Comment by ModernMech
8 days ago
Democrats and Republicans have different definitions of waste. The programs you are calling waste others call necessary aid. If you give Democrats carte blanche to cancel what they consider waste, maybe Musk’s rockets would be on the chopping block, or some program you consider crucial. That’s the problem with unilateral decision making of this sort, we live in a society of 300 million competing priorities. Can’t you see the problem with having one person decide how all our money is spent? Why can’t trans people fund trans priorities?
If the Democrats are going to call sex change operations for illegal aliens “necessary” then they are going to continue to lose elections. It certainly hurt Kamala in the last election.
But yes, the parties have different definitions of waste, and the Republicans were voted in by voters so they get to determine what is waste right now.
Can’t you see how the system is supposed to work? It’s not one person determining waste, it’s voters electing Trump who then determines what is waste.
> Republicans were voted in by voters so they get to determine what is waste right now.
Not the way they're doing, no. The Executive's job is to execute the laws passed by governments elected since the founding of the country, by Democrats and Republicans and all other parties. Republicans don't get to come in and just enforce the laws they agree with ideologically. If this is truly how the system works going forward, then when the pendulum swings the next guy will cut everything he doesn't like in the name of rooting out ill defined "waste and fraud" of the opposite party.
We live in a country split down the middle, Congress is split, and Trump was elected at a slim margin of less than 2%. You can't govern a country of 340 million people by ignoring the the priorities of half of them, even though they pay into the system just the same as everyone else. That's why we elect Representatives and have a Congress to debate these things and find compromise.
Yes, the President is required to execute the laws but you’re ignoring two very important things.
1. The President isn’t forced to spend money on waste and fraud.
2. Most laws are written incredibly vague and high level. “$50B funding for FEMA as a disaster relief for Americans” leaves the President a hell of a lot of room to maneuver and stay within the wording of the law.
I do agree there is a big question mark on “if the President has fulfilled the law but money is left over, what happens?” or “the President says the law is fulfilled by members of Congress disagree”.
Presumably the courts will hammered out all those details, with restrictions put on the President such that a process is put around it. I also suspect the courts will tell Congress “do your god damn job if you want to specify exact spending”.
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