"For the current president to suggest he does not need to deal with Congress, or that the behavior of Congress has made it impossible for him to do so, runs counter to the clear lessons of history. Not to mention the dictates of the Constitution .By declaring that he would no longer work with Congress on infrastructure – or on anything else of substance – the president has dramatically escalated this struggle. In his determination to pressure his antagonists to relent, he suddenly seems ready to renounce the governing obligations of his own office. Other presidents in earlier generations were able to deal with various scandals within their administrations while keeping their eye on the essential relationship with Congress, the body that must authorize and fund the activities of the entire federal government."
At www.npr.org
