Vox is reporting that Trump says he won’t comply with key transparency measures in the coronavirus stimulus bill.
When Trump signed the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, he announced in a signing statement that he wasn’t going to respect the requirement that an inspector general oversee corporate handouts and report to Congress. The dumpster fire wrote:
I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR [Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause
(my emphasis)
In other words, he’s going to block any reports from the Inspector General before they reach Congress, just as the Ukraine whistleblower’s report was blocked. He’s claiming the ability to do this under the Take Care Clause, which is this phrase from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution:
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed
The fucking nerve of this POSOTUS, the least faithful executor of any law this country has been infected by, to use that clause to overrule the will of Congress.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:
And just like that, the Congressional oversight provisions for the 1/2 TRILLION dollar Wall St slush fund (which were *already* too weak) are tossed away the day the bill is signed.
This is a frightening amount of public money to have given a corrupt admin w/ 0 accountability.
She’s dead right as usual, and none of this should surprise anyone. This is why you don’t give assholes like this a blank check:
As some of the commenters on that Twitter thread point out, this is unconstitutional. In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Clinton v. City of New York that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996
violated the Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution because it impermissibly gave the President of the United States the power to unilaterally amend or repeal parts of statutes that had been duly passed by the United States Congress.
(side note: the inestimable Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the decision)
But who is going to hold the POSOTUS accountable? The Senate just acquitted him for extortion so he knows he’s untouchable.
Say goodbye to that stimulus money. Donald needs a new shitter.