I so HOPE that this is true!!!
Just one question...is the $1.3 Trillion to be spent over the next 6 months, or is that figure annualized (so it would just be $650 B in 6 months?)
Hopefully Trump will use the funded army to build the wall
Well that’s a relief. For a second I thought it was real money.
So I’ll go ahead and put my anger and disgust on hold for a bit. See how this shakes out. It could end up being a great thing... or yet another disappointment from D.C.
1) There have been some crazy theories going around so let's look at what is actual law.
2) Congress has a two-step program for spending money. Technically, the President doesn't spend anything.
3) First, there is the "Authorization" process. The House, then the Senate . . .
3) contd: . . . AUTHORIZE every department and agency to spend up to a certain amount of money. Think of this as giving your kid permission to spend the money in his piggy bank.
4) The APPROPRIATIONS process then actually allocates how much of that authorized $ can be spent.
5) So, you "authorize" your kid to spend $10 . . . but there is nothing in the piggy bank to spend. Then you put in $5 that you have "appropriated." He still can only spend $5, because that's all that has been appropriated.
6) Departments turn in their budgets yearly.
6) contd. Typically, Congress does what's called "baseline budgeting," wherein they assume a department starts with LAST year's budget #s, and Congress works up from there. (another reason for constant deficits).
7) "Zero-based" budgeting would require a dept be reviewed . . .
7) contd. . . . annually with new hearings. Actually, as much as we hate "baseline," it would be almost impossible to run any government of any size on "zero." But a five-year zeroing out would be reasonable.
8) So, DoD gets its budget:
8) contd. You have $xm for tanks, $ym for planes, $zm for pay.
DoD CANNOT willy-nilly just "move" money from tanks to planes. That hasn't been AUTHORIZED.
9) You say to your kid, "Sure, spend $5 on a movie ticket." But you didn't authorize spending $5 on candy.
10) Sometimes, authorization/appropriation is conditional upon meeting conditions set by Congress. Don't meet the conditions? Don't get the money.
11) This COULD be the basis for, if Congress had a spine the basis to deny virtually ALL federal funding to "sanctuary cities."
12) It has been the basis on which the feds get involved in ALL education: don't accept our rules on transgenders? No $$.
13) Anyway, the point is, Trump CANNOT simply "take" money from DoD and apply it to the Wall. The Army Corps of Engineers is funded, and they have
13) contd. already submitted their list of projects/payroll for which money is authorized. If ANY of that is spent any other way, Congress simply would not APPROPRIATE any further of the AUTHORIZED money til Army CoE straightened up.
14) Further, Richard Nixon thought he had a way to contain spending on what he thought was extravagant stuff in 1973. He "impounded" the AUTHORIZED and APPROPRIATED money, but wouldn't spend it.
it sat there.
15) Nixon cited Truman, Ike, JFK, and Johnson, all of whom impounded funds. However, in each case they did so on the basis of "economy and efficiency." Nixon impounded money on grounds that in the future it would raise taxes.
Likely, but not provable.
16) Further, it was subsequently concluded by courts that the illegal acts by Truman, Ike, JFK, and LBJ were not precedent for another illegal act.
17) In other words, just cuz Zero "got away with it" once or twice doesn't make it legal precedent.
18) Nor would it make it likely Trump, with a semi-hostile congress, could get away with it.
19) There is no Constitutional wiggle room for Trump to arbitrarily build the wall.
20) Actually, that's a good thing. If an when it's built, it will be on firm Constitutional and legal foundation as well as on its physical foundation.,
21) And remember, the Founders took all these precautions to empower the LEGISLATURE to control all spending.
22) We have ourselves, the voters, to blame for the legislature that has taken full advantage of its Constitutional powers.
23) Not until we have people in there who genuinely think like us will we have change.
https://twitter.com/LarrySchweikart/status/977319120965287937
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I’ll also add on what Larry Elder was saying, Okay, most people here want small government, etc. Well, if that is what people wanted, they should have elected Rand Paul or Ted Cruz, maybe Ben Carson. But Trump did not run as a fiscal conservative, he ran as a populist, we knew at least, he wanted to increase the infrastructure with a big spending project. People get what they voted for. If folks wanted other, they needed to elect Rand Paul or something. I don’t think Trump is betraying us ideologically.
I’m willing to give Trump a hold on this.
For a while
As for the Republican “congresscritters”, I loathe, despise, sh*t upon, and wish a very long and hard demise upon their slimy bottom dwelling bodies.
Repubs, you are living on borrowed time. You give this to the dimbulbs and following the inevitable CW-II, you will be treated as if you are one of them.
Because you are dumbasses. Turncoat dumbasses. Guillotine worthy dumbasses.
Hope this is what happens
Some very good points!!
I have more TRUST and FAITH in President Trump than I do in virtually any member of the Congressional Republicant Party Pukes.
I will stand with him and be prepared to piss on the rest of those worthless Congresscritters.
Wrong. It's a barrel of rotting, stinking pork. Much of it placed there by the GOPe.
Bttt.
5.56mm
In all the screaming, the one thing I haven’t heard is that the GOP could pass exactly the budget it wants with zero input from Schumer and the rest of the Dems if McConnell would jettison the filibuster rule.
In other words, this is completely, totally, on McConnell, yet no one’s yelling at him. Why?
Lordy,government is complicated——I hope this is true.
.
Congress is the blame for the Porkzilla
No border wall.
Caps Ice Police
Caps number of Illegals Detained
Gives money to Jordan for border wall.
Gives money to Vietnam for military
Gives money to China for economic enhancement?
Gives money to Sanctuary cites.
Gives money to Planned Parenthood
Does not defund Obama care.
Gives congress a pay raise.
So what did we get? The bill!
“Underthebus spending bill”