What is the meaning and purpose of the President’s letter? A John Salisbury tweeted out this explanation. Could not find any MSM reference (of course not). The letter from the President is copied below with reference. For those who do have time, the conclusion of Mr. Salisbury . . . The President has basically told the house . . . See ya in court! For those who have given up, patriots all in the trenches, understand, North Korea has stood down, only the details follow. Up next is Iran. The President needs what he got from that bill to accomplish what is going to be confronted in the next 3 to 4 months. Hang on folks. Its show time In the meantime is this explanation correct? Freepers decide. John Salisbury account
Let's talk about what the President can and can't do for this Omnibus Bill. There's a lot of discussion both ways so let's examine how money gets allocated & spent in the US Government: 1. Congress allocates money to be spent. The President spends the allocated money. 2. Once Congress allocates money, their job is oversight of the money being spent. They don't spend the money and have no say HOW it gets spent as long as it's spent legally. That's their job to monitor with oversight. 3. Once the President is given the money with the instructions to spend it, he has a number of choices to make in spending it. There are some rules he has to follow & some of the money is fungible and some isn't. 4. However there are some other factors that are in play here. One of them is that the President has declared a Human Rights Emergency AND has notified Congress that he's invoking the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. NOTE: See Letter and Link below for reference of above statement. 5. This opens up new options. 6. By making these two declarations President Trump has just communicated that he has the authority to NOT spend any funds he doesn't deem necessary and will return them to the US Treasury. So, funds for Planned Parenthood? He can simply not allocate the funds 7. Also, these declarations make some funds fungible. For instance if he determines that building a Wall on the Southern Border is a defense against Human Trafficking? He can move funds from anywhere else in the Defense Dept Allocation & simply build the Wall.
8. Congress is powerless to stop cash reallocations on an omnibus bill AND cannot stop the DOD from taking measures under a declared Emergency. NOTE: In part the above statement needs to be challenged, 9. Despite their language in the Omnibus Bill about the Border Wall, it is trumped by the State of Emergency that Trump declared
8) (sic)So in summary - This will go to the Courts. Congress will sue the President over the Border Wall. But here's how it will play out - Congress and the President are co-equal branches with different functions. Congress allocates. The President spends. 9) (sic) The President has National Security as his Primary Responsibility and it's his job to use whatever funds and declarations he needs to for that job. No Court in this Nation (except corrupt on the take Judges) would EVER rule against a President for exercising that authority. 10) In the end the Supreme Court (yes, that's where it will end) will fully VALIDATE the President's Constitutional Authority & the Wall will be built. / Letter from President to Speaker of House You will have to find that letter. I am not good enough to do so.
Brilliant post and I totally agree. But I would still like to see someone with an advanced law degree in the constitution or budgetary law, if there is such an individual, to assess what is going on and how the money can actually be spent.I think you have it down.Add in a few Presidential EO’s to what you said and I think the President is bulletproof.But we still need clarification.