What Is The Constitutional Basis Of President's Domestic Policymaking

The Founding Fathers who made the Constitution did not intend for the president to be a major domestic policymaker. Article II establishes that Congress, not the President, as having the policymaking power. Congress is to legislate and the president is to take care that laws are executed the way they were supposed to be. The president is given the authority to recommend legislation that is necessary and expedient but has no written power to get it passed. Nowhere in the constitution is does it state that the president will be chief domestic policymaker. Yet this is actually what has occurred. The president is expected by the people and Congress alike to propose legislative programs and use the influence of the office to make sure it is

This would become important for the presidencies of the early 1900's. If the framers had not included this detail then the president could never have produced credible legislation. The president also implements this legislation into law and sees to its execution. These two acts have evolved as the Constitutional basis of the president’s policymaking role. For the first century presidents recommended measures, took positions on legislation before Congress, occasionally even drafted bills, but did not formulate a cohesive domestic policy on a regular basis. It wasn't until the 1880s that there was a change in the public's view toward the role of the federal government in the United States. This changed ideology was brought forth by market competition that was carried to its extreme, and resulting from the laissez faire policy. Laissez faire is Latin for let do, which was a policy that basically stated that the government was to have little to no interaction with the private sector. This was a well enough policy until people started to abuse it and create giant monopolies. The government promoted industry as a means to develop the economy. However, “big” business grew larger and was able to dominate markets in many areas through monopoly. Business

He would introduce legislation that created the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of stabilizing the money system. He also secured passage of the Adamson Act which would establish an 8 hour work day for Railroad workers. This new expansion of legislative power would be greeted by opponents who did not want this new extension of presidential power. The Supreme Court would continue to take a strict view of the expanded role of the federal government that had survived since the progressive era. A restrictive interpretation of the 10th amendment implied that the federal government did not have the authority to regulate matters in intra-state commerce or to interfere in the economies or affairs of the states. This decision would eventually be overruled during F.D.R presidency when the Supreme Court would allow the government to manage who much of a product could be manufactured, which was the basis of acts such as the Agriculture Adjustment