Trump's #1 Tactic: Avoid Accountability by Hampering Constitutional Oversight

Trump's Top Partners in Avoiding Oversight

(Lately more than ever)

Inspectors General Trump Recently Removed from Office

(Fired for doing their jobs)

Very critically important issue on top of so many other very critically important issues — this story from Bloomberg with this headline:

Trillion$ in $timulus Go Unchecked with Watchdogs Kept Toothless

This short video (4-minutes) from CNN sets the historical scene:

Review of Trump ducking accountability

Background: Congress’s economic rescue plan, enacted in four bills during March and April, is circulating money into the economy that came to a near-standstill during the coronavirus lockdowns. The measures provide forgivable loans to small businesses, stimulus checks for individuals, expanded unemployment benefits, payments for health care providers, and money for the Federal Reserve to leverage and lend to businesses.

Some business leaders are wary that lawmakers will be politically motivated in their approach to oversight. For example:

Neil Bradley, Chief Policy Officer at the Chamber of Commerce, said earlier this month at a hearing of a separate accountability committee made up of federal agency watchdogs said:  “There’s already growing concern that congressional oversight will in part focus on companies or sectors that various elected officials will view as unworthy of assistance, irrespective of whether they qualify under the terms of the programs in question.”

The Congressional Oversight Commission is designed to be bipartisan, with two members already chosen by Republicans, two picked by Democrats, and a chairman still to be named jointly by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R).

Pelosi and McConnell have been unable to agree on the chairman for more than a month. 

Pelosi said a choice would be announced “very soon,” though she also said the same thing in previous weeks.

More details from the Bloomberg link:

The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress, but with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places.

Three new oversight bodies are barely functional: (1) A special inspector general was only recently sworn in, (2) a congressional panel still lacks a chairman and staff, and (3) Trump quickly removed the official who was going to lead a separate accountability committee.

At the same time, about $2 trillion in stimulus money has already been distributed, according to an estimate from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group focused on fiscal policy.

The sheer size of the pandemic response means there’s a wide swath of issues to investigate. But mistrust in Washington is so deep that the oversight groups’ investigations are already mired in politics.

Leaders of both parties have failed to agree on a chairman to lead the congressional oversight panel. And Democrats are already voicing concerns on whether Trump’s hand-picked special inspector general for the stimulus can be independent from his former boss.

My 2 cents: As we know and see the faces above and others in the past three years, Trump hates oversight and accountability, except on his terms and with his bookies in charge apparently. 

Congress has to step up to the role – but GOPers are reluctant to challenge Trump on that subject. This is truly a dangerous precedence. 

Time will tell. 

Thanks for stopping by.