Allowing the president to access money for his wall through an emergency declaration instead of via congressional appropriations suggests that lawmakers are fine ceding power to a single decision-maker, she said.

In other words: If Republicans don’t oppose Trump’s national emergency declaration, they’re no better than the British loyalists during the American Revolution.

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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) echoed those sentiments in his own statement. If we let presidents just declare an emergency whenever they want to get something done, “then this country is a different country,” he said.

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The framing seems designed to put Republicans on record, forcing them to choose between standing with Trump on this or bucking the president in the name of democracy.

The legislation opposing the national emergency declaration will almost certainly pass the Democratic-controlled House, even with some GOP support. There is also a good chance it will secure enough Republican votes to clear the Senate, though the White House is twisting arms and encouraging GOP members in that chamber to stand with the president.

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Trump has said he’ll veto the bill, and it’s very unlikely that the measure will receive the two-thirds needed in both chambers to overturn such a move. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) acknowledged as much when he called it a “vote of principle” that deserves a vote regardless of the outcome. If Trump vetoes the resolution, “it will be another statement that he has authoritarian inclinations,” Hoyer said.

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This fight stopped being about border security a long time ago. For Trump, it’s always been about his own reputation, of winning no matter what. For Democrats, it’s about showing they can stand up to Trump and building their own wall around his overreach.

“There is no national emergency requiring a border wall — just a President determined to erect a monument to ego and xenophobia at the expense of our nation’s military readiness. I will vote to reject this # FakeEmergency authoritarian power grab,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tweeted.

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Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), the lead sponsor of the resolution of disapproval, described the vote Tuesday morning as “the most consequential vote we’ve ever taken with respect to the balance of power on the Constitution between the president and Congress.”

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Ironically, some Republicans who believe in limited government have long taken the same stance. Democrats may sound hyperbolic as they describe what’s at stake with this vote, but then, for years during the Obama administration, Republicans decried every executive action as the president disavowing the Constitution. It’s a difficult position Republicans have now found themselves in. Even those who publicly urged Trump not to take this step are now weighing how to vote.