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This is a constitutional crisis
From Brendan Nyhan on BlueSky, reposted by Aaron Rupar: "This is a constitutional crisis: the President doesn't have the power to cancel funds appropriated by Congress. Also, the math is insane; there is NO way to cut $4B/day by getting rid of "fraud". Cuts of that magnitude will dangerously undermine the core functions of
government."
Brendan Nyhan is a Dartmouth political scientist.
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Bayard
(29,584 posts)
WheelWalker
(9,399 posts)As has been said:
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is. - Yogi Berra
DSandra
(1,719 posts)Republicans want to break the Federal Govt and sell it for scraps.
This is why Dems should have taken this election super seriously since the beginning rather than pretend that Biden wasn’t declining till it was too late.
WheelWalker
(9,399 posts)Your point is well taken. I couldn't agree with you more, comrade.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)the functioning of the Judicial Branch, and they will soon Obliterate the functioning of the legislative branch.
They have stated that the U.S. Constitution is basically an antiquated scrap of paper....................
Soon, there will only be the Executive Branch, ruler of everything......a Perfect Tyranny run by the top 1%...........
Everyone in the lower 99% will be reduced to serfs and peasants............
I think we already passed that fork in the road. We took it.
WheelWalker
(9,399 posts)Cirsium
(3,917 posts)
paleotn
(22,181 posts)Cirsium
(3,917 posts)What do you recommend?
paleotn
(22,181 posts)And / or any number of other organizations like Move On, etc.? Do you regularly call your elected reps? Do you talk to those around you about issues, particularly cutting through the BS with facts? Do you donate to organizations that share your political values? Do you volunteer? Hell, in this country, do your freaking vote? The list goes on......................................................................
For 50+ years. And here we are.
paleotn
(22,181 posts)This country has survived a lot. It will survive this. So don't let the bastards grind you down. That's a conscious choice.
Cirsium
(3,917 posts)Can our sanity and resolve survive the never ending avalanche of platitudes?
paleotn
(22,181 posts)Most Americans, particularly white Americans, are soft and whiny in the extreme. A bunch of over sized babies, both on the left and right. Not surprising given the nice, cushy, comfortable bubble we've been living in since WW2. If things get the least bit hard, hell, the least bit inconvenient, we freak out, give up, and roll around like goddamn toddlers.
We're faced with a crises, perhaps existential, and instead of supposed American ruggedness, fortitude, ingenuity and adaptability in facing the problem, we whine. Whine endlessly like we're exceptional for some bizarre reason and this should never, ever happen to us.. For some it seems like a parlor game. They get some kind of weird satisfaction in going 100% negative and whining instead of figuring out what we ALL need to do to fix the problem.
In Mexico, where gross government dysfunction is a day that ends in Y and poverty is beyond most American's understanding, you don't hear the bawling like petulant children. They look at us and say..."you think you've got problems?" The same throughout much of the world. Yet, they struggle to improve their situations and their countries against far, far greater odds than we.
We're worried about our sanity? They're worried about their goddamn survival. We're so damn weak and our enemies know it and are exploiting it. Stop being so damn weak. Stop being exploited. It's a conscious choice.
Cirsium
(3,917 posts)They're laughing at us! We need to get back to that good old American ruggedness, fortitude, ingenuity and adaptability. Make America great again!
paleotn
(22,181 posts)Trump's wins are cases in point that American's are weak and whiny. All they need is a "savior!" Donny will make everything better and they won't have to lift a finger.
On our side, same damn thing. I keep hearing....."what are Dems doing?!" My question is, what the fuck are YOU doing? Care to answer that?
Calling for action is weak?
whathehell
(30,459 posts)Perhaps you are "soft and whiny in the extreme"..Me and mine?..Not so much. 
paleotn
(22,181 posts) 
BonnieJW
(3,121 posts)Our government is falling and no shots were fired and it only took 2 weeks.
How is Musk allowed into all these agencies, shutting them down, locking out all the employees?
And the dems just sit and watch it happen
stillcool
(34,407 posts)Strap a bomb around her waist and head them off at the pass? Bring my other Senator with her to ride shot-gun?
canetoad
(20,741 posts)I'm hoping against hope that someone or group of people are preparing an offensive against him.
In my mind's eye I see him strutting, bloviating, rambling - not knowing what the hell he is doing while his strings are being pulled by extremist republicans and worse. He is happy to take the credit; they are happy to destroy the US as you know it.
BlueTsunami2018
(4,982 posts)The country appears to be lost.
