We all learned early in life that the Founding Fathers gave Congress the “Power of the Purse” on spending to act as a check on the executive branch, but it sure hasn’t looked like that in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Instead of GOP leaders in Congress seizing the initiative to press ahead with new tax and budget plans, they have let Trump take the lead with executive orders — highlighted by a rocky rollout of a wide-ranging and short-lived government spending freeze, plus an unusual effort to get federal workers to quit their jobs.
Basically, Trump administration officials have been acting like Congress doesn’t matter, ordering federal agencies to review and stop certain federal spending, even if it had been approved by law.
“I fully support it,” said U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, as the legislative branch — under Republican control — signaled its acquiescence.
Johnson addressed the issue at a House GOP policy retreat held at Trump’s golf resort outside Miami — where lawmakers nibbled on hamburgers branded with Trump’s name.
While Johnson talked optimistically about a GOP deal, some Republicans seemed less than thrilled with the progress being made on a massive tax and budget plan.
“I hope this doesn’t turn into another bill with thousands of pages dumped on us,” said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
While Greene enjoyed the sunshine in Florida, there was a chilly wind blowing for federal workers back in Washington, D.C. Many received surprise emails giving them the option of quitting and getting paid through the end of September.
One federal employee told me it seemed like a trap, and Democrats agreed.
“Don’t fall for it!” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said of the Trump effort. “He has no authority to promise severance pay.”
In one sense, the unilateral Trump efforts to slash jobs and cut government spending could be seen as an early admission that the GOP Congress might not be up to the task of making dramatic budget changes.
This early skirmish on spending also might preview a larger GOP legal challenge to a 1974 budget law which requires a president to follow spending decisions made by Congress.
Trump allies want that overturned, to allow the president to unilaterally make deep cuts. Democrats say that runs against the Constitution. It’s a fight that might ultimately end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Starting next week, House Republicans will finally put pen to paper on their first tax and budget step. But their work in Congress already seems too slow for Trump.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C., since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at jamiedupree.substack.com.
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