MAGA Republicans would give Trump 'unprecedented power' to control the federal budget

31 December 2024

On November 26, ProPublica's Molly Redden reported that President-elect Donald Trump and his MAGA advisers were pushing a radical far-right theory known as "impoundment" — which claims that presidents can unilaterally disregard Congress' spending decisions and "impound" federal funds if they consider any spending wasteful.

The "impoundment" theory, according to MSNBC's Ja'han Jones, is very much at work in a bill being proposed by a group of pro-Trump Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jones, in an opinion column published by MSNBC on December 30, explains, "As I’ve reported previously, some conservatives — including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — contend that the Impoundment Control Act, a 1974 law that requires all funds authorized by Congress to be spent, gives the president broad latitude to determine whether the funds are spent at all…. And Republicans now seem intent on removing all doubt that Trump's power is supreme."

The MSNBC columnist continues, "More than a dozen House Republicans sponsored a bill earlier this month that would repeal the Impoundment Control Act entirely, giving Trump unprecedented power to determine which funds are spent."

Redden, in her November 26 ProPublica article, noted that the U.S. Constitution "gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate the federal budget, while the role of the executive branch is to dole out the money effectively."

Jones warns, "It should go without saying that giving a vindictive man known for his business failures effective control of the federal budget is a bad idea. But today's Republican Party seems to exist for little more than stroking Trump's ego and lining his pockets."

The good news, according to Jones, is that the GOP majorities in the House and the U.S. Senate are probably too small for the "impoundment" bill to pass.

"This bill attempting to repeal the Impoundment Control Act would face hurdles if it's reintroduced in the upcoming House session, given that Republicans will hold an even smaller majority than they do now," the MSNBC writer notes. "And the repeal could face an even steeper climb in the Senate, if it were to reach that point. But with a budget fight on the horizon, the proposal to hand Trump complete control of the federal coffers shows we've reached new — and even more dangerous — levels of pro-Trump obsequiousness."

Jones adds, "At minimum, it’s a warning about the fervent horde of Trump sycophants who are eager to give him whatever he wants."

Ja'han Jones' full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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