Summary
A Congressional Research Service report states Trump lacks the authority to abolish USAID, as congressional approval is required.
It explains that a 1998 law briefly allowed reorganization but expired in 1999. While past administrations have modified USAID’s functions, they consulted Congress.
Lawmakers are concerned about Trump’s executive order pausing foreign aid and potential USAID-State Department consolidation.
They don’t have the numbers for it to work
Better not do anything at all then
He was impeached twice before and nothing happened because they didn’t have the numbers in the senate. To remove a sitting president you have to have majorities in both the house and senate, and his people hold those majorities.
So, no, it’s not better than doing nothing at all, and might be detrimental when they fail.
Nothing happened is not an accurate representation of those events. At minimum we have a historical record that all Republicans refused to convict him which means they supported his actions. Dem voters got to watch their representatives stand up for them and make the case that Trump’s behavior was not acceptable. Those are both important things despite the fact that he was not removed from office. That’s a big part of the information we needed to have to know how bad a 2nd Trump term is going to be.
What they’re doing now is giving up without a fight. In fact, they’re actively speeding things up by confirming his nominees.
So we managed to give him the equivalent of, what, a frowny face? A finger wag?
And he was voted back into office. Which means that as far as the voters were concerned, his behavior was acceptable. The ones who told him the first time that his behavior wasn’t acceptable? They’re gone now. They’ve resigned. They’ve been primaried. They’ve been replaced with MAGA sycophants who will be glad to respond to his behavior with thunderous applause while the ones who told him “no” the first time are now wondering if they’re going to be a target on the Trump Revenge Tour.
And now we have states making it illegal to vote against their policies. We have the very real possibility of US citizens being shipped off to El Salvador. We have a federal government being purged of anyone who even might stand up to Trump happening in real-time. We have a federal government where Democrats not hold power in a single branch of government, and a Supreme Court that all but anointed Trump a king and have openly stated they intend to tip the scales in his favor because he deserves special treatment.
Like it or not, this is a fight that the Democrats cannot win right now. Fighting a losing battle under these circumstances isn’t bravery. It’s not sending a message. It’s suicide. It is a battle that needs to be started from the ground up, taking advantage of small victories wherever we can get them. But as the saying goes, if you go after the king, you had best not miss. And going after the king when you’re holding a half-empty squirt gun when that king is holding a nuke isn’t going to work out very well for you.
It sucks, but sometimes doing nothing is the least bad option available to you while you wait for an actual opportunity to arise.
What are you doing?