ENUMERATED, LIMITED, AND SEPARATED POWERS.

Former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey has something that should be first order of business in the several States.

The stench from [New York] Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo’s nursing-home carnage and months-long coverup is finally causing even some Democratic pols in Albany to turn against the governor. At least 14 have now joined Republicans to demand Cuomo be stripped of his pandemic emergency powers.

And not a day too soon. Cuomo used those powers to shutter restaurants and other businesses, close schools and impose especially heavy-handed restrictions on houses of worship (the US Supreme Court rebuked him on that last count).

Emergency powers should last for a few weeks or maybe a month — long enough to keep the public safe until the Legislature can swing into action. Instead, the governor has wielded emergency powers for 11 months — and for what? One of the worst COVID performances in the nation.

I've been suggesting that the legislatures take ownership of the shutdowns for several months.  It's encouraging to see a former elected official making the same suggestion.

Stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers is politically doable, and the public would benefit. That would put the state Legislature back in charge, ensuring that whatever actions are taken to fight COVID are more balanced and reasonable than what Cuomo did. It’s hard to imagine that lawmakers would vote to shutter churches, destroy businesses and close down schools in their own districts.

They’d have to answer to their angry neighbors and constituents. Albany is largely insulated from that under the dictatorial arrangement.

Even when governors behave more honorably than Cuomo, prolonged emergency powers are a bad idea. After all, if government by one person produced wiser decisions than government by the people’s elected lawmakers, we’d opt for autocratic government all the time. Why choose it during crises?

Eleven months into the pandemic, the public all across the country is revolting against governors whose emergency powers have allowed them to act like autocrats. More than half the states are in the process of passing laws barring governors from closing businesses and schools in a future emergency. Pennsylvania is considering a law to limit a governor’s disaster powers to 21 days, Kentucky to 30 days, Indiana to 60.

Laughably, many of these governors are pushing back, even going to court to hold onto their autocratic powers. They argue that in emergencies, the democratic process is too slow and messy. Like Cuomo, they’re relishing power. But limitless emergency powers are far more dangerous.

Decide for yourself, dear reader, whether it is more dangerous to live in a state where the legislature is reluctant to exercise its authority. In Illinois, the governor is a tool of the Chicago Combine that holds a majority in both chambers of the legislature. In Wisconsin, the governor is of one party, and the legislative majority is of another, and the legislators sometimes seem more interested in making the governor own the shutdowns and the resulting carnage, than in doing their jobs.