They voted on it. Both sides. Congress approved the money. And Trump waited until five fucking days before the fiscal year ended to steal it.
That’s a pocket rescission. The Government Accountability Office already said it’s illegal. Susan Collins — Susan Collins, the Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee — called it “usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers.” When Collins sounds like the constitutional alarm, you know the country’s in deep trouble.
Nearly a billion dollars. Congress said fund these programs. The president said fuck you, I get to decide.
And who gets cut? Not defense contractors. Not donors. Not the White House ballroom that apparently needs building more than refugee kids need help. Refugee services. Nonprofits that serve unaccompanied minors — children who crossed the border alone, who don’t have a parent here, who the government knows about and has a legal duty to protect. The White House said some of those organizations were led by people from the Obama administration. Like that explains cutting a billion from kids. Like caring for a frightened child is some kind of fucking crime.
Patty Murray called it theft. She’s right. Russell Vought and OMB are telling every Republican who voted for those bills that their votes don’t count. The president gets to override the constitutional process whenever he damn well pleases.
This is the second time. Last year they did it with $4.9 billion in foreign aid and the Supreme Court let it slide. Now it’s domestic programs. Next time it’s whatever they want.
The party that screams about “constitutional originalism” just seized the power of the purse from Congress. The party that wraps itself in the flag just told Congress its constitutional authority is optional. Family values. Fiscal responsibility. Law and order. Every goddamn word was a lie.
A billion dollars meant for refugee children, stolen with five days left and no review allowed. That’s not government. That’s a heist.
Eat shit. You knew exactly what you were doing.
Source story: Trump deploys pocket rescission to cancel nearly $1bn in approved funding.