The fascists have taken over.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)the perfect title for a book about the last 45+ years would be:
WHILE THE NATION SLEPT..............
Some of us here have been screaming our heads off, from the rooftops, starting with the Treasonous Acts that HWBush pulled to "install" Reagan in the White House, and denying Carter the win...........
And, for the record, there were a massive amount of Democrats that called themselves "Reagan Democrats".......WOW, eyes wide shut
Arazi
(8,881 posts)
Don’t let these experts ruin your day - no “FUD” 11!!111!
🙄
keep_left
(3,209 posts)
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)The OP does not use excess exclamation marks or hyperbolic language or fear mongering or reference only to generality and not to several specifics as this OP does.
I understand that panicky posts come from a deep place and express honest feelings that have a place at DU, but people are capable of taking a few moments to collect themselves and not get worked up into a lather.
Irish_Dem
(81,133 posts)
Tumbulu
(6,630 posts)......... i just am beside myself in grief and terror.
Irish_Dem
(81,133 posts)Not.
DJ Synikus Makisimus
(1,438 posts)Fascism doesn't care about constitutions.
no_hypocrisy
(54,877 posts)
Takket
(23,702 posts)that's not fraud. it is american lives being ruined and/or ended
LetMyPeopleVote
(179,490 posts)On the one hand, Team Trump is launching legally dubious power grabs and wreaking havoc. On the other hand, these guys have no idea what they’re doing.
Remember eight years ago, when Trump launched an ugly and poorly thought-out Muslim ban, sparking outrage, bureaucratic chaos, family hardships, and messy legal fights?
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-01-29T14:01:01.621Z
Eight years to the day later, he did it again with an ugly and poorly thought-out spending freeze. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
Eight years to the day later, he did it again with an ugly and poorly thought-out spending freeze.
Link to tweet
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/chaotic-freeze-gambit-trump-white-house-shows-incompetence-rcna189776
With just minutes remaining before the freeze was scheduled to take effect, U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan agreed to halt the process. NBC News reported:
A federal district judge on Tuesday granted an administrative stay in a case challenging the Trump administration’s planned freeze of federal aid, pausing the plan for a week and setting a hearing for further arguments Monday morning. The order applies only to the pause of disbursements in open grants, Judge Loren AliKhan said. And it doesn’t get into the legality of the freeze; instead, it gives her time to hear more fleshed-out arguments from a coalition of nonprofit groups about why she should issue a temporary restraining order that could block the freeze for an additional two weeks.
......It began with a terribly written memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie accurately described as “delusional.” White House officials spent much of the day insisting that it was perfectly clear, and news organizations were to blame for any confusion, but many of those same White House officials struggled badly to answer specific questions about the details of the policy — most notably related to the impact on Medicaid beneficiaries. (“I’ll check back on that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her first briefing.).....
In case that weren’t quite enough, the White House also spent much of the day defending the freeze by referencing the “Green New Deal,” which is a broad progressive agenda that, in reality, never actually passed — and therefore can’t be defunded.
The resulting image was unsettling. On the one hand, the president, his political operation and his policy team are engaged in ugly and legally dubious power grabs, wreaking havoc as part of a radical scheme to transform the American system.
On the other hand, these guys still don’t know what they’re doing. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank summarized in his latest column, “In just eight days on the job, Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the federal government, and he and his aides apparently couldn’t be bothered to give any thought to the damage and chaos that would ensue.”
TFG is a very stupid person. His staff is just as incompetent as the idiots who tried to do a Muslim ban 8 years ago
Farmer-Rick
(12,635 posts)It will get worse
You thought W's banking collapse and Trump's COVID crashes were bad, this one coming up will be so much worse.
With the idiot Muskrat tramping through all our banking data and passing it to Putin, there won't be any money remaining for the average American.
Figarosmom
(11,836 posts)Every single other administration didn't try to fi d waste to cut.
stillcool
(34,407 posts)it's about them and theirs. No body else
Aussie105
(7,894 posts)And plan on how to implement that.
Rhiannon12866
(255,093 posts)When he attempted to blackmail Ukraine by refusing to send them aid already approved by Congress unless they found "dirt" on Joe Biden's son?? He is incapable of learning, he still believes he can do anything he wants. 
LilElf70
(1,559 posts)Impeachment is music to my ears. Although it probably won't matter. He could care less. He'll get pissed again, and mope and cry.
live love laugh
(16,369 posts)requires negotiations with MAGAts will fix any of this they’re insane.
COL Mustard
(8,192 posts)Soon to be derided as woke, leftist, globalist, any other epithet they can come up with.
