Essay requirements: Must be focused around a central argument that responds to the prompt Must include specific, cited evidence from one of the Foundational Documents Must include specific, cited evidence from one of the major Supreme Court cases Optional:  With instructor approval, you may substitute one foundational or required Supreme Court case with another that made a significant impact in American government history… Must include specific, cited evidence from at least _credible_ news report (television, print, and digital mediums are all acceptable) News reports must be current (reported within the last two months)  News reports must be of national relevance 3-4 pages full pages in length (2 ¾ pages is NOT 3 pages) MLA format required Include parenthetical citations when referencing your evidence, either from the news, court case, or Foundational Docs Include a MLA Works Cited page (NOT part of the page count) o   _Please note: failure to include either parenthetical citations and/or a Works Cited page will be regarded as plagiarism._ Prompt: I disagree with "Presidential power has and should continue to be expanded to address the changing needs of the country.” The Essay: Since the birth of the United States of America, there has been a president. The president isn't the be-all-end-all, solo leader and monarch as it was in Great Britain. Although the president was in charge, they had a cabinet and other branches of government to keep the president in check. Nothing has changed at the foundation- yet the power of the president has grown over time. While it has been expanding, continuous expansion of presidential power is not the needed to address the changing needs of the country. To begin, the brith of the United States. In the forming of the nation, there was a great debate about what the government should look like. One of the greatest discussions was over how much power a president should have. The people didn't want someone untouchable and with too much power. In Federalist Paper No. 70, Alexander Hamilton says, "Decision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number; and in proportion as the number is increased". (Federalist No. 70) He is talking about having the power in one man can lead to great issues, but when you spread the power out, then these things diminish. Hamilton didn't advocate for a puppet president, but for someone who doesn't hold all the power. He understood the impact of one man having all the power could do, as he has seen it with King George the Third. To build off Hamilton's concerns about power concentration, the history of the United States is full of examples when the president has potentially too much power. One great example is executive orders. Sometimes they have been a benefit, other times they have seemed like mistakes. Having an option where the president can do something even when Congress doesn't agree, or if they want to expedite the lawmaking process, can lead to some issues. One example of this is with Executive Order 9066, issued by Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942. This allowed for the internment and relocation of thousands of Japanese Americans. It didn't matter if they were the most loyal citizens, if they had any Japanese heritage, they were forced into these internment camps. FDR said that is would help protect the nation from threats. The fact that the president can do this is scary. He can issue one of these orders, and life can change drastically. Beginning with George Washington, there have been 14,128 executive orders. !4,128 times where where the president excluded Congress and went with his own agenda. Ever since then, the needs of the country have grown, and so has presidential power. Even with this expansion of presidential power, the United States still has a growing number of needs. The expansion of presidential power doesn't seem to help address the issues that are being faced today. Presidents in the last 50 years have run on campaigns proposed to "fix the economy" or "make America great again", yet many of the issues they were addressing have changed little. Perhaps it is because the president has too much power. To fix problems that all citizens deal with, all citizens need to be involved. Since all citizens should have input, the president should have less power in order for the people to have more. One court case that discusses the issue of presidential power is Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), in which Truman seized steel mills during the Korean War to prevent a strike. His actions were ruled unconstitutional. In the beginning of the nation, he would not have been able to do that. But as presidential power has expanded, it got to the point he could do that. This is one of a few different cases where the Supreme Court has come against the president for reaching outside the limits of his power. The president should not have the power to do something like seizing steel mills to prevent a strike, that is a gross misuse of power. It is a gross misuse of power because it is based out of fear, and because the president should not be able stop the happening of a private business. It was fear based because he wanted to stop the strike, which is something workers do when their needs aren't being met, and the president was afraid of this. In the current day, with the recent election of Donald Trump, the question of presidential power is being brought up as he is preparing to take office. One example of him misusing his presidential power can be seen in the article from The Guardian titled "Donald Trump Says Federal Employees Who Don’t Work in the Office Will Be Fired". In this article, Trump says that all the employees that that aren't in offices five days a week will be fired, and it will save $2 trillion. Considering half of the federal employees are eligible to work remotely, this would cause a huge issue. This is an overreach of presidential power because Trump seeks to put people out of jobs and lose federal employees just because they aren't in the office 5 days a week. As Trump takes office, there will be a greater expansion of presidential power as he seeks tio accomplish his agenda. This expansion of power will not help solve the changing issues in the nation. Although presidential power has expanded from when the United States was born, the continuous expansion of that power is not the solution to solving the growing needs of the nation. As seen with the Japanese internment and the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer case, the presidential power exercised in these cases was not the solution to the issues that they set out to solve.