. The Supreme Court gets to decide the constitutionality or legality of certain actions under the law, but has no power to create public policy from whole cloth (someone tell the court that). The president can neither establish public policy nor resolve legal challenges like the Supreme Court, but administers the executive branch charged with carrying out the laws set by Congress.
Maybe you’ve noticed that our three branches of government aren’t functioning quite like they should. In particular, I’m gravely concerned about the Congress — which remains, as ever, asleep at the wheel — and an overeager executive trying to exercise powers it doesn’t have.
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Elon Musk, the DOGE and access to our information
In the first month of the Trump administration we’ve seen a flood of executive orders, some of which are clearly unconstitutional, but I’m especially concerned about the administration’s so-called “DOGE” initiative. Who can really argue with the spirit of making government more efficient? Goodness knows the federal government is full of bloat that frustrates and slows its response often when we need it the most. When government agencies feel compelled to spend enormous sums of taxpayer money on subscriptions to Politico Pro for analysis of the very government they run, the truth about the scope of government becomes self-evident. As Kentucky’s own Supreme Court Justice Brandeis once famously wrote, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Bring on the sunlight. Eliminate the bloat where you find it.
President Donald Trump speaks Tuesday next to tech billionaire Elon Musk in the Oval Office.
But sunlight can’t shine from behind cloud cover. The president has famously chosen the world’s wealthiest human to run the DOGE initiative. We don’t know the names of the staff working under Mr. Elon Musk. Have they been vetted for security? Are they federal employees or contractors? At least one shouldn’t have passed a standard google search by HR before being hired, desiring to “normalize” racist hate. Yet he was hired all the same and given unknown access to information affecting all Americans, including those against which he wished to direct and normalize hate.
These staffers have unprecedented access to government and citizen information, and Mr. Musk surely does as well. Mr. Musk also has notorious ties to both the Russian and Chinese governments. Are we OK with his position and access to U.S. government data when he’s cozy with two of greatest international villains whose interests are overtly anti-American?
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Are KY’s congressmen concerned about DOGE’s questionable actions?
Meanwhile, Congress has shown nary an ounce of interest in answering any of these questions. Nineteen states have filed suit to stop DOGE’s questionable activities, but curiously Kentucky isn’t among them. Thankfully, a judge has, for the moment, hit the brakes long enough to make sure DOGE efforts are by the book.
Seeking out spending with which this administration disagrees is its prerogative, and simply seeking out excess government spending is something I wish every administration would conscientiously do. But these things must still be done above board, right? No one is above the law, and that certainly includes any arm of the executive branch.
I’m fine with a decades overdue review of government waste and bloat, but do Kentucky’s members of Congress genuinely feel not an iota of unease about the legality of DOGE’s actions? Not one whiff of concern about the security risks posed by an unelected, conflicted bureaucrat with nigh on unlimited access to government records? I’m old enough to remember when Congressional Republicans used to hate those folks and declare them part of the “deep state.” If Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barrack Obama or a President Buttigieg and a horde of George Soros hires was doing all this (and rest assured they did or would have) the Republicans in Congress would be having a come apart. Conversely, the Democrats in Congress would take their predicable turn at silence.
Is it too much to ask that members of Congress exercise consistency regardless of what party occupies the White House? One might hope Republicans, who presently control the Congress, would want to assert institutional independence for the sake of our constitutional order, or at least realize the political risks of this administration setting “a new floor” for the next Democratic one.
In the last few days a handful of ambitious folks have expressed interest in running for the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Mitch McConnell should he not run. Some of these are people for whom I have a lot of respect. But so far, they’ve all fallen over themselves to mention their Trump credentials instead of any desire to exercise the constitutionally independent duties of the office. If that tune doesn’t change, I don’t have much hope Congress will either.
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Whitney Westerfield
Whitney Westerfield is an evangelical Christian, a three-term Republican state senator and attorney from Christian County. He and his wife live in Western Kentucky and have five children.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Trump, Musk need to stop trampling over our Constitution | Opinion
