The Real Problem With the Trump Shutdown: The reactionary Supreme Court has given him Congress's power of the purse.

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-10-01-real-problem-with-trump-shutdown/



The government is shut down as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday—or at least that is the narrative coming out of the mainstream press. In reality, as my colleagues David Dayen and Whitney Wimbish point out, the government has been effectively shut down since Donald Trump took office in January. Moreover, there is something strange about this whole song and dance. The reactionary Supreme Court majority, in one of their signature unsigned and barely argued rulings, recently allowed Trump to impound $4 billion in foreign aid spending. That’s not very much money, but combined with the Court’s other behavior, it clearly implies that as far as the nation’s top court is concerned, Trump has plenary powers over the budget. He can spend taxpayer money in any way he wishes.

It follows that Trump could end any “shutdown” immediately by just directing the agencies to reopen and the money to be spent. John Roberts certainly isn’t going to stop him. Is House Speaker Mike Johnson? Please. It illustrates what is really at stake here—not health care subsidies by themselves, important as they may be, but the basic principles of American democracy, which Trump is trying to destroy with the willing participation of the Republican majority on the Supreme Court.

As Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog explains, the details of the foreign aid decision are complicated, but it boils down to Trump trying to do an end run around the Impoundment Control Act when it comes to spending he doesn’t like. The term of art that’s been used is a “pocket rescission.” Technically speaking, the executive branch can announce a rescission of funds that pauses them for 45 days, but if Congress doesn’t approve the rescission by then, the money must be spent. But Trump and his minion at the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, issued this $4 billion rescission less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year. So, Trump and Vought reasoned, they could cancel this $4 billion in spending without congressional approval.

A lower court had previously ruled that Trump and Vought’s attempt to rescind funds without congressional input was illegal, and gave Trump until September 30 to restore the funding, because that’s the end of the fiscal year. The majority, in a short, unsigned opinion, has now stayed that ruling past that date, with little explanation other than a vague sentiment that the parties who sued did not have the proper standing and couldn’t show a severe enough injury. The “asserted harms to the Executive’s conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm faced by respondents,” it says.

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[Redleg]

1. I would like to ask the conservatives on the Supreme Court one question...

... what is the difference between the powers of the presidency and the powers of a king?

[leftstreet]

2. They've been shutting down govt all along

DURec