re: #51 EmmaAnne

I’ll take a stab at this (heh). If one part of the government stops functioning, another part will step up. If Congress can’t keep the government running, the executive branch will.

Example: Congress is supposed to declare war. But usually they don’t want to. So the President does it instead (perhaps calling the war a police action or some such). When legislatures can’t agree on redistricting plans, the courts do it.

In this case the executive is actually barred by the Constitution from spending money that has not been appropriated by Congress. There are some emergency exceptions, but if budgeted monies run out then most federal agencies have to close and cannot reopen until Congress appropriates them some money.