Stand up, stand up. You've been sitting way too long.

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, I'm Steve Scrovan.

In this series, Ralph and constitutional scholar Bruce Fine will lay out articles in the

impeachment of President Donald J Trump.

Count five, violation of the appropriations clause.

In Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7,

Why did the framers put those words in the Constitution?

Well, the framers believed that the power of the purse

was perhaps the fail-safe remedy against executive or other abuses of government power.

So they do that you've got to come back if the president couldn't spend money on his own.

Unlike the King of England, they were raising ship money and didn't need to go to Congress

to go to war, it was just taking money on his own.

So the Congress required, the constitutional authors said no, if Congress hasn't appropriated the money

the executive branch can't spend it and Congress can put conditions on the

spending of the money. James Madison in Federalist 58 described the power of the purse is the magic one that enabled

Congress to remedy any kinds of abuses in the executive branch or otherwise through

the power of the purse. That's how important they thought it was. Also, with regard to raising

revenue in general, they said they've got to originate revenue raising measures in the

House of Representatives. They felt money was key to controlling excessive power and they wanted it in the Congress, not the executive branch.

So let's see how Donald Trump handled that.

Well, he basically said he's going to build a wall.

First he was going to have Mexico pay for it, and Mexico told them,

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