To the Editor:
The idea of checks and balances was introduced to the United States by our founding fathers through the U.S. Constitution. This system of government was put in place to prevent the United States from becoming the monarchy that the U.S. fought to remove themselves from with the Revolutionary War. The three branches of government, the legislative branch, made up of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate; the executive branch, made up of the president, vice president, and the appointed Cabinet; and the judicial branch, made up of the nine Supreme Court justices, were created to keep the government’s power diluted, preventing one branch from overpowering another. With the introduction of Project 2025, the system of checks and balances that keep our country’s government successful will be weakened and dismantled.
Section 1 of Project 2025 has three key takeaways: The expansion of the executive branch’s power, an emphasis on presidential appointees, and a deconstruction of governmental agencies. In Section 1.2 of Project 2025, Russ Vought, former President Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, writes the executive branch should have the “boldness and self-denial ... to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will.” This suggestion of Vought’s that the president should have the ultimate authority over bureaucracy should not be minimized. What Vought is proposing would allow the executive branch to have absolute rule and the ability to override any and all decisions made by the legislative and judicial branch.
Areas of government employed by nonpartisan civil servants under Section 1.3 of Project 2025, could soon be run by presidential appointees, rather than experts in the fields. According to Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, “(Trump) has made it clear in countless ways that, if he were to win the presidency again, he would expect total loyalty – from cabinet secretaries down to the most junior agency employees.” These are the government employees that “…make sure our food is safe and our water is clean. They protect us from national security threats, care for veterans, and support our seniors,” states U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Deputy Rob Shriver. With the introduction of Project 2025, instead of having these departments staffed with qualified and knowledgeable people that have studied and earned a top position in their field, these positions will be staffed by appointees with their only qualifications being their loyalty to the president.
Under Section 1.2 of Project 2025, there are massive calls for administrative reform in government departments. Vought calls for the National Security Council (NSC) to “…immediately evaluate and eliminate directorates that are not aligned with the President’s agenda and replace them with new directorate…” This implantation would result in more politicized decision-making by the NSC and would diminish the role of career experts in the field. Beyond the call to replace the NSC with presidential picks, it is also suggested by Vought to “consolidate the functions of both the NSC and the Homeland Security Council (HSC), (and) incorporate the recently established Office of the National Cyber Director. …” The consolidation of these agencies would likely result in governmental oversight.
If just the first section of Project 2025 was implemented into our government, the power balance would be extensively altered, and it would certainly increase already intense political polarization. I implore you to do further research over Project 2025 and read the handbook yourself at project2025.org.
Sienna Cauley
Great Bend
