Month: December 2024

This obscure budget procedure could be Trump’s biggest weapon

Posted on by ajk1311@gmail.com

“The official definition of “impoundment,” per the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that oversees the practice, is “any action or inaction by an officer or employee of the federal government that precludes obligation or expenditure of budget authority.” In other words: any time someone in the federal government doesn’t spend money that Congress has ordered it to spend.

This takes two forms: rescission, and deferral. In rescission, the spending is simply canceled, while in deferral it is withheld temporarily, in theory to be spent in the future. Under the Impoundment Control Act, passed in 1974, both rescissions and deferrals can be passed by Congress at any time, and they can also be requested by the president. But any presidential requests have to be approved by Congress to take effect, and that has happened quite rarely.”

…

“The GAO has also recognized a practice called “programmatic delay,” which it views as not technically impoundment but which is closely related. Programmatic delays occur when the government is trying to spend money Congress has instructed it to spend, but factors outside their control preclude this. The GAO has offered as an example a program in which the government is supposed to provide a certain amount of money in loans, but where there are few applicants so the program simply cannot lend out the total amount Congress has set aside for this purpose.
Another more recent example was Biden’s executive order upon taking office instructing a pause in the construction of border walls and fences with Mexico. While Congress had appropriated money specifically for border barriers, the GAO ruled that the Biden administration was merely “programmatically delaying” the project, because the delays were chalked up to environmental reviews and other hurdles that it was legally required to clear before continuing construction.

Programmatic delay does offer the executive branch some flexibility in spending, but only a bit. Otherwise, the Impoundment Control Act is very clear: The president cannot refuse to spend money that Congress has told him to spend. The GAO is empowered to challenge the president if it sees this limitation being contradicted, as it did when Trump withheld funds from Ukraine in 2019. In that case, the funds were eventually released and the incident led to Trump’s impeachment.”

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“The power becomes truly interesting, however, if Trump insists upon cuts that Congress will not approve. One could imagine a repeat of the 2017 fight to repeal Obamacare, except, when enough Republicans defect to doom the effort in Congress, Trump and Vought opt to simply impound funds for the Medicaid expansion and Affordable Care Act premium subsidies unilaterally. This would inevitably provoke a legal challenge that could make its way to the Supreme Court.”

https://www.vox.com/politics/388393/donald-trump-congress-impoundment-budget-supreme-court

How weed won over America

Posted on by ajk1311@gmail.com

“In 2022, for the first time, more Americans were using marijuana daily, or near daily, than consuming alcohol at the same rate, according to a study by Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The number of daily or near daily marijuana users has grown from less than 1 million in 1992 to 17.7 million in 2022; in terms of per capita rate, that’s a 15-fold increase.”

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“Marijuana isn’t benign for everyone, though. Some of the results of the real-time experiment are already becoming apparent, both to regular users and people working in health care.
“It is very desirable to believe that there is a drug that can make you feel good, that can relax you, and has absolutely no negative outcomes,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. “But in biology, there are no free lunches.”

Take the emergence of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition marked by intense and prolonged bouts of nausea and vomiting and brought on by regular, long-term marijuana use. While once extremely rare, some doctors are saying they now see patients with symptoms frequently. “It emerged because people were consuming marijuana regularly with high [THC] content,” Volkow says. “And similarly, there is now evidence that consumption in those patterns is associated with higher risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease.”

Maybe the most worrying studies about frequent, heavy marijuana use involve teens and young adults. (While experts say marijuana use appears to be less risky for middle-aged adults, there’s still a lot they don’t know that needs to be researched further. Some note that more research is needed on older adults in particular.) Studies show regular marijuana use among adolescents and teens can predict increased risk of the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Others have shown an increased likelihood of depression and suicidal ideation, disrupted dopamine function, and disruptions in the anatomy of the brain.

And marijuana, contrary to popular belief, can be habit forming. It can also increase the risk of dependence on other substances. A recent analysis by Columbia University for the New York Times estimated that as many as 18 million people in the US may have some form of cannabis use disorder, or addiction.

Getting a handle on who might be harming their health is tricky. Even the findings that point to a major rise in daily users leave a lot of questions unanswered, especially around how often they’re smoking, vaping, or ingesting, and how potent the THC is.”

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/379637/marijuana-daily-drug-americans-alcohol

Texas may finally pass school choice in 2025

Posted on by ajk1311@gmail.com

“Republicans have long dominated Texas politics. They have had a state government trifecta — control of the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature — since 2003. They currently have a 19-12 majority in the state Senate and an 86-63 majority in the state House. But in recent years, they have repeatedly failed to enact any kind of school choice measure. According to a recent statement by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the state Senate has passed school choice legislation five times since 2015. “It died in a Republican-controlled House each time. That is unacceptable and inexcusable,” Patrick wrote.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott named school choice a top priority in the 2023 legislative session. Both the Senate and House introduced bills that would create education savings accounts for students to use on private school tuition or alternative schooling and other education-related costs. But, at the end of the year, the House voted 84-63 to remove ESAs from House Bill 1 — a massive education bill that also included teacher raises and increased public school funding — bringing Abbott’s yearlong effort to a halt.

Twenty-one Republicans — mostly from rural areas* — joined 63 Democrats in voting to kill ESAs, and Abbott immediately began a full-court press to oust them. By the time the primaries rolled around in March, Abbott had spent $4.4 million to defeat these Republicans and repeatedly visited their districts to endorse their opponents. According to Politico, Texas’s 2024 primaries for state legislature cost a lot more than the typical amount due to the involvement of pro-school-choice donors. In fact, Abbott received more than $6 million from billionaire investor Jeff Yass, a vocal supporter of school choice.

Abbott didn’t campaign against every Republican who voted against the ESAs, but of the 10 that he targeted, seven lost their primaries. Another lost because he was targeted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (for voting in favor of his impeachment) and pro-voucher groups. And one advanced to a May runoff, only to see Abbott endorse his challenger, who eventually won the seat. Another five did not seek reelection. In total, out of the 21 Republican representatives who voted against ESAs in 2023, 14 will not be returning to the legislature next year. And their replacements were all endorsed by Abbott.

Add it all up, and Abbott now appears to have the votes to get ESAs or a similar program through the state House.”

https://abcnews.go.com/538/texas-finally-pass-school-choice-2025/story?id=115865456

Cato, the Filibuster, and the Death of the Republic

Posted on by ajk1311@gmail.com

Cato helped end the Roman Republic by abusing the norms of the Roman Senate to make it impossible to pass legislation. Senators today do something similar, which, rather than stopping the use of power, just incentivizes other branches to execute it with their own wills, further bending the norms of U.S. democracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgD3_eBBn5o