Bedminster, NJ—Agenda 47: Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his plan to restore the Executive Branch Impoundment Authority to cut waste, stop inflation, and crack down on the Deep State.
“For 200 years in our system of government, it has been undisputed that the president has the constitutional authority to stop unnecessary spending through something called impoundment,” President Trump said.
“Quite simply, this means that if Congress provides more funds than is necessary to run the government, the president can refuse to waste the additional funds and instead return the money to the general treasury and even lower your taxes, even though we’ve given it. You’ve given the biggest tax cut in history and the biggest deregulation in history, I am very proud.”
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President Trump’s plan naturally leads the executive and legislative branches to negotiate and work together to gain better control over federal spending.
“I would use the president’s long-recognized power of impoundment to crush the bloated federal bureaucracy in favor of massive savings. That would be in the form of tax cuts for you. That would quickly help stop inflation and reduce the deficit.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL RESTORE THE IMPOUNDMENT POWER OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH:
- President Trump will restore impoundment power, re-establishing the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches.
- On day one, President Trump will direct federal agencies to identify parts of budgets where huge savings are possible through impoundment power while keeping funding for defense, Social Security, and Medicare at the same level.
- President Trump moves to challenge the constitutionality of the limits on impoundment power imposed by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (CBA) of 1974, the source of Congress’ usurpation of executive branch powers.
- President Trump will also work with Congress to overturn the CBA’s limitations.
- In approving the CBA, Congress shackled the president from curbing wasteful spending.
- The CBA dramatically limited the president’s power to choose not to spend taxpayer dollars unnecessarily, forcing the executive branch to spend every penny of funds appropriated by Congress.
- Under current law, the president can request defunding, but those requests must be approved by both houses of Congress. The President can defer the use of funds only in limited circumstances.
- Eminent constitutional scholars agree that detention is an inherent power of the President.
- Congress has the “power of the purse,” so its appropriations must establish a ceiling on federal spending for a particular purpose, but it cannot set a floor.
- Article II of the Constitution vests the President with inherent power to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” which historically has been interpreted to mean that in doing so the President may appropriate funds. Efficiently.
- In defense of the president’s coercive authority against attacks from Congress, Joseph Snead, deputy attorney general under President Richard Nixon, said, “The use of executive impoundment to promote economic stability is not usurpation; rather it is in the great tradition of checks and balances upon which our Constitution is based.
- Restoring the impoundment power would naturally lead the executive and legislative branches to negotiate and work together to gain better control over federal spending.
- Although Congress has the authority to appropriate funds, inherent in the president’s power to implement legislation is a measure of discretion over how funds are spent, as spending decisions often depend on how laws are implemented in practice.
- The CBA places a crippling burden on the use of impound power and the leverage of the President’s negotiations with Congress over how taxpayer dollars are spent, leaving Congress with virtually unchecked budget authority.
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EXECUTIVE BRANCH’S USE OF ITS CONSTITUTIONAL IMPOUNDMENT POWER DATES BACK TO THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC:
- The executive branch’s impoundment power traces its origins to the Jefferson Administration and the early days of the American Republic.
- In 1803, the Port of New Orleans was granted to the U.S. After France denied access, Congress appropriated funds for 15 gunboats. President Jefferson refused to spend the money after deciding that the purchase of gunboats would jeopardize negotiations with the French.
- In his third annual message to Congress, explaining why he had not purchased gunboats as Congress had authorized, President Jefferson declared that “the favorable and peaceful affairs of the Mississippi render the immediate execution of that Act unnecessary.” President Jefferson used his authority as chief executive to seize funds appropriated by Congress based on his foreign policy and national security judgment that the use of the funds was unwise and unnecessary.
- For 170 years, from President Jefferson to President Nixon, the chief executive used the power of impoundment to further the national interest.
- In the 19th century, Presidents James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant used impoundment in the context of domestic policy to prevent the use of funds to build post offices and river and harbor improvements in Illinois.
- Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Democratic administrations such as Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson also used the power of impoundment.
