Trump Uses Pocket Rescission to Block $5 Billion In Foreign Aid
For years, we’ve watched Congress write checks to fund democracy programs in countries that don’t want them, peacekeeping operations that don’t keep peace, and development projects that develop nothing but bureaucratic bloat. Ever wonder why we’re funding democracy programs in countries where they burn our flag for entertainment? The State Department and USAID became employment agencies for the globally minded elite, spending billions on initiatives that most Americans couldn’t explain if their lives depended on it. Meanwhile, our own borders leaked, our infrastructure crumbled, and our veterans waited months for medical appointments.
This week marked a shift that hasn’t been seen since Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. While the political establishment slept, assuming their spending spree would continue uninterrupted, President Trump pulled a move from the presidential playbook that’s been gathering dust since 1977.
Using what’s known as a pocket rescission – a budgetary tool so rarely employed that most of Washington had forgotten it existed – Trump effectively blocked $5 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved. The funds, including $3 billion for USAID, $900 million in State Department programs, $800 million for international peacekeeping operations, and another $300 million for promoting democracy abroad, will now remain in the U.S. Treasury rather than disappearing into the international aid industrial complex.
Predictably, the establishment erupted. Senator Susan Collins of Maine clutched her pearls about constitutional process, while Chuck Schumer warned of government shutdowns and constitutional crises. They speak of Congress’s “power of the purse” – but when did that purse become a bottomless pit for every global cause except America’s? Where was their constitutional concern when billions flowed overseas while East Palestine, Ohio, struggled to recover from a train derailment?
This week marked a shift that hasn’t been seen since Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. While the political establishment slept, assuming their spending spree would continue uninterrupted, President Trump pulled a move from the presidential playbook that’s been gathering dust since 1977.
Using what’s known as a pocket rescission – a budgetary tool so rarely employed that most of Washington had forgotten it existed – Trump effectively blocked $5 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved. The funds, including $3 billion for USAID, $900 million in State Department programs, $800 million for international peacekeeping operations, and another $300 million for promoting democracy abroad, will now remain in the U.S. Treasury rather than disappearing into the international aid industrial complex.
Predictably, the establishment erupted. Senator Susan Collins of Maine clutched her pearls about constitutional process, while Chuck Schumer warned of government shutdowns and constitutional crises. They speak of Congress’s “power of the purse” – but when did that purse become a bottomless pit for every global cause except America’s? Where was their constitutional concern when billions flowed overseas while East Palestine, Ohio, struggled to recover from a train derailment?
70-79, M
