Federal judges rule that Trump must withhold money for a border wall, but say he breaks the law if he withholds aid from Ukraine?
01/17/2020 / By JD Heyes
If you’re having trouble keeping up with the insanity coming out of Washington, D.C. and the federal government these days, take heart.
You’re not alone.
It’s a full-time job tracking all the nonsensical BS that passes for “important” issues and events, though “official” Washington, Congress, and the mainstream media have proven long ago they are all so far out of touch with ordinary Americans, it’s immeasurable.
Take events this week. After holding on to a pair of impeachment articles for nearly a month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally decided to transmit them to the Senate on Thursday, as she is required to do by the Constitution.
Only, right on cue, the Government Accountability Office released an eight-page report claiming that by temporarily withholding military aid from Ukraine last year, President Trump violated federal law…though the aid was eventually delivered after a short delay…and Ukraine never even missed it.
They didn’t even know the military aid was delayed (which Obama would never provide, though Ukraine was under attack by Russian-backed “separatists”).
Wow, what a coincidence, huh? Just as House impeachment managers are walking over articles of impeachment against the president for allegedly delaying aid from Ukraine, here comes the GAO with a report claiming that such delays are illegal.
In reality, if the president was such an impeachable criminal, the GAO would have said so months ago, when an Adam Schiff-aligned “whistleblower” first claimed that the president committed an illegal impeachable act involving Ukrainian military aid.
But it wouldn’t have had as much impact as waiting until the day of the impeachment transmittal to the Senate, huh?
For the record, the Office of Management and Budget produced an opinion of its own very quickly — didn’t have to wait several months for the ‘right time’ — stating that the GAO is wrong.
How would the OMB know? Because that is the office that is responsible for distributing foreign aid.
Americans are so tired of Washington’s shenanigans
“The pause in obligations of the Ukraine funds at issue here is an example of programmatic delay. … It was OMB’s understanding that a brief period was needed, prior to the funds expiring, to engage in a policy process regarding those funds,” the agency said in a memo refuting the GAO’s opinion on Thursday.
“OMB took appropriate action, in light of a pending policy process, to ensure that funds were not obligated prematurely in a manner that could conflict with the President’s foreign policy.”
For the record, programmatic delays are proper and common, and in reality they support congressional intent for monies designated as foreign aid.
Oh, and there’s this: “OMB is aware of instances in which Members of Congress demanded that agencies withhold funds for months— and even years—beyond the period required by statute for reasons wholly unrelated to the purpose of the appropriation.”
So, lawmakers themselves have demanded that agencies do exactly what they are accusing President Trump of doing — exactly what most of them have impeached him over.
But this stuff gets worse.
As Democrats slam the president for failing to deliver military aid to Ukraine so the country can defend its borders from an invader, judicial activist judges sitting in federal courts have routinely blocked Trump’s attempts to spend congressionally appropriated funds securing America’s borders.
Time and again, since taking office, the president’s border security initiatives — be it construction of a wall, issuing new policy directives via executive order, or attempting to enforce existing law — Left-wing federal judges have blocked him from doing so.
And wouldn’t you know it, not a single Democrat has ever voted to impeach a federal judge.
One of the reasons why most Americans go out of their way to ignore official Washington is because they believe — rightfully so — that it’s nothing more than a playground for fools.
No wonder Trump won in 2016 (and will again this year). He’s about as “anti-Washington” as we can get in the Oval Office.
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Tagged Under: border security, Border Wall, democrats, federal court, GAO, Government Accountability Office, Illegal, impeachment, military aid, Office of Management and Budget, official Washington, OMB, President Trump, Ukraine
