Remember the old days, when Republicans used to snark at how Democrats would rally to the defense of any lawless thing President Obama or President Biden decided to do? Remember the touching lectures about constitutional separation of powers and about how congressional Democrats had a duty to protect the institutional prerogatives of the branch of government in which they served — to prevent even a president of their own party from usurping their authority?

Long ago and far away, I guess.

House Republicans have quietly blocked a Democratic proposal that would have forced Congress to vote on whether there is, in fact, a national emergency that justifies President Trump’s imposing crushing tariffs on our neighbors in Canada and Mexico with nearly unprecedented reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Politico has the report, here.

There is no national security emergency. As Charlie compellingly wrote last week, the authorities to tax and to impose tariffs are constitutional powers of Congress. The tariff power is being abused because of Congress’s consignment of it to the executive — effectively allowing the president unilaterally to impose taxes (that’s what tariffs are: taxes on imported goods). Such executive excesses cannot be effectively checked, even though the IEEPA as written intended there to be a congressional check, because — as I chimed in last week — the Supreme Court invalidated the legislative veto.

Congress could, at the very least, pressure Trump to relent by approving a joint resolution that there is no emergency that justifies tariffs. But notwithstanding their duty to defend legislative prerogatives, congressional Republicans don’t want to be put in that position. On the one hand, were they to vote against the claimed emergency, they would anger the president, whose MAGA base and funding might have them scared to death of browbeating and primary challenges. On the other hand, if they were to vote in support of the emergency, and therefore the tariffs, which has sent the stock market tumbling thousands of points and intensified fears of a recession, Republicans would draw the wrath of the increasing number of Americans who oppose the tariffs — including those who realize that tariffs raise prices and remember Trump’s campaigning on how he would rapidly bring down the cost of living.

So, instead, Republicans will hide under their desks and hope that the plan of having President Trump wield Article I and Article II powers will work out. The GOP-controlled Congress won’t act, but I guess Trump has a pen and a phone, so why worry?