There was kind of an issue at work today because of the freezing of federal grants. We had people calling to ask if the “new law” would affect their grant.
I didn’t say anything but wanted to scream, “It’s not a law!” and, “A president cannot unilaterally write and pass a law!” and “Stop it!”
For one thing, it makes trump sound even more powerful and influential than he is, such that ignorant people just assume whatever he does is a “law,” and for another, wow, my fellow Americans are even dumber than I thought if they don’t know that Congress passes laws and the president signs or vetoes them.
Maybe it’s just colloquial talk and people are not being precise with their verbiage during a chaotic time, but I’m still pissed off. It’s a fucking memo.
I guessing the people who were calling to ask how this new government action were more concerned about how it would affect them then they were interested in what specific process the government used to create it. If Trump is able to do something by issuing an executive order that Congress could do by enacting a law then you might as well call the result a law.
Well, that’s another issue because how do we know how or even whether it’s going to affect them or not? Nobody really knew today if trump would walk it back or double down. Since it’s not a law, it’s a memo based on an executive order at best, it can be instituted at a moment’s notice (rather than set to take effect years later like laws often are) and can be rescinded quickly if The Sensitive One gets too much blowback.
I know our callers are just concerned, but it’d at least be nice if they had enough basic knowledge to know, without even thinking about it, that laws are not “passed” like that.
When polled, roughly 1/3 of Americans are consistently unable to name all three branches of government. Which was also the subject of a Schoolhouse Rock! video, I think.
It was, but ABC didn’t play that one much on air, if at all. Something about not wanting to upset TPTB by calling the government a 3-ring circus. I didn’t learn that one existed until decades later.
Long ago a coworker announced that Obama had eliminated term limits. I knew it was bullshit, but I asked how. “Signing statements, like he does everything else!” I still regret not betting him on it.
Our new Goebbels, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, will surely make this “mistake” zillions of times in the coming months. Here she was two days ago at her inaugural press conference:
So, what does this pause mean? It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for…
And so on and so on. These people are going to happily declare anything that goes against Trump’s interoffice memos “illegal.” And his voters will lap it up.
The administration’s position is that DEI programs are inherently illegal (allegedly violate equal protection and due process), not due to mistaken belief that an executive order is a law.
However, there are some instances where an executive order can lead to something becoming legal or illegal, such as directing the Attorney General to review the scheduling of a controlled substance (nb. many commonly abused substances are classified by statute or treaty and not subject to the AG’s discretion). But take something like an abortion pill - arguably, the President could issue an executive order that leads to it becoming a controlled substance.
