Congressional Democrats caught heat for delaying approval of the coronavirus stimulus package over concerns that $500 billion was being handed to the Trump administration with no oversight provisions. They finally won a guarantee that an independent inspector general would scrutinize disbursements and notify Congress of any spending irregularities. Now, days after its passage, President Donald Trump has declared he isn't bound by that provision.

A president who thinks it's acceptable to personally profit from the presidency now refuses to submit to congressional oversight regarding expenditures from a $2.2 trillion package — the single largest taxpayer outlay in U.S. history. What could go wrong?

This open violation of a bipartisan contract is the kind of funny business Trump has engaged in all his life — another reminder that he thinks he's accountable to no one. Congress could sue, but there's no time for that. Both parties need to stand their ground and demand Executive Branch accountability.

Warring Republicans and Democrats managed to pass the stimulus package in record time — testament to how crucial it is to rescue the economy. But Democrats were right to hold up the package over the unassailable principle that taxpayers shouldn't hand over half a trillion dollars, earmarked for business loans and loan guarantees, to any president without oversight guarantees.

Trump has spent his entire presidential term rewarding his big-business supporters and defying the Constitution's emoluments clause barring presidents from profiting from office. During the stimulus negotiations, he refused to rule out that his own businesses might get some of the money from the bill. When asked who would provide the oversight for that spending, Trump responded, outrageously: "I'll be the oversight."

For Congress to hand this White House a blank check would constitute governmental malpractice. Democrats negotiated a provision barring the president's businesses from benefiting from stimulus money, and requiring government inspectors general to report to Congress if the administration refused oversight cooperation. That provision was common sense, given Trump's record of flaunting constitutionally mandated congressional oversight.

Trump — as honest in government as he is in business — signed the bill into law, then promptly announced he wasn't bound by it. In a signing statement he said, in effect, that he reserves the right to block the inspector general from providing information to Congress without his approval. Senate Democrats, who negotiated the deal directly with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, are correctly demanding answers from him.

This emergency response, designed to keep the U.S. economy from collapsing, must not be allowed to morph into the president's personal slush fund.

Most congressional Republicans, including Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley, long ago abdicated their oversight duties for political gain under this president. With all the health fears and financial distractions competing for the public's attention, voters must not lose sight of accountability when $2.2 trillion is on the line.

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