Reason #5752 That Trump Was Elected

Democrats Yelp as Trump Upholds Constitution

The first action in question was Trump's Sept. 5 announcement that he would withdraw Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave immigrants brought to the United States illegally when they were children protection from deportation.

Obama acted despite his initial explanation that the president only has the authority to faithfully execute laws, not to make them. So DACA was dressed up with a fig leaf argument that he was only exercising the kind of discretion prosecutors employ when they choose to bring one case and not another.

A nearly identical argument was rejected by federal courts considering the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program -- which extended protection to undocumented immigrants with kids who are U.S. citizens -- decisions left in place by the Supreme Court last year. So both DAPA and DACA looked like dead ducks legally anyway.

The second of Trump's actions was his Oct. 12 statement that he would suspend cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurance companies. The Obama administration had been making CSR payments since 2014 even though Obamacare's Section 1401 does not appropriate the money for the payments authorized in Section 1402.

This was blatantly unconstitutional. "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law," states Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution. The House of Representatives sued, and in May 2016, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that the billions paid in subsidies were illegal.

Administration lawyers made complex, sophisticated arguments that Obama's clearly illegal actions were actually legal. I'm a graduate of Yale Law School; I know how this is done. Many Americans suspect that condescending elite law school graduates are contemptuous of them and their naive belief that words mean what they say. My experience is that those suspicions are well-founded.

So what to do now about DACA recipients ("dreamers") and insurance companies denied their CSRs?

Trump has made clear that he would sign a DACA-like bill together with some 70 other immigration law changes, including mandatory E-Verify for job applicants, creation of the "southern border wall," hiring more immigration judges and replacing extended-family "chain migration" with a skills-based point system.

Democrats are bridling at these demands, and mainstream media quickly declared any deal impossible. But polls show that most are highly popular, and Democrats can't pass legislation by themselves.

It's almost like they don't really believe in the Constitution or something.