Law be damned, Trump asserts unilateral control over executive branch, federal service (17 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

 

[Optimus Prime]

Again, Republicans have complete control of the government. They can make all of these changes via Congress passing bills, and the president signing them into law. This is elementary school civics here.

Going to need a new schoolhouse rock song to explain what’s going on

 

[el caliente]

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

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

Yes, I don’t have time to comb through my expenses to see if a $5 or $19 charge has hit my account, so I outsource that work. The app alerts me of expenses that are out of the norm, and requires me to codify the expenses. If I don’t identify the expense then the app will contest the charge. If there is a subscription that I am being charged for that I don’t use, the app will cancel the subscription under my direction.

It makes keeping my finances in order much easier. I don’t mind paying a small fee if the service saves me time.

Is monitoring your finances really ready fire aim? Your family and friends must really love you.

 

[superchuck500]

Yes. Should the people be on the hook for people deciding to go to crap colleges (Trump University, etc.), or buy home when inventory is on the side of the seller?

I didn’t.

What do you mean by 'on the hook'? Are you talking about loan forgiveness, bailouts, etc?

It's not clear but I don't think you're trying to say that federal financial aid for college should be limited to schools that aren't crap - or that federal home-lending programs should on be available in buyer's markets . . . that would be impractical to the point of silly. But I'm guessing you're talking about federal loan forgiveness programs?

I think those things always have to be looked at in the macro and its easy to play dismissive games with them. Should you or I have been on the hook to bailout American automakers choosing to make crappy cars and fall so far behind the rest of the world that they had to be bailed out? We saw massive investment banks have to be bailed out with federal money because they made some very poor bets on a fake housing market . . . certainly we can't differentiate between them and homebuyers who get forgiveness? If anything, the scale of the banks was much, much larger.

But those things serve macroeconomic purposes that are generally viewed as economically favorable in the long-term.

 

[el caliente]

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.

I think it’s a weird take to just open your wallet (well I guess your opening mine and everyone else on here) and just saying “take whatever your feel.”

Are you invested in KY Jelly?

 

[J-DONK]

Yes. Should the people be on the hook for people deciding to go to crap colleges (Trump University, etc.), or buy home when inventory is on the side of the seller?

I didn’t.

College accreditation is a thing, you know that right?

 

[el caliente]

The job of the government is to help its 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.

Sounds like all the reason to turn off the spigot and get things sorted out.

 

[el caliente]

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.

Your line of thinking is why we are funding a transgender opera in Colombia.

Where are my tickets to this show?!?!

 

[el caliente]

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?

I’m just here to hear hit dogs holler. It’s cathartic.

 

[el caliente]

There is no analysis, they are looking for anything they can convert into a soundbite.

How do you know that no analysis is involved? I’m not saying there is or there isn’t, so I would like to know.

 

[J-DONK]

I think it’s a weird take to just open your wallet (well I guess your opening mine and everyone else on here) and just saying “take whatever your feel.”

Are you invested in KY Jelly?

My point was there is no "free market" in ag goods. We already have minimum pricing, tarriffs, and usaid type programs that buy up some of the surplus every year.

If you were smart, you would ask WHY?

Why would a country want to ensure it's own domestic food production? Why would America see this as a national security issue?

 

[el caliente]

For all the angst many have for the level of distrust of governmental institutions, they simply moved that trust over to Elon/Trump/DOGE.

and they will be woefully misled, yet again.

Its pure confirmation bias at this point. As DOGE et al keep pumping out the "clickbait", folks can continue to a) See? Waste! and b) support them. With zero regard to what the ramifications/consequences will be.

It’s true. People didn’t care when Biden’s handlers controlled the government, but now that Elon is making things happen they are up in arms.

Meanwhile those of us who didn’t vote for any of this mess are just loving the theater of people showing their posteriors.

 

[el caliente]

It really doesn’t speak well for his alma mater, wonder if he went to a “shirtty college”?

I went to Tulane. They taught us finance, and how to distinguish between men and women.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

That is the best option available to the minority party at this time.

No. The best option would have been the entire Congress complying with their Constitutional Duties! When POTUS chose to ignore or, as they would say, push his Constitutional Duties to the limit, Congress has an obligation to challenge those actions. Instead, congressional Republicans have ceded their responsibilities and betrayed their oath of office. Hell, it would only take about 8 individuals out of 271 to hold the Executive Branch in check.

We can't even muster up 3% of congressional Republicans to uphold their Constitutional Duties.

 

[el caliente]

Judge Bates at DDC is a long-time conservative/Republican lawyer and judge. He was a federal criminal prosecutor for almost two decades, serving as deputy special counsel on the Whitewater investigation and later for the Ken Starr investigation of Bill Clinton. Bush appointed him district judge. Justice Roberts appointed him to FISA for a four-year term and he is now a senior judge at DDC.

Of course none of that will matter to Trump and Elon - just another liberal activist judge.

To be fair, at one time Elizabeth Warren was a Republican, and the people of Russia were rooting for Ivan Drago to defeat Rocky.

People change over time.

That said, I hope that the screws are put to DOGE so that everything is done above board.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Going to need a new schoolhouse rock song to explain what’s going on

Previously complied with!

 

[el caliente]

An audit is already planned. Supposed to happen in the next couple of years. I can't say specifics, but suffice to say, some agencies within DOD are well aware and are preparing for this audit. It's certainly needed and I think will help the agency better deploy resources.

And DOGE trying to do whatever it is they do in DOD would be like beating an iceberg with a toothpick.

Perhaps that’s a perk to hiring a bunch of 20 somethings tech people to do the digging. Have you ever seen a 3 year old with a cell phone, these young kids find a way to figure things out.

I’m still trying to understand the audit process being used. Are they using an algorithm to pick out expenses that don’t make sense? Are they actually digging into the books? What does this process look like?

 

[DaveXA]

How do you know that no analysis is involved? I’m not saying there is or there isn’t, so I would like to know.

There's no meaningful analysis that can be done in the day or two they were on site. And I'm not even sure they had any people qualified to do such analysis while they were on site.

So, reasonable people will look at this and safely assume this isn't a legitimate process.

 

[el caliente]

There's no meaningful analysis that can be done in the day or two they were on site. And I'm not even sure they had any people qualified to do such analysis while they were on site.

So, reasonable people will look at this and safely assume this isn't a legitimate process.

Without knowing the process, any reasonable person will suspend judgment.