Inside the esoteric constitutional dispute that could completely transform the federal government

“Mr. President, how do you respond to criticism that your impoundment of funds abrogates power or authority that the Constitution gave to Congress?” a reporter asked then-President Richard Nixon at a January 1973 press conference.

“The same way that Jefferson did, and Jackson did, and Truman did,” the president responded. “The constitutional right for the president of the United States to impound funds — and that is not to spend money when the spending of money would mean either increasing prices or increasing taxes for all the people — that right is absolutely clear.”