https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/money-saved-by-canceling-pr...
But yes, the parties have different definitions of waste, and the Republicans were voted in by voters so they get to determine what is waste right now.
Can’t you see how the system is supposed to work? It’s not one person determining waste, it’s voters electing Trump who then determines what is waste.
Not the way they're doing, no. The Executive's job is to execute the laws passed by governments elected since the founding of the country, by Democrats and Republicans and all other parties. Republicans don't get to come in and just enforce the laws they agree with ideologically. If this is truly how the system works going forward, then when the pendulum swings the next guy will cut everything he doesn't like in the name of rooting out ill defined "waste and fraud" of the opposite party.
We live in a country split down the middle, Congress is split, and Trump was elected at a slim margin of less than 2%. You can't govern a country of 340 million people by ignoring the the priorities of half of them, even though they pay into the system just the same as everyone else. That's why we elect Representatives and have a Congress to debate these things and find compromise.
1. The President isn’t forced to spend money on waste and fraud.
2. Most laws are written incredibly vague and high level. “$50B funding for FEMA as a disaster relief for Americans” leaves the President a hell of a lot of room to maneuver and stay within the wording of the law.
I do agree there is a big question mark on “if the President has fulfilled the law but money is left over, what happens?” or “the President says the law is fulfilled by members of Congress disagree”.
Presumably the courts will hammered out all those details, with restrictions put on the President such that a process is put around it. I also suspect the courts will tell Congress “do your god damn job if you want to specify exact spending”.
The president doesn't have to spend on fraud but he doesn't get to decide lawful Congressional agencies like CFPB and USAID are "waste" by his own metric, and shut them down unilaterally.
> 2. Most laws are written incredibly vague and high level.
And that's why there is some discretion here, often times encoded within the agency itself. If they agency is not doing what it's designed to do, we have an entire oversight system to handle that. IGs are there specifically for that purpose, but Trump fired them all. How does that advance the mission of finding waste fraud and abuse? Of course it doesn't because that's not the mission, the mission is an ideological purge.
> restrictions put on the President such that a process is put around it.
Under what authority? Trump and Musk claim absolute authority over the executive, so any restrictions would be unlawful in their eyes. In fact they claim the right to have no process whatsoever, which is how they're currently operating.
Those agencies still exist, they have just been shrunked down. For USAID, it's folded under State.
> If the agency is not doing what it's designed by Congress to do, we have an entire oversight system to handle that. IGs are there specifically for that purpose, but Trump fired them all.
No, that's not the role of the IG. The IG is focused on financial and management audits. It doesn't determine whether an agency is fulfilling the law set by Congress.
That's the job of the courts and Congress, which they can still do.
> Trump and Musk claim absolute authority over the executive, so any restrictions would be unlawful in their eyes.
Trump does have absolute authority over the executive. It's in the Constitution. He also has the ability to delegate his authority to US government employees like Musk.
However the President has obligations to execute the laws passed by Congress. Both the legislative (Congress) and judicial (courts) are the check on the executive and have a number of levers they can pull if Trump violates the Constitution.
This is all US civic 101 here.
You hit the nail on the head. Tens of billions going to “aid” while Americans who are victims of disasters get a small check and a “sorry, that’s all we can do”.
The American people aren’t stupid. When you hear complaints about a lack of trust in the government, it’s because the government has destroyed that trust.
So when Trump says “American first” many voters say “yes, finally”.
What Trump and Musk are doing is wildly popular among voters. They are doing what the establishment has said they tried and failed.
The Democrats are trying all sorts of messaging about a “Constitutional crisis” when they have show they only care when it’s in their interest and voters are ignoring them. And most amazingly is the Democratic leadership haven’t said a single thing about the waste - not even a “yeah, this shouldn’t happen”.
Trump and Musk will continue to be popular as long as they keep delivering on their promises. All while HN gripes and grumbles.