The return of the American Caesar

UnHerd ^ | 26 Feb 2025 | Nathan Pinkoski

[Rummyfan]

Few of President Trump’s actions early in his second term have provoked as much furor as the executive order freezing certain federal spending programmes. A federal trial judge in Rhode Island issued a nationwide injunction against the freeze, insisting that he intends to stop the administration from “any federal funding pause”. Five former Treasury secretaries published a protest op-ed in The New York Times, warning that “not since the Nixon administration has this type of executive action been contemplated”.

They’re right about that. Trump’s assertion of the president’s power to pause funding — the right of impoundment — reverses the standard practice of the past two generations. Team Trump aims to restore the traditional exercise of presidential authority to impound congressional spending, a power which was restricted by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. In doing so, the Trumpians aim to put an end to what political analyst Kevin Phillips called the “Watergate warp” that weakened American presidents, Republican and Democratic, pulling them down from the Caesarist heights summited by pre-Watergate chief executives.

The principle behind impoundments is simple. Congress has the authority to set the ceiling on spending, the thinking runs, but not the floor. If the goal of a programme is achieved without spending the full amount authorised by the legislative branch, the president can decide not to spend the difference. So argued FDR, a frequent user of impoundments. Forcing the president to spend every last dime, he said, “would take from the chief executive every incentive for good management and the practice of commonsense economy”.

[mewzilla]

“...Trump’s assertion of the president’s power to pause funding — the right of impoundment — reverses the standard practice of the past two generations...”

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10277/10277-m/10277-m-001.mp3

CRANK IT!

[jimtorr]

Only because Trump is Republican. They ignore the wannabe kings Carter, Clinton, Obama and Biden. They each one issued many wide-ranging executive orders.

[griswold3]

📌

[dp0622]

It’s a positive article, in my opinion.

Did you read it?

Maybe I’m getting the wrong vibe from it.

Could be :)

[jimtorr]

Okay, I think you are right. The article, at least the excerpt, is positive, saying that a president has every right to not spend the entire amount that congress appropriates.

I exercised my right as a dues-paying freeper to only read the first paragraph of an article. At least I got past the title.

[sauropod]

Bkmk