Thursday, November 14, 2024

All the money is his

On Tuesday, Trump announced that tech billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would jointly lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” that would produce recommendations on overhauling U.S. agencies — an effort that people in Musk’s orbit say would aim to apply slash-and-burn business ideologies to the U.S. government. The commission will officially operate outside of the administration but work with the White House budget office, Trump said.

Although changes to government spending typically require an act of Congress, Trump aides are exploring plans to challenge a 1974 budget law in a way that would give the White House the power to unilaterally adopt the Musk commission’s proposals, one of the people said. It is unclear if Trump will ask Congress to approve changes to the budget law or first appeal to the courts to do so, though aides have previously endorsed either approach. Ramaswamy, a former pharmaceutical executive who has said he would “stop funding agencies that waste money” and don’t operate on meritocratic principles, has publicly called on Congress to repeal the law and has suggested workarounds if it is not repealed.

That effort, if successful, could give Trump far greater authority to remake the federal budget on his own, altering the balance of power among the branches of government. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and many of his senior advisers publicly vowed to assert unilateral authority to rescind some federal funds, after Trump’s attempts to block aid to Ukraine led to his impeachment during his first term.

If the White House were to simply assert more power without Congress first changing the law, it could trigger a constitutional showdown over a bedrock aspect of the federal government, the power of the purse.

  WaPo
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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