We have come a long ways from Nixon’s “I am not a crook,” to the convicted felon that occupies the White House who absolutely is a crook. Law breaking and chaos come naturally to Donald Trump. Trump hasn’t the slightest clue what his job actually is. He only knows that it’s an opportunity for him to stage reality TV dramas and to undo whatever Joe Biden (or Obama, take your pick) put into order, because if they did it, then he has to destroy it, right? Remember, we are talking about politics seen through the lens of an eight-year-old *mind.” And what’s correct or lawful be damned.
Democrats are sounding the alarm over President Trump’s move to freeze funding approved in two of President Biden’s signature laws.
Trump issued an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Democrats say Trump’s order appears to violate a law called the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which lays out limits on how much power a president has to restrict funding approved by Congress.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, bashed the measure this week as “illegally impounding” critical investments, while adding “uncertainty to every company, nonprofit organization, and state and local government that has any stake in either of those laws.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are dismissing the attacks, defending Trump’s moves as within his powers as president while also noting plans to yank back some of the funding anyway.
“Clearly, we’re going to try to claw back funds there,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a spending cardinal, told The Hill this week. “We made that very clear, and that’s something we look at doing in budget reconciliation.”
“For the president to pause that, I mean, he has executive authority, so he has some discretion in that realm,” he argued.
Part of the issue is that it’s not clear exactly what is included in Trump’s order. The laws fund a wide variety of matters, including tax credits for low-carbon energy projects, consumer rebates for technology to make homes more climate-friendly, grants aimed at cutting pollution, and funds for roads, bridges and electric vehicle chargers.
In other words, funds for necessary and socially responsible things, which will make peoples’ lives better and preserve the planet — which makes Trump view it as a “woke” law and lump it in with DEI or transgender or anything that’s a buzz word. So he’s got to set out to destroy it. And make no mistake, Trump destroying things he doesn’t even understand will be the watchword for this screwed up administration.
The White House issued a memo Wednesday saying the pause only applies to funds “supporting programs, projects or activities that may be implicated by the policy established” in a certain section of the executive order.
That section of the order states, among other things, that it is U.S. policy to “eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ … by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles,” and that it is policy to “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances … and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.”
But it’s still murky what exactly that applies to — and whether it includes money committed by the federal government that hasn’t officially been released.
A few Democrats chimed in on this matter. Sheldon Whitehouse said, “They’re just badly written, and Republican and Democratic states alike have been trying to sort through what the hell this executive order meant. There was an initial clarification that didn’t provide much clarification.” And the director of policy at the Sierra Club, Patrick Drupp said, “We made a ton of progress in the last four years, and I think he has the potential to really set us back at a time when we can’t afford that.”
Everything this country stands for is being set back. Would that it were only “woke” matters. No, Trump is hell bent on alienating our allies and and setting back everything that many administrations have worked to achieve. You wouldn’t hand a flamethrower to an eight-year-old, but the electorate did just that. And we will all be paying a price for some time to come.
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It’s not just Biden’s (or Obama’s) big accomplishments Trump is after. Remember the outpouring for Carter and his well-earned State Funeral. The comparison between Carter and Trump was particularly unflattering for the flaming orange human shaped rectum now sitting back in our WH. It irked Trump enough to dishonor Carter and ignore the flag code (and encourage others to do so, in some cases with an ‘or else’) by raising the flag over the Capitol to full mast before the officially prescribed 30 mourning period had expired.
Trump is making noises about “abolishing” FEMA which is one of Carter’s signature achievements! Count on him looking for any big thing prior Presidents have done that have actually been good, that have helped people and Trump will try to ruin or abolish it!
“eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ … by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles,”
So, I assume this means that they will also no longer subsidize fossil fuels as well.
I mean, level playing field, amiright?
A phucking king does what he wants…and thanks to the so called Supreme Court, one of his present creations, that is what he thinks he is. The peasants…er…all of us, including YOU congress, can go pound sand. After all, we let him walk on violent insurrection to overthrow the government. What a bunch of morons rule and live in the country formally known as the ‘united states of america’. I wonder when he’ll change it to Potterville? Or maybe the Territories of Trumpland. Ivankaland? Guess we’ll wait and see. After all, we’ll have to make changes once he invades Mexico, Canada, Panama, etc. He’s looking for that sharpie as we speak.
Say goodbye to the $7500 EV tax credit. I have a feeling Elon is going to wish he had supported Biden.
After all his talk during the first term about “infastructure week” you would think he would leave that part alone. Foolish thinking on my part.