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)They don't have the authority. They do have the power. They are an illegal autocratic regime. Musk is just going to shut down the federal payment system to kill the federal government and starve out the population. It is illegal and unconstitutional but they are going to do it.
One possible option for resistance is for Dems in Congress to call it out for what it is- an unconstitutional crime and an impeachable offense. Perhaps when Republicans in Red States do not receive their monthly Social Security checks or their SNAP benefits or WIC they will demand that their Republican Congresspeople do something to stop this.
Maybe that would wake up some Republicans in Congress. If not, at least Dems loudly calling this an illegal and unconstitutional crime will make it clear to the general public what is going on. Maybe the public will revolt. We would certainly have the right.
There are also other options for resistance--
One option- Blue State Resistance--
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219975103
zstat
(60 posts)They have access to 65 million SS deposits each month and access to the bank accounts where those $1000 to $4000 checks will be deposited. Plus, they have access to a whole lot of other information on every recipient who is expecting a check. They now have access to you checking account if you are a senior. The techy guys and the stat guys will figure out ways to pilfer millions. And who will know what is actually happening.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,316 posts)Klarkashton
(5,278 posts)None of this is legit.
Igel
(37,516 posts)We can exalt it above the heavens, but that doesn't make it anything more than it was.
It's a statutory crisis, not that there really is such a thing with that name.
A "statutory crisis" is really just a court case against the federal government. Nothing more. Prez does something a person/org thinks is contra statute, goes to court. Bam. Did the President exceed his authority?
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)Only Congress has the power to establish and fund, or defund any Executive Agency. It is part of the Separation of Powers. The Executive does not have the legal authority to freeze or cut spending that has already been authorized by the Congress. The Executive trying to freeze the funding of the federal government is an illegal and unconstitutional action. It is an extreme abuse of Executive power. It is a Constitutional crisis.
Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)Ya think.
Morbius
(990 posts)The Supreme Court has ruled that the President can break the law if he's executing the duties of his office. So while one would think these actions are unconstitutional, SCOTUS has already taken the side of the administration.
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)An unconstitutional action by a President and his agents by definition can not be an official act. The official powers of the President derive from the Constitution and his or her Oath is to Defend, Honor, and Uphold the Constitution. No unconstitutional action can therefore be official. The President can therefore be impeached and prosecuted for illegal, unconstitutional, and thus non-official acts. It needs to be brought up into the courts again. We are a democracy not a dictatorship.
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)They don't have the authority. They do have the power. That power must be resisted, by legal means and lawful force, if necessary. They are an illegal autocratic regime. Musk is just going to shut down the federal payment system to kill the federal government and starve out the population. It is illegal and unconstitutional but they are going to do it.
One possible option for resistance is for Dems in Congress to call it out for what it is- an unconstitutional crime and an impeachable offense. Perhaps when Republicans in Red States do not receive their monthly Social Security checks or their SNAP benefits or WIC they will demand that their Republican Congresspeople do something to stop this.
Maybe that would wake up some Republicans in Congress. If not, at least Dems loudly calling this an illegal and unconstitutional crime will make it clear to the general public what is going on. Maybe the public will revolt. We would certainly have the right.
There are also other options for resistance--
1) One option- Blue State Resistance-
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219975103
2) Second option- Fighting in the Courts, the Congress, and the Court of Popular Opinion- the Media. We could use someone with moral authority like Obama to go on live media and condemn this for what it is- an illegal and unconstitutional takeover of the federal government that we have the right and the duty to resist and oppose.
3) Third option- Military Resistance--
One major hope to stop them is a lawful rebellion in the military. Soldiers and officers take Oaths to Defend the Constitution, not to follow illegal orders from Dictators like Trump and Musk. If the Military are given illegal orders, their legal duty is to disregard unlawful orders. Anti-Trump soldiers and officers that are loyal to the Constitution and their Oaths might oppose Pro-Trump soldiers and officers loyal to the Dictator Trump. We need patriot soldiers like General Milley, Lloyd Austin, Malcolm Nance, and Adam Kinzinger to take some action to mobilize the Anti-Trump forces before it is too late.
4) Also- A legal basis for lawful Resistance and Rebellion-- A relevant excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our Nation--
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Our lives, our liberties, and our pursuit of happiness are being threatened by this rogue fascist regime. We have the right to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government. If they are going to subvert the law, violate the Constitution, and destroy our government, we have the right to resist and to establish a new government. We are the people and we do not consent to this false and despotic regime.
Kid Berwyn
(24,298 posts)Then Marshall Law rounds up everybody but the NAZI morans.