JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,767
Examples of Washington lawlessness are endless, but even on a very fundamental matter like the House being the sole source of all federal funding and having control over how money is spent is completely ignored inside the Beltway.
Jason Chaffetz: Trump's border wall may get funding after all (thanks to this dirty little Washington secret)
So Trump will build his wall with money from various programs in the DoD budget that can be spun as 'border security' and/or earmarked for the 84 fence that never got built.
But Washingtons disregard for the letter of the law is how we got in this mess we are in, as there are already plenty of restrictions to stop all this stuff but no one does their job according to the Constitution anyway, neither Dimocrat or Publican, so whose going to call the rules on who?
Our Federal Establishment is a nest of useless, vile poisonous snakes and their prefered target for their back biting is the American taxpayer and anyone who would dare to champion them, like Donald J Trump is trying to do.
Jason Chaffetz: Trump's border wall may get funding after all (thanks to this dirty little Washington secret)
The federal budget is enormous – more than $4 trillion each year, of which roughly $1 trillion is discretionary. It is Congress’s job to authorize programs and appropriate funds for them from this $1 trillion.
However, the budget categories under which programs are authorized and funds are appropriated are very broad, and since Congress doesn’t pass specific language about every last dollar’s use, discretionary funds are inevitably used for things that Congress never specifically funds.
This is how the executive branch often gets the money it needs to do things that Congress won’t formally authorize. It finds money that has been either broadly appropriated or appropriated to a program that is expired and redirects it to a related program or purpose of its choosing.
Each year the CBO attempts to track these unauthorized expenditures. In July 2018, it reported this: “CBO has identified 1,035 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2018. Those authorizations appeared in 261 different laws and, when most recently in effect, authorized a combined annual total of $168 billion for certain agencies, programs, or functions. By CBO’s estimate, $318 billion has been appropriated for fiscal year 2018 for those agencies, programs, or functions.”
It is my belief that this practice affords a president far too much flexibility to substitute the administration’s priorities for those of Congress. Constitutionally, the budget is to be set by the people’s representatives, not by the president.
During the appropriations process, members regularly attempt to insert language limiting how the administration can spend money during the fiscal year. But these efforts often fail for two reasons.
First, Congress continues to appropriate money by continuing resolution, which just extends an existing spending bill and therefore doesn’t include these limitations. Second, the creativity of every administration stretches much further than any limitations Congress can impose.
While the broken budget process may benefit President Trump in his efforts to build the wall, it is still a broken process. We should be talking about how to fix it. Many of us believe there should not be a separate appropriations committee that regularly bypasses the work of the authorizing committees.
Until that changes, the spending will continue to be inconsistent with what is actually authorized by law.
However, the budget categories under which programs are authorized and funds are appropriated are very broad, and since Congress doesn’t pass specific language about every last dollar’s use, discretionary funds are inevitably used for things that Congress never specifically funds.
This is how the executive branch often gets the money it needs to do things that Congress won’t formally authorize. It finds money that has been either broadly appropriated or appropriated to a program that is expired and redirects it to a related program or purpose of its choosing.
Each year the CBO attempts to track these unauthorized expenditures. In July 2018, it reported this: “CBO has identified 1,035 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2018. Those authorizations appeared in 261 different laws and, when most recently in effect, authorized a combined annual total of $168 billion for certain agencies, programs, or functions. By CBO’s estimate, $318 billion has been appropriated for fiscal year 2018 for those agencies, programs, or functions.”
It is my belief that this practice affords a president far too much flexibility to substitute the administration’s priorities for those of Congress. Constitutionally, the budget is to be set by the people’s representatives, not by the president.
During the appropriations process, members regularly attempt to insert language limiting how the administration can spend money during the fiscal year. But these efforts often fail for two reasons.
First, Congress continues to appropriate money by continuing resolution, which just extends an existing spending bill and therefore doesn’t include these limitations. Second, the creativity of every administration stretches much further than any limitations Congress can impose.
While the broken budget process may benefit President Trump in his efforts to build the wall, it is still a broken process. We should be talking about how to fix it. Many of us believe there should not be a separate appropriations committee that regularly bypasses the work of the authorizing committees.
Until that changes, the spending will continue to be inconsistent with what is actually authorized by law.
So Trump will build his wall with money from various programs in the DoD budget that can be spun as 'border security' and/or earmarked for the 84 fence that never got built.
But Washingtons disregard for the letter of the law is how we got in this mess we are in, as there are already plenty of restrictions to stop all this stuff but no one does their job according to the Constitution anyway, neither Dimocrat or Publican, so whose going to call the rules on who?
Our Federal Establishment is a nest of useless, vile poisonous snakes and their prefered target for their back biting is the American taxpayer and anyone who would dare to champion them, like Donald J Trump is trying to do.
