WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump and governors from both parties are disputing who has the authority to reopen the economy.
That, after Democratic leaders in the Northeast and along the West Coast are forming separate state compacts to coordinate their efforts to scale back stay-at-home orders or reopen businesses.
In a statement Monday the governors of California, Washington and Oregon vowed to work together to re-open their economies:
“COVID-19 has preyed upon our interconnectedness. In the coming weeks, the West Coast will flip the script on COVID-19 – with our states acting in close coordination and collaboration to ensure the virus can never spread wildly in our communities,” Oregon’s Kate Brown (D), California’s Gavin Newsom (D) and Washington’s Jay Inslee (D) said in a statement Monday.”
Trump told reporters at a White House briefing Monday that he has “total authority” to decide how and when to roll back tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus.
WATCH:
"The federal government has absolute power"
– President Trump pic.twitter.com/f938xMoI9E
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) April 13, 2020
Trump has been bristling at criticism that his goal to swiftly reopen things will cost lives and extend the outbreak. He’s eager to restart the battered economy.
Pushback is from across the political spectrum: Republican US Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted that the federal government does not have absolute power:
The federal government does not have absolute power.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” United States Constitution, Amendment X
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) April 13, 2020
But governors maintain that they have the primary constitutional responsibility for ensuring public safety in their states and will decide when it’s safe to begin a return to normal operations.
Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also responded to Trump’s remarks in an interview with CNN:
“The President doesn’t have total authority. We have a Constitution. We don’t have a king.”
Democratic leaders in the Northeast and along the West Coast are forming separate state compacts to coordinate their efforts to scale back stay-at-home orders or reopen businesses.
Meantime, this from Senator Justin Amash, a former Republican, turned Independent tweeted, that “States are not local branches of the federal government.”
State governments are not local branches of the federal government; they have different powers and functions. Putting one government in charge of everything does not strengthen our system; it weakens our system and makes everyone more vulnerable to serious errors.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 14, 2020
(Copyright 2020 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News. This report contains material from the Associated Press.)
