Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
And it's a good thing, too, because you're not President just now . . .
Nor will I ever be under any conceivable circumstances. But if I were, hypothetically, it would because the nation faced a severe energy crisis and recognized the need for drastic action to replace oil and fossil fuel with cold fusion or some other alternative. In other words, they would elect me (or someone like me) for that purpose, and that would be my only platform. I know little about other policy problems such as health care.
In that kind of situation, the Congress and the people would give the president enormous temporary power, just as they did in the first 100 days of the first Roosevelt administration. Roosevelt closed down the banks for a few days, and I would close down the automobile companies for a few months. As FDR put it:
"It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war . . .
I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe."
; nor are Lincoln and Roosevelt (either one). Bush is president, and if he had the ability to issue any arbitrary edict and have it become law, no questions asked and no congressional approval needed, I don't think he'd necessarily institute a program you would see entirely eye to eye with.
No president can implement a program, either drastic or pedestrian, without the support of the Congress and the people. As soon as the economy began to recover in 1932 Congress took back its prerogatives and much of the "broad executive power" it ceded in the first 100 days. That was the proper thing to do.
One thing for sure if I were president, even for 10 minutes: cold fusion research would be inundated with funding. Probably with too much for its own good. Theodore Roosevelt paid for the first US military test of the Wright brothers airplane with the president's discretionary funds, which was $10 million back in 1908, or about $150 million in today's money. If they still have this level of discretionary funds for the president, I would send $100 million to the cold fusion researchers in the first 10 minutes of my administration.
- Jed
