Commentary: Whose money is this?

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” Christ reasoned when Pharisees asked if Jews should pay taxes. Because Caesar’s portrait appeared on coins, the money ultimately belonged to Caesar.

If you have a few bucks in your wallet, you can order whatever coffee drink you’d like daily; same the president’s adviser, Elon Musk. With his digital wallet he can buy a frappe, Starbucks Inc. or Brazil! Your dollars are your private business.

However, public dollars belong to all Americans. So, we all have an interest in how they are collected and spent. Regrettably, democratic decision making is not designed to be efficient, but it is accountable to everyone who paid into the system and benefits from it.

Programs first need to be authorized by their respective congressional committee, then funds are appropriated. This involves: congressional review of the president’s budget; House and Senate committee hearings; industry testimony; reports from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and reconciliation of differences between House and Senate versions of bills (i.e., icameralism). Then bills (eg, authorization, revenue, appropriation) are presented to the president for signature and approval (i.e., presentment). The budget becomes law.

If this byzantine process fails (and often does), we fall back on a continuing resolution, which keeps existing spending levels from the previously approved budget. If the CR fails, government shuts down.

Although presidents are required to spend funds, many presidents historically failed to spend all the authorized and appropriated dollars. These were minor amounts — until Richard Nixon impounded billions in 1972. In response, Congress enacted and Nixon signed the Budget Impoundment and Control Act of 1974 to prevent a president’s unilateral refusal to spend legally approved funds.

Que the Star Wars Imperial March; enter Trump. In 2019 he improperly impounded $400 million congressionally authorized and presidentially approved military aid for Ukraine. Funds were released only after a whistleblower notified government watchdogs (the Government Accountability Office). This led to Trump’s first impeachment.

So, impoundment is not permitted. What about a line-item veto? Congress approved and president signed the Line-Item Veto Act of 1996, which Bill Clinton used in 1997. Then the Supreme Court struck it down (Clinton v. City of New York) in 1998, ruling that “presentment” required the president to either approve or veto the entire budget as presented by Congress.

Neither impoundment nor line-item vetoes are legal, yet now Elon (Trump?), under the hollow guise of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, has impounded this, impounded that, vetoed this, vetoed that, this, that, that, this — no bicameralism, no presentment, no public. An unholy leitmotif is at play with the Götterdämmerung of federal agencies. Trump’s second verse, same as the first?

Julius Caesar kept an enslaved person to regularly whisper to him, “Memento mori.” Remember, you are mortal. As the Roman Republic withered to emerge an empire, the imperial cult began deifying its caesars. Is this our America now? Pray not. Americans are not ruled easily by diktat.

Leonardo Olivares lives in Weslaco.

Leonardo Olivares

The post Commentary: Whose money is this? appeared first on MyRGV.com.