Opposition won't land with taunts about the price of eggs, Chuck.

All the Trumpian populism is just smoke and mirrors, its all about the money. It always was with Trump. Only unlimited control of the purse guaranties loyalty.

Trump’s Most Lawless Action Yet
Pausing funds appropriated by Congress is a deliberate taunt to draw a legal challenge that the White House’s most radical architects think will give them unilateral spending power.

The Right Wing think tank authors of this budget scheme laid it all out to see a few years ago.

Impoundment Claim & Response
by CRA Staff
November 21, 2024

Impoundment is constitutional and enjoys a long history of usage. Further, the restoration of impoundment—and the inherent understanding that appropriations are permissive ceilings and not mandatory floors—diminishes partisan political warfare and returns the federal government back to a healthier era where tension was vested more in separate branches of government and less in partisan differences and the courts.

Clearly contrary to the rule of law. But that's the point Trump wats to force through the Court.


The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA) intended to take care of the tensions that can crop up when a president asserts the power to nullify spending appropriated by Congress. Richard Nixon, himself an enthusiastic impounder, signed it into law. The ICA established a specific process to rescind certain spending: Presidents must deliver a “special message” to Congress proposing rescissions that Congress must then approve. If Congress declines to do so, the money cannot be held up for more than 45 days. There’s a second process called “deferral,” where presidents can propose a delay of funding if they find operational efficiencies or need to provide for contingencies. But even deferral can only last until the end of a fiscal year, and it cannot be due to policy differences.

Donald Trump did not deliver any special message to rescind or defer any portion of appropriated spending, let alone all grants or all foreign aid or all clean energy–related spending. There are ways to temporarily hold up certain spending; a blanket assertion is not that way.

Why Trump’s order to freeze funding evokes the darkest days of Watergate

President’s move has convulsed Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973

Last edited by Johnny_Rotten (2025-01-29 18:23:06)