Stephen Carter: Stop Overusing the Word 'Emergency'

When President Barack Obama the other day signed an executive order expanding sanctions against Iran and Syria, he was extending a declaration of national emergency we’ve been living under since the Clinton administration. And in a state of emergency, presidential authority is broader than in ordinary times. We shouldn’t be surprised. We live in the era of the permanent emergency.

Soon the House of Representatives may take up Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) “emergency” bill to fix the awful mess left over from last year’s deficit reduction negotiations. Many members of Congress from both parties have introduced legislation that would either chip away at the looming automaticsequestrations set to go into effect if no budget agreement is reached, or undo them completely. What all these deals have in common is the word “emergency.” It’s in the title of each because it’s in the name of the law each is meant to amend, a statute going by the Orwellian name Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.