In Washington today, the word "emergency" is a magic key; it unlocks powers Congress never granted, suspends the discipline of regular order and decorates bloated bills with provisions too dubious to pass on their own. What was once meant to be a narrow exception for genuine crises has become a routine pretext for government overreach—a means of inflating executive power and corroding the nation's fiscal credibility.

Start with the most brazen claim, and one soon to be scrutinized by the Supreme Court: that a president may impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) merely by declaring that a half-century of trade deficits constitutes an emergency.

Tariffs are taxes paid by Americans, and the Constitution assigns the power to tax to Congress. Yet

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