Power of the purse

Apr 1, 2025
Apr 1, 2025
6

Editor,

Remember when the GOP screamed about cancel culture destroying the country? I sure do.

(6) comments

Dirk van Ulden Apr 1, 2025 8:48am

Sorry Mark - but you are wrong as usual. Yes, the Congress holds the power of the purse but the Executive Branch is charged with running the country. Just because funding has been allocated for a program or cause, it does not mean it has to be spent. That is up to the Executive, the President.

markolbert Apr 1, 2025 1:23pm

Since Jon is struggling with reining in comments and my previous attempt at biting humor was rejected, Dirk, I'll just go with this: as usual you've misunderstood things. And if that gets rejected, I hope Jon will reject your comment, as it very closely parallels the first phrase in your comment :)

Dirk van Ulden Apr 1, 2025 2:38pm

Mark - I miss your biting humor. No offense, but I understand that the President does have the authority to allocate and redirect funding within an approved executive department budget. Congress does not get into the nitty gritty which is obvious now that DOGE is exposing questionable expenditures that only insiders were aware of. For instance, why would FEMA house illegal immigrants? Why did Biden authorize 2 million plus social security numbers to undocumented immigrants? He went along using murky guidelines for executive authority. I also agree that Trump is pushing the envelop but until the Supreme Court judges otherwise, he will keep plugging away instead kicking the can down the road as did most of his predecessors. And, why would you be opposed to at least auditing our expenditures and return to a pre-Covid, perhaps even to a zero base budget?

Terence Y Apr 1, 2025 8:43am

Thanks for your letter, Mr. Olbert, repeating a Democrat playbook narrative. The Executive branch has the ability to impound funds and root out waste, fraud, and abuse. I don’t know (and I haven’t bothered to check since I’m sure I know the answer) but I don’t believe Congress expressly appropriated money on line items to fund Politico subscriptions or Peru climate change activities or fitness center services. If they did, then money should be allocated for them but in the future, we can lop off these ridiculous taxpayer expenses.

I would like to hear your thoughts on the constitutional crisis on the Judicial branch violating the Constitution with specious lawfare rulings where these judges have no standing. If they’re going to infringe on the Executive branch then it seems a new “standard” has been set, doesn’t it? Trump 2028! BTW, Mr. Olbert, what do you have against rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse? Why do we need to pay for Politico when we can get it for free? People may say they care about climate change but nobody really does anything about it. And people can exercise for free, can’t they?

markolbert Apr 1, 2025 12:48pm

Good to hear from you, Terence, and glad to see you're following your standard playbook (which is of course also a standard Grand QAnon Party playbook) of making the "whatboutism" move. Of course, that's essentially just a way of admitting one doesn't have a valid, logical rebuttal based in facts. So, I'll just chuckle at your attempt to obfuscate what I said and move on. Have a nice day!

Terence Y Apr 2, 2025 8:35am

Thanks, markolbert, for using the usual Dem playbook tactic of blaming others for the Dem’s sins, in this case, “whataboutism” instead of admitting you/Dems have no valid, logical rebuttal based in facts? The collective “we” at the DJ aren’t surprised anymore because Dems provide only excuses when they can’t answer simple questions. So, I’ll just chuckle at your non-responsive response and move on. What else can I/we do when Dems refuse to have real conversations? Happy “Liberation Day!”

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