Denis McDonough Quotes
We've seen some good progress, some good forward momentum. We have about Republican senators who have now indicated that they'll meet with Judge Merric Garland.
McDonough, Denis. Interview by Chris Wallace. Fox News Sunday, Fox News Network, 20 Mar. 2016.
Johnson thought that he was 5 votes short to pass the Economic Opportunity Act to launch his War on Poverty. This quotation shows the master of Presidential vote getting in action. Jones came from a very conservative and racist district in Florida. In addition to the general conservative concern about the bill. White Southern racists were still angry about the Civil Rights Act that had just passed and saw the anti-poverty programs as another opportunity for the Federal Government to have racially integrated employment and training programs in the South. If Jones voted for the anti-poverty bill, he might well be defeated in the 1966 election. The President promised to appoint him as a Federal Judge—a lifetime appointment—if he were defeated. A potential problem was that there would not likely be a vacant judgeship open in Alabama. Johnson promised that he would create another judgeship for Jones if necessary—a judgeship that was not really needed. Jones was reelected and President Johnson did not have to create a new judgeship.
The "administrative state" was the term used for a government had had powers and used them to regulate things and areas of society without each specific regulation being voted upon by the legislature. In America sicne the New Deal there have been so many areas that have regulations that a single agency like the Environmental Protection Agency might issue in a year more regulations than the entire Congress considers in all areas put together. All these regulatory powers are delegated by Congress passing legislation authorizing it, and Congress can legislate any change in any regulation it wants, but the modern state is so complesx and areas so specialzied that Congress has preferred to delegate. There are a few who legal scholars and politicians who believe that it is unconstitutional for the legislature to delegate powers to the executive branch and no regulations have validity unless specifically passed by Comgress. There are some others who have not taken a position on this point but who believe that of an administrative state can regulate phases of citizens lives it is bound to circumscribe personal freedom as all legislation does to some extent. This quotation was used by opponents of Judge Gorsuch in arguing that he was unfit for the Supreme Court as he was out of touch with the Administrative State which America gradually became and rapidly in the New Deal and in the 80 years thereafter a very extensive administrative state. Gorsuch's views were based on classic political pholosophy but there were some ultra conservatives who did not want any regulation of business by Congress or Administrative Agencies and therefore supported Gorsuch and the few others with this view as if Agencies were not able to issue regulations there was no practical way that Congress could issue as many and regulation would be reduced which is what they desired.
Denis Richard McDonough is an American government official serving as the 11th and current United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Joe Biden since 2021.
