Elon and Vivek are about to enter a strange new world, the one where federal spending takes place. It’s the congressional appropriations process. The members of Congress who control this process, the “cardinals”, are among the most powerful people in Washington. Their favor is sought by every special interest group in the country, and they’re prolific fundraisers.
Musk and Ramaswamy want to reduce the spending that these Congressmen control. That would reduce their power and infuriate their donors. Republicans and Democrats alike don’t relish that prospect.
The President can veto a budget, and “shut the government down”. Over the last 40 years, beginning with Newt Gingrich, this has become a familiar Washington ritual.
But it’s the political equivalent of a sledgehammer. It doesn’t really work.
What the president ought to have, as the Governors of 44 states have, is the line-item veto. Only with such a power can an executive hope to truly restrain legislative spending. It works.
A constitutional amendment giving the President a line-item veto can only be proposed by the states, using Article V. Congress, needless to say, would never propose such an amendment, restricting its spending ability.
Under Article V, 34 states can call for an amendment convention, which can be restricted to a limited subject matter by the terms of the call. Once the 34-state threshold has passed Congress is instructed by Article V to call the Convention.
In 1979 the 34th state passed a resolution calling for an Amendment Convention. Congress ignored the states, and has continued to defy their constitutional authority.
The states need to enforce their Article V power by suing Congress and obtaining from the United States Supreme Court a declaratory judgment, ordering the Congress to call the convention.
Once the delegates to the Convention meet, they will try to draft an amendment which can be ratified by 38 states. It must have bipartisan support. The only fiscal restraint that will have Democrat as swell as Republican support is the line-item veto.
We’re fast approaching a fiscal cliff. The Attorneys General need to act, soon.
The New Versailles
Back in the day the French king liked to keep all the powerful nobles with him at his vast palace outside of Paris. He wanted to keep an eye on them, and they wanted to stay close to the power.
The new Sun King, DJT, holds court at Mar-a-Lago, with his newest BFF, Elon Musk. It’s where it’s all happening.
There’s something happening here
https://www.electionbettingodds.com/
What it is ain’t exactly clear.
Hour by hour, minute by minute, the odds change, as bettors react to, and attempt to anticipate events. Right now Harris is almost twice as likely to be elected President as Biden.
Pardon me, Kamala
As soon as he became President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed as President. President Kamala Harris could pardon not only Joe, but the whole Biden crime family.
It would be best done before the November election. If Biden resigned after losing the election, and was then pardoned, it would like a quid pro quo, a deal they cut. But if Biden resigned in the next few weeks, and President Harris pardoned him shortly before leaving office on January 20, 2025, it would look like clemency, and a path out of the business of prosecuting your predecessor in office, a terrible precedent Biden set for himself..
I think this would appeal to all the criminals in the family. Biden could go out gracefully and be responsible for the first black woman to become President, if only for a few months.
I bet Hunter would see the benefit, and his mother would like to see her son avoid prison.
The funeral of Jimmy Carter
He’ll be 100 in October and has been in hospice 16 months. It’s traditional that all living ex-Presidents attend a Presidential funeral. I can envision Clinton, Bush, and Obama at the ceremony.
And Biden, of course.
And Trump.
A great moment in Presidential history. All the ex-Presidents would be younger than the current one. Obama is 63, and Trump, Bush and Clinton are all 78.
reaganproject.blog 