Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
This morning I read that because Governors-elect Walker (Wisconsin) and Kasich (Ohio) campaigned on promises to derail their respective states' high-speed rail projects, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (the guy who will "coerce us out of our cars" and who threatened to withhold Arizona's stimulus money because Sen. Kyl asked Obama not to spend any more of it), rescinded $1.2 billion that had been allocated to these states.
Now, he could have gone ahead and allocated these funds to those states anyway, and let them use them for infrastructure as they apparently requested. This use of the funds at least would not have entailed saddling the recipient states with potentially prohibitively expensive ongoing operating subsidies in perpetuity. He also could have used those funds to pay down the federal deficit.
Instead, he reallocated it to other states, like New York and California, and ten others. These recipient states, who already received money, don't even know how they're going to spend this Monopoly money yet. Meanwhile they are broke themselves and the thought of getting their own financial houses in order doesn't seem to occur to them.
Reading the articles gives one the impression that the recipient states' governors believe these extra funds and the rail projects are going to miraculously jump start their economies and save them from their own long-term fiscal recklessness.
What I take away from these reports even more than the abject wastefulness of the federal government in spending and spending and spending in a time when both federal and state governments are near-bankruptcy, is the seemingly unlimited discretion the administration has over spending these funds.
How could we have strayed so far from our constitutional moorings to the point that a cabinet secretary has the authority to redirect more than a billion dollars of taxpayer money at his own whim and without any accountability whatever? Unless we are beyond the point of being shocked, this is outrageous.
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Oct '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
David: I'm certain that you are well aware that the Constitutional model contains THREE branches of government. Indeed, where are the courts in this? To decline to enter a fray between the executive and the legislative branches is understandable, but the abdication of the role of referee between the Federal and the States, or even of greater import, the Federal and the Individual is mystifying. Understandably the process is deliberately slow, but such actions as injunctive relief and a multitude of other remedies generally exercised by the lefty Justices seem to have abated during the last two years.
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
Yes, but my good man Raycon, as you know, the judiciary is a passive branch. Someone must bring a case before they can get involved -- a "case or controversy." So, someone with standing would have to initiate the action. Even then, given our institutional cynicism about the limits of constitutional authority -- either for the executive or the legislative branches -- I'm not sanguine about the prospects for relief. I can't remember if in the stimulus bill the administration was delegated this kind of carte blanche discretion over the funds. If so, it could still be challenged, but the challenge would surely fail -- sadly. But the good news is I can still complain about it and that's a wonderful thing. Some day, if we keep on this, we might restore some limitations.
May '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
In addition to a full raft of "czars" the administration has brought in a czar-mentality, which seems to flow from the boss. They don't know how, nor desire, to lead the country, they want to rule.
This sort of arbitrary gamesmanship is commonplace in the Senate, and in the local politics where Obama got his limited experience. We are just unaccustomed to seeing it practiced so openly at the White House.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 9:21amMay '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
"Beyond shocked" is a good description. Congress, after all, feels it's beneath them to actually read the bills they vote on. So it's hardly a surprise that they'd happily delegate massive amounts of authority to executive bureaucracies.
Oh, and I can imagine that if this had been done under a Republican administration, the howls from the non-Fox networks would have been deafening.
Oct '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
I think this has been a problem ever since the New Deal, when Congress also abdicated its responsibility to avoid political liability. I wish there was a public figure out there making the case more often that the transfer of power from the citizen to the gov't means they have more control over our lives. Citizens also need to stop abdicating their responsibilities in order to get back goodies from the govt.
Jul '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
As nature abhors a vacuum, I wonder if the bureaucracy has decided to rush in to fill the one it perceives in the White House. If no one is in charge, everyone is. While the cat studies the mirror, the mice make merry.
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
You know what, David? You keep spotting absolute outrages that I somehow or other completely missed.
And you know what else? I love you for it. Keep it up, baby.
May '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
Nothing out of Washington shocks me. Ottoman Ump is exactly right. The most shocking thing they've done is pass a 1,000+ page bill which fundamentally alters American government without even reading it.
Constitutional government is already dead. We're not talking about safeguarding it anymore. We're talking about reviving it.
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
I should think that this would be a question that a Congressional oversight committee should take up. Keep in mind that Mr. LaHood hales from Illinois where they know how to do payback.
Jul '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
Clearly there is too much federal money in transportation. House Republicans take note.
Oct '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
I am just hoping that instead of Florida getting an extra $342.3 Million, that our new Governor tells Lahood he is going to cancel the Tampa-Orlando commuter train with the stop at Disney World project that is still scheduled. As useful as it is to save half an hour only to have no mass transit when you arrive, I think there are probably better things to do with the money - like helping to pay for the unemployment extension.
Sep '10
Re: Where Does This Administration Get Its Authority?
Just remember this story the next time a frothy-mouthed liberal demands to know "what would you cut?" How about for starters we cut out rail projects that will cost billions and serve virtually no one. Seriously, no one in Wisconsin wanted this train except the New Urbanist crackpots.
Congressman Sensenbrenner put out the following statement weeks ago, which predictably got no response:
“We support Governor-elect Walker's effort to put the brakes on the High Speed Rail budget boondoggle, which is why we introduced legislation, today, that would give states the ability to return federal funds obligated to high-speed rail projects, and instead use this money to reduce our nation’s $1.6 trillion deficit and $13.8 trillion debt. This high speed rail project is a bad investment for taxpayers and our state simply cannot afford it. We are optimistic that Congress will consider our legislation and empower states to prioritize spending and lead efforts to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”