Law be damned, Trump asserts unilateral control over executive branch, federal service (16 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

Following the Project 2025 playbook, in the last week, Trump and his newly installed loyalists have moved to (1) dismiss federal officials deemed unreliable to do his bidding (including 17 inspectors general) - many of which have protections from arbitrary dismissal, (2) freeze all science and public health activity until he can wrest full control, (3) freeze all federal assistance and grant activity deemed inconsistent with Trump's agenda, and (4) moved to terminate all federal employee telework and DEI programs.

The problem is much of this is controlled by federal law and not subject to sudden and complete change by the president through executive order. Most notably is the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that simply codifies what is the constitutional allocation of resources where Congress appropriates money to the executive branch for a specific purpose, the executive branch must carry out that statutory purpose. This is indeed a constitutional crisis and even if Congress abdicates to Trump by acquiescing, the courts must still apply the law - or rule it unconstitutional.

And meanwhile the architect of much of this unlawful action is Russell Vought, Trump’s OMB nominee who the Senate appears ready to confirm.

120. The Impoundment Crisis of 2025

The Trump administration's Monday spending freeze is likely to provoke a crisis over the constitutionality of "impoundment"—one that the justices could well have to resolve *very* soon.

www.stevevladeck.com

 

[superchuck500]

I agree with your post, apart from on this one point, because why not both?

Fair

 

[el caliente]

On the contrary its purpose is chaos. The purpose of government is very simple. It is the method by which a society organizes itself as a nation-state. The underlying premise of DOGE is to get MAGA to react to programs that they hate while simultaneously damaging programs that benefit them. The twin imbecilities known as Trusk/Mump have no actual clue what they are doing. USAID being disrupted serves to reinforce the PRC’s Belt and Road initiative thus, in this instance, DOGE serves our competitors.

If Biden had done this and put George Soros in charge, every MAGA’s head would have exploded to the extent it would have been visible from the space station.

Is it the government’s job to pay for people to attend shirtty colleges?

Is it the government’s job to help people buy homes that are overvalued?

Is it the governments job to fund transgender operas in Brazil (which I want tickets to btw)?

I don’t think any of us went to the polls and voted yes on that. I have no problem with DOGE running through records and stopping payments on crap that has been receiving automatic payments. I’m all for them turning off the government spigot until they get things sorted out. I do the same thing with my subscription to Rocket Money when they comb through my automatic payments and perform an audit on unusual payments. It’s financially prudent at the end of the day.

 

[el caliente]

Yes, USAID procurement process is very rigorous, and requires multiple bids - for most goods it has to be from American businesses. This is all public information and available upon request by Congress.

Just because things require multiple bids doesn’t necessarily make the process transparent, or make the winner of the bid the best choice.

 

[el caliente]

I really hope that DOGE does some digging into the DoD. That’s when the real whining and moaning will begin.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Just because things require multiple bids doesn’t necessarily make the process transparent, or make the winner of the bid the best choice.

they actually have a process to figure that out though. Granted you can't make people bid, but depending on the level of money being paid, the number bids required, the amount of reviews it has to go through goes up.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I really hope that DOGE does some digging into the DoD. That’s when the real whining and moaning will begin.

A thorough review of DoD is needed, but the process DOGE is using should not give you great confidence.

 

[J-DONK]

Is it the government’s job to pay for people to attend shirtty colleges?

Is it the government’s job to help people buy homes that are overvalued?

Is it the governments job to fund transgender operas in Brazil (which I want tickets to btw)?

I don’t think any of us went to the polls and voted yes on that. I have no problem with DOGE running through records and stopping payments on crap that has been receiving automatic payments. I’m all for them turning off the government spigot until they get things sorted out. I do the same thing with my subscription to Rocket Money when they comb through my automatic payments and perform an audit on unusual payments. It’s financially prudent at the end of the day.

Just so we understand what you are asking:

Should it be the government's job to help it's citizens obtain an education, and housing?

Yes.

 

[efil4]

Is it the government’s job to pay for people to attend shirtty colleges?

Is it the government’s job to help people buy homes that are overvalued?

Is it the governments job to fund transgender operas in Brazil (which I want tickets to btw)?

I don’t think any of us went to the polls and voted yes on that. I have no problem with DOGE running through records and stopping payments on crap that has been receiving automatic payments. I’m all for them turning off the government spigot until they get things sorted out. I do the same thing with my subscription to Rocket Money when they comb through my automatic payments and perform an audit on unusual payments. It’s financially prudent at the end of the day.

so you pay someone ( Rocket Money ) to do that for you?

i see you are also of the "Ready. Fire. Aim" approach.

 

[J-DONK]

While you get what you pay for, you have to ask before buying, am I paying above market prices for this rice? Who am I buying this rice from? Are these rice farmers the only rice farmers participating in this USAID program, or is there open competition to this USAID program?

