Chance Chase McMasters said:
Still need to notify Congress and a GOOD reason to do what you're doing.
Can the president unilaterally halt all funding for any reason he wants? Shut down the government, the defense department, social security checks?
Yes. Been done more than a few times.
EXECUTIVE office means the day to day operation as well as security, defense, immigration, etc.
Two of your idols did it - Clinton for 21 days and Obama for 16. Also Reagan, Bush and Carter on a small scale.
And you WANT that capability like to halt funding - primarily because Congress does nothing quickly.
Let's say Congress has previously declared a funding bill that included $MILLIONS or even $BILLIONS to some third world nation and then the day before it's due to be paid some violent coup occurs and militaristic dictator has suddenly taken control of that country and would use that money to cause the deaths of millions more.
Do you want the President to do nothing? Congress cannot act in time. Should he stop it?
The terrible things you imagine might happen as a result of not paying pale in comparison to the terrible things that could happen if we do pay in some cases - and that ability needs to lie with one person. We have the ability to scrutinize that decision after the fact through our SLOW government bureaucratic processes. But in the heat of the moment you WANT someone with the power to stop something truly terrible from happening. And you also want that one person to act/react or respond to something critical like acts of war. No different.
There is a reason those powers lie in the EXECUTIVE and fall to one person.
That in itself is a fail safe against our own bureaucracy. If we have to get a consensus before doing anything we will fail like every other decision by committee does.
