Let's Talk About the Byrd Rule
The House was able to squeak through the new budget 215-214 but...
Goodmorning all, welcome to another day of the upside down world in which we in the United States are trying to become a dictatorship.
Sorry to open with such a sarcastic, doom filled thought especially since my previous post was more hopeful. I guess it’s just a feature of being caught in the middle of such a volatile situation that we find ourselves in. It makes me feel off balance and I know that is most likely according to plan. Trying to gain a foot hold seems like one of the features of the current administration. It is exhausting and I feel worn out by this timeline we are experiencing but like I said in my previous post, “I am here for it”.
So the budget reconciliation package made it through the House this week. It squeaked by in a 215 to 214 vote. I think we all kind of knew it was going to happen. Even though it is filled with the most hurtful, blatantly evil provisions I have ever seen. Men and women who claim to be Christians completely abandoned anything that resembles Christ like behavior. Those that are in favor of this bill were hooting and hollering like their team just won the Superbowl after it passed.
I have to say that the behavior shown by these people that think stripping billions of dollars away from the most vulnerable people in this country is just an epic failure. This is not anything that looks like what a government “for the people” would look like.
Taking away the ability for people to sustain their lives with help from the government which the people have relied on for decades all at once is nothing to cheer about.
Removing medical care from people who can’t afford it is nothing to celebrate.
Taking food out of the mouths of children is nothing to cheer about.
Taking away the meager $65 per day that SSI recipients receive is nothing to cheer about.
And they say that it is about getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse. Give me a break! This is so obviously corrupt and downright evil it looks like something a comic book villain would do…here is looking at you Stephen Miller (Lex Luthor). Let’s also not forget that Elon Musk Garbage Bin on wheels designer and all around loser who wants to be considered some video game savant. He receives 8 million dollars a day to steal our information under his DOGE farce.
Now the Reconciliation Bill moves on to the Senate. As we have seen in these last few months, there has been pushback by some of the Republican Senators on some of these atrocious new policies. They have killed some of the bills that were proposed recently, so that implies some hint of a moral compass.
Within this bill there are some provisions that would give Trump even more power to rule by decree. One of the provisions in this bill says that (stick with me here)
“buried in Section 70302 of the legislation— would severely restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt if they violate judicial orders.
A court’s ability to hold bad actors in contempt is a vital enforcement power that judges can use to compel compliance with their rulings.
When somebody chooses to violate a court order, the judge who issued the ruling has a few different options to force them to comply, including holding them in contempt and issuing sanctions, fines, or even jail time as a punishment.
But the reconciliation bill would require anyone suing the government to pay a bond before the court can use its contempt power to enforce injunctions or restraining orders meant to halt illegal actions.
By restricting this authority, the House bill threatens the power of the judicial branch. On its own, that represents an attack on the rule of law and the separation of powers that underlies our democracy. But in the context of our current political moment, a more specific goal is unfortunately clear. “
The article goes on to say:
“Courts have already ruled at least 170 times against the Trump administration, including a preliminary injunction sought by CLC that halted Trump’s unconstitutional attempt to change the rules for federal elections. In response to many of these rulings, the president has resisted compliance and waged intimidation campaigns targeting the judges responsible.
In light of all this, the House bill seems squarely and unacceptably focused on shielding the Trump administration from accountability when it breaks the law.
To make matters worse, the new rule would be so broad that it could allow any government actor to escape being held accountable for violating court rulings. It would also apply to court orders and injunctions issued before the law takes effect. This would render thousands of prior orders across the country immediately unenforceable through contempt proceedings, no matter how the public has already relied on them.
This provision cannot be allowed to stand.
No government official, including the president, should be able to simply ignore court rulings that find their actions illegal or unconstitutional. The rule of law and our democracy itself depend on it.”
So boiling this down, this is saying that in order for the judicial branch of the government to hold bad actors in contempt, it would mean that funds would have to be used in order make that process occur. This means that money would have to be allocated to the courts in order for them to do their job. (If this is how I’m to understand it) If I am way off base someone please correct me so I can edit the article.
Therefore, if no money is allowed to be appropriated to the courts then no enforcement could occur to stop the President from taking illegal actions.
In other words the President could do whatever he wants regardless of what the law says. Because let’s not forget King Donnie has immunity due to the Supreme Courts ruling last year.
In a nutshell this little clause in the bill would essentially eliminate the courts from judging whether the law is being followed or not by the Executive and Legislative branches of the government.
There is some hope however. Something called The Byrd Rule states that things like taxes, spending and the debt limit are only allowed in the budget reconciliation. In order to include a provision that could basically crown Donnie king, it would need a vote by 60 members of the senate to allow this obvious power grab into the bill.
To allow this provision, if it were to get by the Byrd Rule, it would have to been done corruptly. It seems to me that de-funding the courts ability to do its job would essentially deny the whole idea behind the separation of powers in the three branches of government.
Anyone in their right mind should realize that eliminating the court’s ability to enforce the law would absolutely destroy any semblance of what is left of the constitution. There would be no ability for checks and balances to function in any meaningful way.
The Byrd Rule must be used in order to eliminate this portion of a bill that is already taking away so much from so many people.
We need to make it loud and clear that it is unacceptable to eliminate one of the three foundational pillars of our government. We have to be loud about this and the word must be spread widely. So please share and talk about this because if a law like this were to be allowed to take hold, it would be the death knell for what is left of this already very damaged democracy.
I love you all,
Erik
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Source: https://campaignlegal.org/update/these-hidden-provisions-budget-bill-undermine-our-democracy
As usual, your article is spot on. This morning I read an article about Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, showing where he prays in the House chambers. These polices that Mike, who I refer to as "Mr. Magoo," and the rest of congress are enacting are anything like what Jesus would do. So Mike's prayers must be to a satanic force because only satin would subvert the constitution in a manner as you have written here.
Specifically, it means that the person or organization bringing the action would have to post a bond indicating that the question is a serious constitutional issue, and this is not a frivolous lawsuit. There is already a process in place for this, but judges can and often do waive the requirement when there are clear questions of constitutionality, and they likely waived it for most, if not all, of the issues they already ruled on. So basically, Republican members of Congress are trying to push through a free pass for Trump to do all of his unconstitutional activities without being stopped by the courts. They are also trying to get a measure of immunity for themselves, bc they absolutely know that what Trump is doing, and what they are supporting, esp with respect to lack of due process for our immigrants, is illegal and unconstitutional.