The government of the USA was designed around a bottom-up approach; the states managed their own affairs with limited interference from the federal government, which was small and kept in check by the states. The states would then send representatives to discuss larger issues that affected the nation as a whole and the President was tasked with helping to carry out any directives okayed by congress, as well as being the outward-facing part of our government.
We have spent too long moving power from the states to the federal government and to the executive branch in particular. The idea that so much tax revenue is being spent through "departments" and "programs" with little or no oversight should literally be a crime. The habit of the President using executive orders to bypass our systems of checks and balances has clearly gotten out of hand. And now we have a situation where that excess power granted to the President is the only reason we are finding out about the insane amounts of hidden spending that has been going on for far too long.
Any spending item should be presented to congress to vote on. Period. And it should not be laden down with dozens --if not hundreds-- of earmarks to hide overspending in plain sight. Especially when the added spending is for items that have nothing to do with the original request. They will ask for a modest budget approval for something like building infrastructure or helping the homeless, then they will stuff it full of items that have nothing to do with it. When someone complains about the excess crap that has been added, they are criticized for denying funding for infrastructure or the homeless.
It's no wonder we are operating with runaway deficit spending. They have stripped out the checks and balances and left only a system, one that can and is relentlessly abused by career politicians who can't explain how they have gotten wealthy on a relatively modest congressional salary (although "modest" is probably stretching it).