I'm watching the nonsense in the Congress right now, trying to avert a government shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson is running the negotiations, but Donald Trump and Elon Musk are weighing in, as is the right of every citizen. The arguments and positions of Trump and Musk certainly have weight, but we must not forget how we got here.
Joe Biden is still the president. The Democrats could have done something about that at any time in the past four years, but they waited until mid-June before staging a half-assed cop that nocked Joe out of the race. They could have invoked the 25thAmendment, but they didn't. Joe is still the President, and Joe is in chare. He will be in charge until Trump takes over in January.
Joe Biden is in charge, along with Chuck Schumer, and ... dare I say it.... Kamala Harris. The Democrats could still administer a political coup de grace and put Kamala in charge, but for reasons of their own, they still let Joe's had stay on the rudder.
Joe Biden is in charge, and it is no one's fault but the Democrats.
5 comments:
Check NCRenegades...
I guess they both raced back to the WH
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1870080655280783651
Not arguing your point, but to be clear, the President's only constitutional role the budget is to either sign or veto appropriations bills.
Yes, the President can make recommendations, can put pressure on congress by threatening to veto if they don't give him what he wants, but the constitutional process is that revenue bills originate in the House, go to the Senate which can offer amendments, and then go to the President for signature.
They make it much more complicated than it needs to be with their 1500 page pork barrel spending bills.
Personally, I'd like to see an amendment banning "omnibus" bills. Each and every appropriation for any purpose should be presented, debated and either passed or rejected on the merits. Some congressman or senator wants the taxpayers to fund installing signs with their name on it on highways in their state? Fine, write a bill, debate it in the open and if you can justify it enough to get it passed, more power to you. Don't pack it into a "must pass" bill to provide emergency relief to victims of the latest natural disaster.
Neither Biden, nor Trump have any constitutional role in negotiating the budget...for that matter, neither does the Senate. US Constitution, Article 1, Section 7: "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."
I realize it's more efficient to get the Senate involved in the process early to ensure they're satisfied and will approve the bill and amendments, but technically, Budget bills are supposed to start in the House, then the Senate gets their chance to amend it or pass it, then, after it passes both the House and the Senate, the President can either sign it or Veto it.
At any rate, my point is: Trump has no actual say in the process, even if he were president already. His only leverage is his popularity and the very real fear that if they vote against his wishes, they'll lose their next election.
The fact that he and Elon were able to squash that 1500 page monstrosity of a budget bill is a testament to the power of their current popularity (and the ability to get the word out broadly and quickly on "X"), not any legal power he has to control what congress does or doesn't do.
Biden doesn't have the legal authority to meddle in the budget process either...but he also doesn't have any popularity leverage to exert either...so he just stayed out of it. Or his minions didn't bother to wake him up and feed him lines to parrot...same same.
Rumor is that Harris canceled her Christmas plans to stay in D.C. to get sworn in as the first POTUS who is a woman-of-color.
Interesting rumor.
VP Harris also rumored to be keeping her BAC level at around .16 %....
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