Spending the money they don’t have isn’t the worse part. It’s what they’re spending it on that matters more. If they simply burned the money or spent it on hookers & blow, that would be a vast improvement.
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Even with congressional approval, the executive doesn’t have to spend all the money congress has appropriated. Trump will force the courts to rule on impoundment.
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It’s a bit more complicated than that. I had a discussion about this with a blogger. His response was
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was passed in response to Nixon not spending money appropriated by Congress. Then they ran him out of town and no one has tested this ever since.
It seems that, under current law, the executive does have to spend money Congress has appropriated. The Supreme Court would have to declare that 1974 act unconstitutional.
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The darkness of all this will give us all goosebumps…
This is not a truth that we truly wish to understand…
Let all start to re-think “Independent Media” in the “free world” …
Is Congress appropriating money? I think often they are just raising the debt ceiling. Certainly, they have some specific appropriated spending, but there hasn’t been a budget in years.
For entertainment purposes, I am interested in Congress taking the President to court to spend all the money/debt they approved. Currently it is the Democrats threatening to shut down the government if Trump doesn’t spend all the money.
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Of course they are. Whether it’s via continuing resolutions or by actual appropriations bills. The debt ceiling is raised to permit the Treasury to continue to finance these expenditures using debt. That is the only connection between spending and the debt ceiling. If the US didn’t continue to accumulate debt, there would still be appropriations required to authorize expenditures.
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An appropriation is the setting aside of funds for a specific purpose. A continuing resolution often basically says continue spending at the current rate. I don’t think that is the same thing. Spending has been authorized, but not appropriated.
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A continuing resolution is legal authority for the executive to continue spending at the previous rate. Both appropriations bills and CRs are the legal authority to take money out of the Treasury.
If regular bills are not enacted by the beginning of the new fiscal year, Congress adopts continuing resolutions to continue funding, generally until regular bills are enacted.
Congress may need to enact one or more measures to provide temporary funding authority pending the final disposition of the regular appropriations bills, either separately or as part of an omnibus measure.
…
Traditionally, temporary funding has been provided in the form of a joint resolution to allow agencies or programs to continue to obligate funds at a particular rate (such as the rate of operations for the previous fiscal year) for a specific period of time, which may range from a single day to an entire fiscal year. These measures are known as continuing resolutions (or CRs).
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Authorization bills differ from appropriations in that the former (paradoxically) do not give the authority to spend money. Appropriation bills and CRs do.
Authorization bills establish, continue, or modify agencies or programs. Appropriations measures subsequently provide funding for the agencies and programs authorized.
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The connection between USAID and sending arms to ISIS in Syria.
Let’s call a spade a spade.
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This seems to be astoundingly prevalent for those who work in “public service” in DC. It is almost certainly worthy of book length exposition. Alternatively, where’s “60 Minutes” or Geraldo Rivera? This would be most worthy of one (or a series) of their hit pieces. It really is a national scandal. Were we still a society capable of shame, it would also be shameful.
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It appears the media is getting their vig.
Now the question is only who could be bought for pennies on the dollar. We know Bernie Sanders falls into that category giving up a shot at POTUS for a house.
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Too bad this society is not longer so capable. A little more shame would go a long way. Maybe bring back the pillory and the stocks.
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Mark Green, R-TN
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edit:
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