- Today, the U.S. A total of 43 governors regularly use the power of impoundment.
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S RESTORATION OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH IMPOUNDMENT POWER WILL BE AN EFFECTIVE TOOL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST WASTEFUL SPENDING:
- Since the CBA, wasteful overspending has exploded out of control.
- In all the remaining years except four years from 1974, the Congress party was in deficit.
- In 1974, the national debt was $475 billion and 31 percent of GDP. Today, it is $30.8 trillion and 123 percent of GDP.
- Since the enactment of the CBA, the federal debt has never fallen below its 1974 level.
- Improper Payments, Federal Government Mispayments, U.S. In 2022 $247 billion was spent.
- The U.S. The government has lost nearly $2.4 trillion over the past two decades due to simple payment errors.
- For 50 years, Congress has used the CBA to force the passage of massive, wasteful spending packages.
- Since the CBA, Congress has passed a budget resolution on time only 6 times, missing the deadline by an average of 40 days.
- Congress almost never meets the CBA deadline for its 12 annual appropriations bills, often resorting to omnibus spending bills to speed up appropriations.
TRANSCRIPT
Crooked Joe Biden, our disgraced president, has squandered trillions of taxpayer dollars in less than three years—crushing working families because of uncontrollable inflation.
Controlling Biden’s wasteful and unnecessary spending is vital to stopping inflation and saving our economy from ruin. But special interests and Washington bureaucrats should bear the brunt of the spending cuts, not American families and especially American seniors.
For 200 years in our system of government, it has been undisputed that the President has the constitutional power to curb unnecessary spending.
Quite simply, this means that if Congress gives us more funds than it needs to run the government, the president can refuse to waste the extra funds and instead return the money to the general treasury, and even lower your taxes, even if we give it to you. The biggest tax cut in history and the biggest deregulation in history, I’m very proud. They’re still there, though they’re disappearing fast under Biden.
Thomas Jefferson famously used this power, as did several other presidents until it was mistakenly curtailed by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 — not a very good move. This disaster of legislation is clearly unconstitutional—a blatant violation of the separation of powers.
When I return to the White House, I will do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court and, if necessary, get Congress to repeal it. We’ll turn it around.
I would use the president’s long-recognized power of impoundment to crush the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings. This is in the form of tax deductions for you. This will quickly help to stop inflation and reduce the deficit.
To prepare for this situation, on day one, I would direct every federal agency to begin identifying large portions of their budgets that could be saved by using impoundment to reduce efficiencies and waste.
Of course, it doesn’t include national defense, and unlike Ron Disanctimonious, who doesn’t really know what’s going on, I won’t point the finger at Medicare or Social Security. He wants to destroy Social Security and basically eliminate Medicare. These are benefits for our seniors. We are not touching it. There are many things we can do. We will not let Ron Disanctus do anything to undermine Medicare or Social Security.
Conversely, some of the funds we save through impoundment from other parts of government can be used to strengthen Medicare and Social Security in the coming years.
Reasserting the president’s historic impoundment power would restore leverage for difficult negotiations with Congress to keep spending under control. Very simple. We will keep the cost under control.
We got it done and covid came and we had to do some things to help protect our country. We did a great job. But we started making a lot of money. We are energy independent. We are going to be energy dominant. We are going to take a huge amount of money from the liquid gold under our feet. More than other countries. And we’re going to cut taxes and pay down the debt.
This is the only way we can return a balanced budget: impoundment.
Just as important, bringing back the impoundment would provide a vital means of eradicating the deep state, draining the swamp, and starving the warmongers — these people want wars everywhere; Kill, kill, kill, they love to kill — and the globalists from the government.
We are going to remove the warmongers and globalists from our government.
With impoundment, we can choke money.
This approach is anti-inflationary, anti-swamp, and anti-globalist—and it’s pro-growth, pro-taxpayer, pro-American, and pro-freedom.
Only I can complete it. I will get it done and make America great again.
Thank you very much.