You may have thought that there was one, but there isn’t. Perhaps at one time, but not anymore.
A single federal district judge in Rhode Island, one of 677 across America, is now running the U.S. government. Despite the clear language of our former Constitution, the clear language of our former federal statutes, a lack of any appropriations, and the widespread understanding that the federal government has been “shut down,” the judge has ordered that his favorite program, food stamps (SNAP) be “fully funded,” immediately, so it was.
From the BBC,
US will fully pay Snap food benefits, agriculture department says
And so they have. The money has gone out, 100 percent. Where is came from, I’m not sure. The BBC doesn’t say.
The administration had appealed, and then appealed again, the district court judge’s decision. I honestly don’t know why. The issue is moot, the money is gone.
NBC reports,
SNAP benefits start to trickle in after weeks of chaos and desperation
This judge has cracked the code. Just order compliance immediately and you can’t be overruled. This Administration, unlike the the previous one, will always comply with every legal ruling, however absurd. Usually, when a higher court does finally get around to overuling the overreach, the facts can’t be reversed.
Meanwhile, the useless appeals in the SNAP decision are being described as genocidal cruelty.
So why not just go with it? Pay the air traffic controllers, reopen the skies and wait for one of the other 676 district court judges to rule that an affirmative obligation exists to allow the planes to drop from the skies.
Trump should reopen any part of the government he wants to, and then let district court judges reopen the rest, one program at a time.
JOHN adds: I agree. Federal judges are ruling that the president has discretion to fund certain activities even without any Congressional appropriation, the opposite of the Democratic Party’s position, as of last month. So let’s take advantage of it.
So far, the government shutdown has affected me not at all. I keep waiting for the day when they stop deducting money from my paycheck, but that isn’t happening.
But my wife and I are scheduled to fly to Amsterdam on the 16th. When we booked this vacation, we thought it was safe from Chuck Schumer. Now, though, it looks as though air travel might be totally shut down, or at a minimum, severely disrupted. So my message to President Trump is: pay the air traffic controllers. Forget everything else.
And when this mini-crisis is behind us, let’s have legislation that puts air traffic control in the hands of the airlines, not the federal government, like almost every other country.
