I’ll say it again. they’re exploiting a major weakness in our constitutional system. Namely, acting unconstitutionally carries absolutely zero personal/institutional consequences.
Here’s a complete lightweight telling us straight to our faces that he and the Trump Admin are taking illegal/unconstitutional action:
Alright, let’s get to it.
The Constitution vest the power of the purse solely in the lap of the legislative branch (Congress) in Article I. Specifically,
Article I, Section 7 (Origination Clause). “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives…”
Meaning: This clause gives the House the first move on tax and spending bills.Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (General Welfare)
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”. there’s more, but it’s a lot…
Meaning: This section gives Congress the power to: Levy taxes, Pay debts, Provide for the common defense and general welfare. In other words: collect and spend money.
Article I, Section 9 (Appropriations Clause). “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law…”
Meaning: The executive branch can’t spend a dime unless Congress says so.
Number of times spending or authority to spend or any of the items listed above are mentioned in Article II (executive branch - the President): Zero. Zilch. Nada.
The framers gave congress the ”power of the purse” because they didn’t want a King controlling, well, everything.
Rubio may be a lightweight grifter (check out his days in the Florida state legislature) but he’s not totally stupid. He knows this is not “allowed”. But he and Trump don’t give a shit. Because they know there are basically no consequences. Yeah - some court may tell them what they are doing is unconstitutional and to stop. But there response is essentially the same as what my older, bigger (physically) brother used to say to me when he picked on me and I wanted him to stop: “Make me".
So, Trump now has a slush fund in Qatar to use as he solely sees fit. And they are actually bragging about it.
The framers knew there were weaknesses in their solution devised to govern our new country. but they counted on each branch of government zealously guarding their prerogatives to ensure balance. And while some of them actually foresaw how their experiment could go wrong, I’ll be they didn’t count on the sheer fecklessness of today’s Republican led Congress.
One of their answers? Impeachment. And yes, this is as impeachable an offense as we’ll ever see. It’s obvious. It’s blatant. It’s knowing.
This action is as dangerous in its own way to our rule of law and system of democracy as anything else they have done, including ICE’s crimes.
It may not go anywhere, but some Dem in the House needs to file Articles of Impeachment on Rubio today…
