Civic & Civil
TikTok Live Host: 1:30pm MT American government teacher helping to bring information to a world that’s packed with misinformation.
By Amanda
· Launched 4 months ago
Sometimes I go Live. Maybe it’ll happen here? American government teacher bringing information to a world that's filled with misinformation.
Civic & Civil
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Introduction: When did a Billion Dollars Become a Rounding Error? \
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Did you know that the 2024 US Federal Election had a price tag of $15.9 Billion?\
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Civic & Civil
Who Declares War? \
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This is a hot topic since we’ve been involved in a conflict with Iran since joint US/Israeli attacks began on February 28th. Now, it’s important that you know that as I pen this article, President Trump has declared for the THIRTY-NINTH time, that a cease-fire has been reached. We’ll see if that comes to actual fruition, but I want to add this to our Imperial Presidency stack. And, as always, it’s important to begin with that age-old question:\
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I'm back. \
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Hi friends.\
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I didn't start here. \
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I have to be honest. I did not come to this work as a neutral party.\
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Executing the Law or Rewriting It?\
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“In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”\
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Who Controls the Tariff? \
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Alexander Hamilton was many things. Treasury Secretary. Dueling victim. Broadway star, apparently. But before any of that, he was the architect of the American tariff system. The first major piece of legislation passed by the First Congress was a tariff act, and Hamilton built the early federal government on that revenue. The Founders placed the power to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises" in Article I, the congressional article, deliberately. Taxing the American people was clearly not something the founders thought one person should be able to do alone.\
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The Power of the Sword vs. The Power of the Purse \
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So far in this series, we have seen a president try to rewrite who counts as a citizen, we have seen a president threaten to dissolve our oldest alliance; now, we get to the one power the Founders considered Congress’s most fundamental: the power of the purse.\
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Can the President Dissolve Our Alliances? \
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Let me be so honest with you. I had to dig into this topic for this piece, and I learned a ton to writing it for you. I’m out of my wheelhouse here, and I’ll be the first to admit it. If topics like this feel complex and a little overwhelming for you, it’s ok, you’re not alone. When the question was posed yesterday in the live about whether Trump could legally and unilaterally pull out of NATO, I realized I didn’t know\
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Civic & Civil
Born Here. Are You a Citizen? \
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This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara. The question: can a president redefine, by executive order alone, who is an American citizen at birth? While the question may seem insignificant, it actually affects more than 250,000 babies born in the United States every year.\
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The Imperial President: A Pattern the Founders Feared \
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It should surprise no one that the Founders were not naive. After all, they had just finished fighting a literal king. While George III received his crown from parliament and not “from God”, that Divine Right culture was very much alive and well during his reign. They knew first hand what unchecked executive power looked like, and they built a Constitut…\
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