Letter: Democracy is threatened, Jeffrey

Re: Your recent brief letter ("When Democrats say that Republicans are a threat to our fragile democracy what they really mean is that we are a threat to their bloated bureaucracy.") I respectfully disagree. Democracy is threatened when the administration refuses to release funds appropriated by Congress. If a president is allowed to simply refuse to spend money for programs he does not like, then our Constitution is a dead letter, and the president becomes a dictator. If Republicans wish to shrink the bureaucracy, they can. Since they control both Congress and the executive branch, it should be easy. But what Trump is doing now (with USAID, for example) has thrown us into a Constitutional crisis. If you are cheering him on for usurping powers he does not have, then you do not really believe in the Constitution.