Policy Soup stir the pot ALPHA

This is not complicated. When Congress appropriates funds and the executive branch signs them into law, that money is a legal obligation. The Constitution could not be clearer.

These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars.

When families first raised the alarm back in April, Pete Hegseth called it fake news.

No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste. These are more than 5,000 sailors and Marines, now in the ninth month of a deployment that was supposed to last seven, held at sea to support a war against Iran that Congress never authorized.

It’s been a week since a dozen military families shared what their loved ones are enduring aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas.

Appeals Court Says E.P.A. Cannot Block Billions in Climate Grants (Gift Article)

The courts must continue to check an executive that has tried to nullify countless spending decisions it had no authority to touch. This is about protecting every appropriation Congress makes, under this president and every one who follows.

The funds have been frozen since early in President Trump’s second term.

The administration justified the clawback with claims of waste and fraud. Investigations by the inspector general, the Justice Department, and the FBI never substantiated any of it.

Organizations cut payroll, people lost jobs, basic operations ground to a halt, all while a court sorted out what should never have been in question.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was authorized, appropriated, and disbursed. Recipients already had those dollars in their bank accounts. Freezing them for over a year did real damage.

Article I gives Congress the authority to direct spending, and no administration gets to override that because it dislikes where the money went.

This is not complicated. When Congress appropriates funds and the executive branch signs them into law, that money is a legal obligation. The Constitution could not be clearer.

How Roy Cohn Taught Donald Trump Everything

The Attorney General serves the American people, not the President personally. Blanche has spent his career proving he does not understand the difference. He must not be confirmed. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

How Roy Cohn taught Donald Trump to ignore the rules, avoid a paper trail, and make up a good story for the media.

This is Trump’s vision of a new Roy Cohn finally realized. A loyal fixer with the full power of federal law enforcement, using the Justice Department to protect one man and punish his enemies.

More than 16,000 DOJ employees have left under his leadership, including a quarter of the department’s attorneys. The people who worked January 6 cases were shown the door.

As Acting Attorney General he forced prosecutors to close an investigation into a fraudster who paid millions to people close to the President. A federal judge described his May testimony to Congress as at best misleading and at worst disingenuous, and sent a disciplinary referral.

Cohn was eventually disbarred for dishonesty and unethical conduct. That was the man who built the Trump playbook. Now meet the man Trump wants running the Justice Department. Todd Blanche was Trump’s personal defense attorney. He never stopped acting like it.

Cohn taught Trump three lessons. Ignore the rules and do what you want. Never leave a paper trail. And if someone gets onto you, rat out others to save yourself.