I would bet large sums of money that it came to a complete shock to many, if not most Americans that the state was a silent, veto holding partner in their business. They were told "2 weeks to flatten the curve" to months upon months of the government shutting down businesses and even arguing in court that citizens have no right to make a living.
It turned out that all those licenses that the state created to "protect the consumer" were actually business partnership agreements. All over the country, the state would run up on you if you violated the governors edicts, referred to as "Emergeny orders", and fine you excessively for violating the new "laws". If it's "egregious" enough, arrests happen. Your crime will be doing exactly what it was you were doing prior to March 2020 with willing customers.
Up until March 2020, a governor's emergency powers were seen as limited in scope. A bad storm was on the way, declare an emergency, ASK people to stay indoors, perhaps ASK people to evacuate. You'll notice I emphasize "ask". This is because even if they ASK you to stay indoors, you couldn't actually be arrested for it. Much less fined. Similarly they could ASK you to evacuate a location that's about to be hit by a bad storm, but you the citizen could choose to remain in your home. You may not get any emergency services, but that's a risk YOU could take. In the end, you are responsible for your life. No one has to risk their life due to your decision. But these emergencies the time frame was always limited and the powers limited.
But up jumped COVID and suddenly this idea of limited power went out the window. Governors declared whatever it is they wanted and justified it by saying "science" and "public health". No such exceptions are listed in the sovereign legal document. But having seen the wonders of "emergency powers" governors have reveled in their new power and the MSM is helping out.
Why should he officially declare it one?
Some environmentalists are pushing the president-elect to proclaim global warming a national emergency, giving him more power to take executive actions to tackle it.Oh. "Executive actions".
See, during the last 4 years under Trump, "executive action" was Hitler Nazism come to life. Now with a Biden presidency in sight, "executive action" is cool again. Never mind that the JOB of the executive is to execute the laws passed by the duly elected representatives.
“It actually gives the president more power.”
But such a unilateral move may cut too much against Biden's inclinations to try to strike deals across the aisle.
Don't want to bother with the pesky congress? Emergency!
Oh, and we're good with unilateralism now?
I gotta hand it to the Left, even when what they do is clear rank hypocrisy, they go full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!
Using emergency authority, Biden may be able to funnel military money to the construction of renewable energy projects, reinstate a ban on exporting oil and lob trade penalties on countries such as Brazil for permitting the destruction of the Amazon.
Remember when Trump wanted to use military money to fund CONSTRUCTION?
Ha. Ha. Ha.
