Over the weekend, President Trump announced a series of executive orders which seek to provide coronavirus relief to Americans. This came after Congress continued to not do its job, with Democrats wanting all kinds of left-wing goodies, including bailing out badly run blue states and cities. Pelosi rejected an extension of unemployment benefits almost half a dozen times.

Trump’s postponement of the payroll tax was especially triggering. Of course, Nancy Pelosi loved that idea back in 2011.

Pelosi/Schumer issue joint statement denouncing Pre Trump's executive actions as "meager," "unworkable, weak and narrow." Say they "provide little real hep to families." They call on Republicans to "meet us halfway…to deliver immediate relief to the American people."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 8, 2020

.@speakerpelosi wants to know why House Republicans would dare to reject this bill containing a payroll tax cut which provides relief to the middle class and puts money in their pockets (2011): pic.twitter.com/f8HlSGGAoG

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 10, 2020

In response to Trump finally taking action, liberals have absolutely lost their minds. They just can’t seem to understand how Trump could do these “illegal” things they cheered on when Obama was the one doing them.

So just to be clear, Congressional Rs are ok with the president unilaterally changing the tax laws? Trump says he'll stop collecting payroll tax, plans changes in income & capital gains taxes. And they are ok w/him doing that on his own? Might be a relevant precedent some day.

— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) August 8, 2020

Dear MAGATS,

Dems wanted you to keep the $600 UE bonus. Their plan would've helped you more. But the GOP stonewalled so the TV game show host could swoop in with his unconstitutional executive orders and look like a tough guy.

Nice show, but you've been conned. Again.

— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) August 8, 2020

Yes, Pelosi wanted it so much that she rejected it five times.

One of the things I don’t understand: If presidents can make tax and economic policy via executive order why haven’t they done so before?

— Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan) August 8, 2020

Personally, I find this hilarious. Yeah, I get the conservative arguments against it, though I don’t necessarily buy them from a legal standpoint. There’s a difference between disagreeing with something on principle and something being illegal. As the following thread lays out, the assertions by those like Sen. Ben Sasse that this is “unconstitutional” are not based in reality. If the Congress delegates authority to the executive branch and the Supreme Court upholds that authority, why would anyone expect Trump to unilaterally disarm?

For instance, President Trump can't unilaterally cancel people's payroll tax for a few months. UNLESS Congress ALREADY passed a bill that allows it. Which they did: 26 U.S.C. 7508A…

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 9, 2020

20 US Code 1085 allows the secretary to define an economic hardship and offer a deferment of federal student loans for up to 3 years…

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 9, 2020

The point is, the President is not legislating, he is invoking pre-existing legislation instead of relying on Congress to pass new legislation.

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 9, 2020

In other words, what Trump did is quite obviously legal. He is using existing statutory authority to postpone the payroll tax (anyone that wants to argue the coronavirus isn’t an emergency will lose that argument) and he’s using the power Congress handed the treasury to distribute relief funds to finance the continued unemployment benefits. Trump is simply telling the treasury and states to apply that unspent, already-appropriated money to that cause.

Regardless, what’s really worth noting here is that the same people losing their minds today over Trump’s actions loved this stuff when Obama was doing it. Barack Obama, for example, suspended (not just postponed with back payment) ACA taxes for seven years. Not a single mainstream media outlet questioned his authority to do so even though it was clearly unconstitutional. There was no emergency going on at the time. It was simply a political decision on his part. Further, Obama re-appropriated funds under DACA to give benefits to those not even statutorily allowed to receive them. Again, no one on the left cared. In fact, they all cheered it on while jeering at Republicans who said they’ll regret setting such a precedent.

And here we are. That precedent is now being used against them. Trump took it and applied it more narrowly and in a much more obvious legal fashion, but it’s still a precedent clearly formed under the Obama administration. If liberals are so opposed, they should have spoken up at the time. We warned them and were scoffed at. Now, they get to live with the results.

(Please follow me on Twitter: @bonchieredstate)