House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) fundamentally misinterprets the Constitution with his remarks about the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending without involving Congress.
Johnson suggests that because the president is commander in chief of the military, he has the unilateral authority to make sweeping budget cuts and eliminate entire federal agencies created by Congress.
Johnson said, “There’s a presupposition in America that the commander in chief is going to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” suggesting that this title — limited to the president’s role over the armed services — somehow grants the president command over federal spending. The Constitution says no such thing.
Article II, section 2 of the Constitution states that “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States….” It does not say that the president is the commander in chief of the entire federal government.
Even if it did, that wouldn’t give the president the authority to withhold funds approved by Congress. The Constitution grants Congress sole power over federal spending, determining both the amount and allocation of funds. Article I, Section 9, states: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
This applies to the U.S. military, regardless of the president’s commander-in-chief status, and to all other federal funds. It means that only Congress can cancel spending that it has already approved or eliminate government departments that it has created.
Johnson also suggested that because Congress has not been performing its budgeting duty well, it is somehow permissible to have this job taken over by unelected individuals working for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which itself has not been legally established.
Johnson said: “What Elon and the DOGE effort is doing right now is what Congress has been unable to do in recent years because the agencies have hidden some of this from us.”
Again, the Constitution says no such thing. Nowhere does it even suggest that if Congress mismanages spending or fails to balance the budget, an unelected “backup team” can step in and take over like substitute quarterbacks.
Neither Trump nor the unelected Musk can replace the first branch of government — the legislative branch — with a team of tech workers of their choosing simply because they don’t like the job Congress has been doing. The federal government and its budget are not a home improvement project, a football team or a social media company that a billionaire can just seize and bend to his will.
We live, as Benjamin Franklin said, in a republic — if we can keep it. The surest way to lose it is to pretend that the government that belongs to all of us, the citizens of the U.S., can become the plaything of a few rich and powerful citizens by granting them power over our money and programs to which they are not entitled.
It is a bitter irony that the Speaker — the leader of the legislative branch — would surrender the power of the purse, citing his inability to wield it to compel the executive branch to tell him the truth.
Instead of abdicating this authority, Johnson and every member of Congress should come together across party lines to reclaim their constitutional power to find the facts and continue the pursuit of a more perfect union on behalf of all Americans.
Jim Townsend is director of the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School.
