In middle school, we all learned about the American system of checks and balances. This system was designed by our founders to ensure that no one branch of government could become too powerful, protecting Americans from tyranny. Sadly, in its efforts to expand the powers of the Federal government, the Biden administration has seemingly decided that these guardrails of American democracy don’t apply.

Case in point: Last summer, after months of debate and negotiation, the Biden administration passed its hallmark CHIPS Act. The Act provided some $50 billion in new subsidies to semiconductor manufacturers creating products in the United States. Now, months after its passage, the Administration has revealed the catch: manufacturers who receive these subsidies must comply with a list of costly new requirements not included in the original bill.

In fact, recent reporting suggests that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo always intended to make an end-run around Congress. When some of President Joe Biden’s policy priorities — including expanded childcare subsidies — were stripped from the bill, Secretary Raimondo  told aides  that “if Congress wasn’t going to do what they should have done, we’re going to do it in implementation.”

The problem is that Congress, not the administration, is the branch of government vested with the authority to make law. Both U.S. and foreign companies have already announced plans to move manufacturing to the U.S. based on the subsidies Congress authorized. Some have already broken ground on new facilities. It’s no stretch to imagine that the semiconductor plant rules will be challenged. If the complainant has standing, then there is a good chance the Supreme Court will end up hearing the case.

The Commerce Department’s regulatory surprise is just the latest in a long list of administration slights of Congress. He surprised the Senate by appointing Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission Chair hours after the Senate’s approval of her commissioner nomination. He used the Department of Labor to impose union requirements that Congress never passed. And there's more. Ultimately, President Biden's historical legacy may be to set a new record for actions reversed by federal courts for exceeding clear statutory authority.

While watching recent Supreme Court oral arguments, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the justices were thinking about the cost of Federal actions. Is there a cost threshold that would make executive action weakly tethered to a statute unconstitutional based on its sheer magnitude? A Commerce Department action costing a million dollars, even if challenged, is unlikely to prompt a hearing or even attract much notice. A billion-dollar action may attract attention in the halls of Congress, but the agency is still likely to get legal deference to its interpretation in any legal hearings. But what about trillions? Can a president bind us in a non-wartime action for a $30 trillion dollar expense, liability, or forgiveness without the clear statutory authority of Congress? 

The magnitude of our fiscal policies should matter. Justices don't like to believe they act on the basis of economic impact when it comes to statutory interpretation, but I think they should. So should the president and the Congress. Taking it a step further, perhaps it’s time for a constitutional amendment requiring higher scrutiny or clarity for costlier federal interpretations of funding that Congress appropriated.

A key early Supreme Court decision, Marbury v. Madison, said it is the job of the Supreme Court to determine how far a president can go within constitutional constraints. Another widely cited Supreme Court opinion involving a property owner's claim he could stop airplane flights over his property put another important principle into our legal codes: "the law is not an ass." While there is an active and rich debate over the limits on presidential authority, there’s no precedent for granting Biden or any future president the expansive authority to spend an unlimited amount of money Congress has not authorized.

The stakes are high. The Federal Reserve Bank's interest rate has risen to nearly 5%, putting the U.S. on track to pay over a trillion dollars annually on the federal debt. Either interest payments will drown out other government programs, or our annual deficit will grow almost exponentially. That spells serious trouble. It will devastate our nation and our children's future. If Congress won’t serve as a firewall against the administration’s Alice in Wonderland spending, I hope the Supreme Court will.

Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, the U.S. trade association representing more than 1500 consumer technology companies, and a New York Times bestselling author. He is the author of the book  Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation .