The Presidential Burden

January 23, 1956

President Eisenhower’s State of the Union message calls in substance for the continuance and expansion of the measures and principles of the New Deal-Fair Deal. It asks for increased spending on foreign aid, farm aid, and on a vast highway system; for more housing subsidies, bigger social security, new Federal spending on local schools, “distressed areas,” flood insurance, and health reinsurance. Everybody is remembered but the taxpayer who is to pay the bill.

Most of the estimated 46 or more legislative measures for which the President calls are not only unnecessary, but would do more harm than good. Yet one of the most urgent steps that the new session of Congress ought to take was not even mentioned in the President’s message. This is a measure or set of measures: (1) To relieve the present tremendous burden of work and responsibility on the Presidential office; (2) to allow a President, in case of disability, to delegate whatever powers he thinks necessary to the Vice President, and to terminate this voluntary delegation of power at will; and (3) to provide for the delegation or transfer of Presidential power whenever a President can no longer “discharge the powers and duties” of his office, but is either unable (as was Garfield) or unwilling (as was Wilson) to acknowledge his own inability.

1—The need of reducing the tremendous burdens on the Presidency is acknowledged on all sides. Former President Herbert Hoover, in a recent television interview, made the interesting suggestion that “what we need is a new Administrative Vice President to be selected by the President and assigned such duties as he may wish.” The essence of this suggestion is sound, but there may be wide differences of opinion about details. It would certainly be confusing to have two men with the title of Vice President, one elected as such, and the other an appointed official. It would be perhaps more practicable to permit the President (by written authorization) to distribute much of his present detail work among his existing Cabinet officials, and in addition to permit the appointment (with Senate approval) of a new member of the Cabinet, a Secretary General to whom the President could delegate such other enumerated duties or powers as he thought wise.

Mr. Hoover pointed out that there are now 64 agencies of government that report directly to the President. He thinks that something like 35 or 40 of them could be placed, with the authority of law, under the “Administrative Vice President” he suggests. It would seem even more practical, to the present writer, to abolish some of these 64 agencies of government. The tremendous burdens and responsibilities put upon the President are caused primarily by the fact that our government itself has grown too big. It attempts to meddle in too much. It attempts to formulate and enforce more policies than can be encompassed by the mind of any one man. When this happens, the government is bound to fall into disorder and confusion.

2—As I have already suggested (Newsweek, Oct. 17, 1955), it would seem to come well within the Constitution for Congress by legislation to allow the President, in case of his temporary disability, to delegate as much of his powers and duties as he sees fit to the Vice President, and also to withdraw this delegation when his disability ends.

3—The most difficult problem is that of deciding who should determine Presidential “inability” in the event of a President himself being unable or unwilling to do so. One course which has been suggested is that Congress prescribe by law that the officials named in the Succession Act of 1947 should inquire into such a question when it arises, and either report its findings of fact to Congress, or itself make the decision.

Congress could of course take the first two measures listed above even if it could not agree on the more difficult third problem. But as already demonstrated in the Garfield and Wilson Administrations, Congress is taking a needless risk as long as it allows this important constitutional problem to remain clouded in doubt.