OMB freezes all disbursements / USAID shutdown / GOP begs for exceptions for their states

ZenMode said:
I hope the courts put a stop to this if Trump truly does not have the authority to do what he's doing.
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What do you mean if? Trump can curtail or change USAID with executive actions alone; however, he cannot unilaterally override a statute by EO. USAID was established by statute as its own agency by Congress in 1998. Since an act of Congress established it as an independent agency, an act of Congress would be necessary to dissolve it.
 
BillOfRights said:
1. Tax dollar spent on foreign aid is a minuscule part of the budget and some of the best money we spend as far as bang for the buck.

2. You know, this is a political witch hunt. Based on where they're looking. If trump and musk really wanted to find waste fraud and abuse that would make a difference, they should look at the Department of Defense.

3. Who is gonna go after the wasteful spending? With the u s government contracts with spacex and starlink?
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Agree that it's small but I wouldn't say $40 billion a year is minuscule. And again, I don't necessarily want to cut the program but I do want to look at the spending choices they're making and determine if we need different ones.

I certainly agree that they are going after the red meat agencies for their base but like you mentioned, if they want to get real numbers in front of people, they're going to have to go after defense. I fully support it but I don't know if they'll do it. I hope they do.

I would disagree that the SpaceX or starlink programs are necessarily wasteful. Those are good companies in spite of Musk. SpaceX especially is the alternative to Boeing or the Russian space program. Russia not an option and Boeing is about double the price.
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
I would say if that person had the opportunity to spend that $100,000 on voting machines or polling places, but thought it was a better idea to spend it on a DEI Opera or a transgender comic book, I would question that person's judgment and competence in their job. I wouldn't say that was criminal but I would say that it would require some adverse job actions including possibly firing them.
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Sure, but I was just using a random hypothetical - I'm not saying that's what these particular appropriations were used for. The entire point is that it's silly to criticize these expenditures as somehow being outside the bounds of what the money is for when no one here really knows what that particular money was supposed to be for.
 
ZenMode said:
Well, the fact that you use the term cherry picked implies that you also are inclined to believe that the claims are true. The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.
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You are exhausting.
 
superrific said:
Don't ever have kids, and if you do, please don't ever throw out the bathwater.
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Seriously. USAID does a whole lot more good than whatever meager amounts of money he is talking about compared to what Pubs want to spend money on. And like you said, why stop all the funding?
 
Again, this money has been appropriated and the executive cannot refuse to spend it.

This is going to be our first major court battle of Trump's term. You can tell he's got competent people advising him now. They are picking the fight over an agency that most Americans won't notice. That's optics for a court.
 
superrific said:
Again, this money has been appropriated and the executive cannot refuse to spend it.

This is going to be our first major court battle of Trump's term. You can tell he's got competent people advising him now. They are picking the fight over an agency that most Americans won't notice. That's optics for a court.
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State Of The Union Congress GIF by PBS NewsHour
 
nycfan said:
State Of The Union Congress GIF by PBS NewsHour
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It remains to be seen whether Roberts is capable of shame. Surely he has to realize by now how badly he fucked up last summer. I'm quite certain that he didn't sign up for Elon Musk wilding through the government's payment systems. If only there had been some indication that Trump was not law-abiding. If only he had given us a clue that he wanted to use immunity to be a dictator.

I have my hopes that ACB and Roberts will realize what they have wrought and at least try to get a handle on the democracy and government aspect of what's happening, even though I am under no illusion at all that they will uphold gay marriage or separation of church and state. However, I have to admit: they are really just that, hopes. Not impossible, but not something I can be confident in and that of course is very sad.
 
rodoheel said:
First of all, this is the kind of thing that’s easy to say when you don’t benefit (or don’t think you benefit) from government expenditures.

Second, why? What do you think is so dire that it requires such a drastic approach? I mean do you seriously want to scrap all sorts of health and safety regulations then just say “oopsie” if people die or get sick as a result?
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I don't want to cut or delay anything that people actually need, but if there are more "DEI musicals" floating around out there, I'm not going to be unhappy if there is drastic action to cut those items.

As I mentioned earlier, and it should be obvious by the national debt, the federal government has proven that they do not care about being fiscally responsible. I don't like Trump and I'm not a big fan of Elon but, as a person who strongly desires fiscal responsibility, I will take what I can get.
 
ZenMode said:
I don't want to cut or delay anything that people actually need,
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Therein lies the rub, eh? This is basically emblematic of the conservative fantasy that some large proportion of the federal budget must go to things that don't actually help anyone. News flash: there isn't a trillion dollars of "DEI musicals" in the federal budget that can disappear without anyone feeling it.
 
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