What can be more autocratic and self-serving than an immediate Presidential declaration that the federal government will bear the entire cost of replacing Maryland’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge? Isn’t America’s elected 535-member Congress vested with authority to determine how funds raised through public taxation are to be spent? A less beleaguered and self-centered leader at least would have been more tactful: “I will ask the House and Senate to consider….” Election year largesse seems to be the trademark of an administration desperate to gain support from various sub-constituencies with special interest sensitivity. White House executive orders have replaced traditional legislative debate to declare arbitrary payoff of student-loan obligations, conflate transgender awareness with Easter Sunday, foment domestic Israeli-Palestinian hostility, and massively waive prosecution of habitual criminals. Our borders, cities, police and courts are being overrun by hordes of unscreened asylum-seekers. Newcomers' American dream of what can be accomplished has become a nightmarish challenge of what can be gotten away with. Meanwhile, our elected representatives - architects and planners of our future society - are consumed by exhaustive investigations of each other for alleged wrongdoing. Moreover, the intended tricameral structure of our government is threatened by condoning a two-team political free-for-all. Law and order, civil discourse, and common sense ultimately must prevail. Phil Osifer