The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by Dalewyn on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @04:59AM (#42930429)

>This is NOT true for DOGE which has no legal right

DOGE and the Treasury Department are both part of the Executive Branch and derive powers from its head, aka the President.

This is essentially President Trump telling President Trump to hand President Trump the keys to the payment system so that President Trump can check WTF President Trump is spending money on.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by pavlov on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @05:51AM (#42930799)

Except it’s Congress spending the money, and Congress is the one who has the authority to hand the keys and do the checks (called “oversight” in that boring old world of government).

Maybe you see the inherent problem with the setup where President Trump is in charge of checking up on what President Trump is spending money on.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by Bluescreenbuddy on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @08:23AM (#42931976)

You seem to have forgotten that the power of the purse is Congress.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by Dalewyn on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @08:31AM (#42932059)

Power of the purse rests with the House with consent from the Senate, but the execution of the purse is ultimately vested with the Executive.

Congress as the Legislative Branch has no authority to Execute.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by UncleMeat on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @08:52AM (#42932318)

Congress has passed laws requiring the executive branch to disperse money in a timely fashion, with a few limited exceptions. USAID was also created in response to a law, which requires the executive branch to perform these functions.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by Dalewyn on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @08:58AM (#42932382)

And? Congress can impeach the President if they feel the law isn't being executed. The law also extends nearly limitless benefit of doubt to the President when he is executing his Constitutional duties.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by quadragenarian on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @09:33AM (#42932808)

This feels like circular reasoning. In order to execute his (or her) Constitutional Duties, the President must execute laws faithfully. However, the President is extended limitless benefit of the doubt if he decides to not execute the laws put forth by Congress, which means he's not executing his Constitutional duties. So which one is it?

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by NoGravitas on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @10:06AM (#42933234)

You may, unfortunately, thank the Supreme Court for that bit of circular reasoning, rather than GP. Executives since Nixon have been pushing the line that "if the president does it, it's not illegal", and they finally got a SCOTUS to accept it.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by UncleMeat on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @11:56AM (#42935090)

> The law also extends nearly limitless benefit of doubt to the President when he is executing his Constitutional duties.

It does not. In fact, limiting this benefit of the doubt has been a major goal of the conservative legal movement in recent years. If what you say was true then Biden would have had no trouble forgiving student loan debt and requiring generation shifting.

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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by UltraSane on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @10:33AM (#42933668)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_the_purse#United_Stat...

In the federal government of the United States, the power of the purse is vested in the Congress as laid down in the Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 (the Appropriations Clause) and Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (the Taxing and Spending Clause).

The power of the purse plays a critical role in the relationship of the United States Congress and the President of the United States, and has been the main historic tool by which Congress has limited executive power.

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