After Trump, there are so many reforms that are needed.

[kentuck]

For example, he had more "acting" Secretaries and heads of Departments than anyone in history. They needed no Senate approval or anything, except total obeisance to Donald J Trump. That should never have happened. (Like the Postmaster General, for example)

Also, someone like Trump should not be making deals with dictators without the consent of the Senate. Making unilateral deals with a tyrant like Kim Jong Un cannot be accepted. Dropping out of long-standing treaties with allies should not be permitted without Congressional approval.

No president should be permitted to plant his "people" inside the Pentagon or anywhere else in government simply to report back to him after he has departed the White House. (General Flynn had brought in a couple of "advisers" with him at National Security and when he was forced to resign, they moved over to the White House Counsel's office, where they worked hand-in-hand with Devin Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee. Then they moved into the National Security team at the White House, monitoring calls, such as those with the Ukrainian leader, which led to Trump's impeachment. Now it is reported that they have been moved deep into the Pentagon? That needs to be resolved.)

There are many reforms that need to be done immediately. The President is not a King and should not be treated as one.

[judesedit]

1. Sorry. If McTurtle is still Majority Leader, I hope Biden does the same

[MyOwnPeace]

3. One of those funny things -

I agree with both the OP and jude! We know the "acting" title was given to avoid having the people go through the approval system as required by law. I can see the occasional immediate need for a director/head of some department, but there needs to be a time limit on the "acting" title.

To me the larger issue is: How do you solve a problem like Moscow Mitch McTurtle? His ONLY mission was to block ANY bill passed by the House (look at the piles of bills piled up on his desk that have come from Nancy!) and, while he hasn't proclaimed it yet, make the new President-Elect a 1-term president, just like he vowed to do for PRESIDENT OBAMA.

How PRESIDENT OBAMA ever got ANYTHING passed is still quite an amazing study in leadership!

Joe's gonna' be one busy guy - GO JOE!!!

[beachbumbob]

2. an aggressive democratic House could have had some impact BUT reality is, the president has lots of

power to do alot of things outside of Congress. The founding fathers never imagined the likes of a trump to be elected. The answer now is full scale hearings and DOJ involvement for prosecution where ever criminal actions occurred with trump, and his admin. If WE DON"T then we learned NOTHING

[uponit7771]

6. most of it given to presidents by congress who needs to take that power back. For instance tarrifs

... were set by congress until congress allowed presidents to set them for short term IINM.

[JI7]

8. The House has little to no say in people the President appoints . It's the Senate that votes on

confirmations . But the reason for the acting dept heads was because he couldn't get support for them.

[beachbumbob]

12. that part sure, but after people took positions, that when tough House can make their lives

miserable. Failure to enforced subpoenas set the stage to have Pelosi/house democrats totally ignored by trump and his people. Not once have I heard any democrat talk about the sabotage of the USPS was set as a plan over a year ago as a direct election interference and people will be investigated for participation in a clear criminal enterprise

[JI7]

15. Democrats only control the House . Again, the problem is Republicans protecting Trump

None of this happened because he alone had so much power . It happened because his party supported and protected him.

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, Presidents shouldn't be able to fire IGs that are investigating his cabinet members

[kentuck]

7. The system is definitely in need of repair.

Just fire those responsible for your oversight and nobody does anything??

[JI7]

9. People did do something . They voted for people like McConnell who protected Trump

[kentuck]

11. There could have been laws in place, even with McConnell in his position.

They were not there. Of course, he made no effort to fix anything.

[JI7]

13. What laws would have stopped anything he did ? McConnell would have continued to protect him

with the support of the people voting for him and other Republicans .

[kentuck]

17. There could have been rules in place to prohibit "acting" Secretaries from rotating like a wheel...

We should learn from this experience that we cannot depend on people to do the right thing because they have done it in the past.

[JI7]

18. What rules and how would that work if they violate it ?

[kentuck]

20. You can censure another member if you are in the majority.

You are correct that "rules" are not made for people like Trump and McConnell. But there have to be consequences when they abused.

[JI7]

21. Yeah, so we go back to McConnell which I have said is the problem along with the people voting for

him.

[kentuck]

22. The people voting for him in Kentucky are a smaller percentage than those voting for him....

...in the US Senate. And they are from all over the country. (Also, I am not so sure that Mr McConnell won his race fair and square?)

[JI7]

23. None of this makes any sense and he certainly did win his race fair and square

[kentuck]

24. There were reported discrepancies.

They were written about by some here on DU.

[JI7]

25. Even so , i'm sure he won by double digits at least .

[JI7]

5. It happened because of McConnell and the People that voted for him along with other Republicans

We can talk about reform or whatever but as long as people in certain places keep voting for people like McConnell it is difficult to change things.

Of course if people didn't vote for shit like that then we wouldn't have the problem in the first place.

[procon]

10. Biden will need a large working group to sort

through all the norms and standards that Trump crashed through because they were customs and traditions of long standing, but never written into law.

No president should be able to interfere with the independent agencies of government.
Presidents should not be able to access taxpayers money for their pet projects; only the House can allocate funding.
Subpoenas cannot be ignored, there must be penalties for contempt of congress.
There should be a clear distinction for the costs of doing state business vs personal or campaign costs.
Everything the president done must be recorded as part of the public record and non classified sections made public.
Clearly define what is covered under the enrollments clause, and strengthen the laws around what business and investments a president must assign to an independent holding company.
Require Presidential candidates to make their tax history public.
Require a daily press conference with the press office.


Where will it end?

[beachbumbob]

14. subpoenas were ignored because they were not enforced from the beginning

[JI7]

16. You need the Senate to help enforce them

[kentuck]

19. Yes, they should have a couple of US Marshalls on hand for those that refuse subpoenas.

These people in Congress represent us, the People, and we cannot let them spit in our faces and ignore the laws of this country.