Law be damned, Trump asserts unilateral control over executive branch, federal service (1 Viewer)

[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

 

[brandon]

So I guess the question is now - what will the judge do about it?

Nothing. They can’t.

The judicial branch is about to realize just how powerless it actually is.

 

[Incumbent]

Nothing. They can’t.

The judicial branch is about to realize just how powerless it actually is.

We are about to really find out just how important institutionalists are to making all of this work. Trump learned from his first term just how easy it could be to break the government. Install an authoritarian, who surrounds himself with sycophants, and democracy is on life support.

We’re down to desperately clutching at vanishing guardrails.

 

[bird]

The potential SCOTUS case regarding Trump taking over the post office will be the case, imo, that shows whether or not Trump will abide by judicial decisions.

I think that the answer to that is no.

 

[superchuck500]

This is forked up - this person (with a strong history of outstanding peformance reviews and promotions) was fired from her career deputy position at HHS . . . because she's trans.

 

[efil4]

This is forked up - this person (with a strong history of outstanding peformance reviews and promotions) was fired from her career deputy position at HHS . . . because she's trans.

Welcome to the new America. Where diversity and tolerance will not be tolerated and empathy and diversity are beta.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Welcome to the new America. Where diversity and tolerance will not be tolerated and empathy and diversity are beta.

The New version of Jesus's love.

 

[FullMonte]

This is nothing more than Trump-talk - a never-ending string of vaguely suggested benefits to people to engender support but it's total illusion, there never will be a genuine attempt to make it real. Musk is now just playing this game too.

It is 100% not real and there's at least three compelling reasons why we know this is pure fake bullshirt lies to try to make people think they're great: (1) there is ZERO evidence that there has been any meaningful savings that would allow for anything such a distribution, (2) it is well obvious that the entire point of this whole DOGE exercise, at least from a fiscal perspective (there are other angles) is to show that spending fat has been cut so that they can enact another round of tax cuts - primarily for wealthy and for businesses, and (3) lol, come on.

It actually gives a veneer of authenticity - surely there must be massive savings if they're contemplating a dividend to Americans! It's just smoke and mirrors, there's no evidence of any such windfall. And if there is any savings, it's going to be part of the support for why we can cut taxes again.

There's also a MAJOR thing that gets overlooked in all of this. That number, $5000 is based on returning 20% of the savings to the taxpayers, if Musk hits his goal and saves $2 trillion from the annual budget.

But, there's a huge catch there. The annual budget is broken into two pots of money. Pot one is mandatory spending. This is things like interest payments, debt service, veteran care, unemployment, medicare, medicaid, etc...the things that the government must pay, and that are not negotiable in the annual budget planning. Pot two is discretionary spending. This is the money that congress fights over every year, it funds things like the DOD, FBI, CIA, federal marshals, the IRS. Basically, all of the government. If Elon were to shut down ALL OF THOSE programs, completely, using last year's numbers, he would only save the US $1.6 trillion from the budget.

So, if he wants to save $2 trillion, he will need to completely shutter every single government agency, and then take another $400 billion from the things the government is obligated to pay. Of course, with the IRS shut down, and the treasury department shut down, I'm not sure how he's going to get those $5,000 checks to the people in the wasteland that used to be the United States.

 

[Lapaz]

There's also a MAJOR thing that gets overlooked in all of this. That number, $5000 is based on returning 20% of the savings to the taxpayers, if Musk hits his goal and saves $2 trillion from the annual budget.

But, there's a huge catch there. The annual budget is broken into two pots of money. Pot one is mandatory spending. This is things like interest payments, debt service, veteran care, unemployment, medicare, medicaid, etc...the things that the government must pay, and that are not negotiable in the annual budget planning. Pot two is discretionary spending. This is the money that congress fights over every year, it funds things like the DOD, FBI, CIA, federal marshals, the IRS. Basically, all of the government. If Elon were to shut down ALL OF THOSE programs, completely, using last year's numbers, he would only save the US $1.6 trillion from the budget.

So, if he wants to save $2 trillion, he will need to completely shutter every single government agency, and then take another $400 billion from the things the government is obligated to pay. Of course, with the IRS shut down, and the treasury department shut down, I'm not sure how he's going to get those $5,000 checks to the people in the wasteland that used to be the United States.

Musk must be an anarchist! After he finishes destroying the US, I guess he can go back to Australia. Of course without the US, China may take over Australia. He won’t like how they compete.

 

[MT15]

Musk must be an anarchist! After he finishes destroying the US, I guess he can go back to Australia. Of course without the US, China may take over Australia. He won’t like how they compete.

He’s from South Africa, isn’t he? He won’t be going back there.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

He’s from South Africa, isn’t he? He won’t be going back there.

Correct, he's from apartheid SA and his family made its money from S Africa's emerald mines.

 

[faceman]

Welcome to the new America. Where diversity and tolerance will not be tolerated and empathy and diversity are beta.

I'm to the point where I agree with Dave on the EE. I hope Trump wins right now. Let's give him enough rope.He'll
eventually hang himself if he hasn't already