Not saying that this is right or wrong, but there are a few more questions that need to be answered before I feel comfortable settling on a verdict.

Anyone worried about paying above market prices for goods shouldn't be voting for the tarriff party. What a wierd line to try and take.

You can always do a deep dive into all the socialist programs for food stuffs: rice, soybeans, sugar, corn, vegetables.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Is it the government’s job to pay for people to attend shirtty colleges?

Is it the government’s job to help people buy homes that are overvalued?

Is it the governments job to fund transgender operas in Brazil (which I want tickets to btw)?

I don’t think any of us went to the polls and voted yes on that. I have no problem with DOGE running through records and stopping payments on crap that has been receiving automatic payments. I’m all for them turning off the government spigot until they get things sorted out. I do the same thing with my subscription to Rocket Money when they comb through my automatic payments and perform an audit on unusual payments. It’s financially prudent at the end of the day.

The job of the government is to help it's citizens. They do that through a number of programs both foreign and domestic. You can argue about the best way to spend money, but a lot of people have different ideas on each of those programs, and Congress has appropriated that money for specific purposes. Very few of these programs have "automatic payments", and the ones that do are specifically funded by Congress for those purposes.

 

[coldseat]

Is it the government’s job to pay for people to attend shirtty colleges?

Is it the government’s job to help people buy homes that are overvalued?

Is it the governments job to fund transgender operas in Brazil (which I want tickets to btw)?

I don’t think any of us went to the polls and voted yes on that. I have no problem with DOGE running through records and stopping payments on crap that has been receiving automatic payments. I’m all for them turning off the government spigot until they get things sorted out. I do the same thing with my subscription to Rocket Money when they comb through my automatic payments and perform an audit on unusual payments. It’s financially prudent at the end of the day.

Does DOGE have the authority to legally do anything it's doing?

So you're comparing the government to your personal financial situation and DOGE to Rocket Money? That's about the type of simplistic and erroneous thinking I would expect from anybody supporting Musk takeover of the government.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Does DOGE have the authority to legally do anything it's doing?

well trump signed a paper saying so so there.

 

[Sendai]

I don’t know that what they are doing can be classified in any of the categories in your post. Audits are reviews typically that test whether the “system” under review is operating as intended by management.

This is closer to the type of review that is done if the business is reorganizing or in the middle of a turnaround. It differs from a typical audit in that you are not only looking for failures in controls but also question the “why” behind the expenditure. Do you really “need” to spend this money? People on the inside are often not well equipped to identify and/or challenge such things. That’s why they hire folks from the outside.

From Websters

“2 : a methodical examination and review”

Definition of AUDIT

a formal examination of an organization's or individual's accounts or financial situation; the final report of an audit; a methodical examination and review… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

The company was a very strong and healthy enterprise. And we did these audits to keep it that way.

 

[Sendai]

Uh huh. And which type of audit is it where you feed a government agency "into the chipper" over the weekend?

Apparently he missed the wood chipper. It’s certainly a problem but the courts will put the skid on these types of actions. My interest is in the resulting analysis.

 

[RobF]

Apparently he missed the wood chipper. It’s certainly a problem but the courts will put the skid on these types of actions. My interest is in the resulting analysis.

I just... I genuinely don't understand what's going on with your thinking, or the thinking of the other people saying stuff like this.

Why would you think you're going to get anything resembling a 'resulting analysis' of any credibility whatsoever from someone going for the wood chipper? Like, it could not be clearer that's not what's happening there.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Apparently he missed the wood chipper. It’s certainly a problem but the courts will put the skid on these types of actions. My interest is in the resulting analysis.

Stop pretending that what is happening is an audit. Audits of large government agencies are not performed to completion within 14 days and then shuttered by auditors.

This is shutting down lawful agencies while bypassing Congress. This is taking away the power of Congress to control the purse.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I just... I genuinely don't understand what's going on with your thinking, or the thinking of the other people saying stuff like this.

Why would you think you're going to get anything resembling a 'resulting analysis' of any credibility whatsoever from someone going for the wood chipper? Like, it could not be clearer that's not what's happening there.

This is a thing that drives me nuts. Why would you trust DOGE? Musk has a huge conflict of interest, and no experience with this sort of thing at all. He's already released outright falsehoods.... and people are still saying, "I just want to see what he'll find"?

 

[MT15]

Just because things require multiple bids doesn’t necessarily make the process transparent, or make the winner of the bid the best choice.

DOGE is the exact opposite of transparent and yet you are cheering that on. They aren’t auditing, they aren’t uncovering anything that isn’t reported to the public already. Just because you didn’t know about it doesn’t make it fraud.

And they have lied about USAID being the source for the funds you are making fun of. That was the State Dept behind those initiatives. You shouldn’t believe anything Musk or Trump says, they lie continuously.

Why in hell would you trust someone like Musk, and have all sorts of suspicions about charities and people trying to end starvation in the world?