Originally published at: Senate Republicans Shrug As Unelected Musk Seizes Their Power
To Democrats, Elon Musk’s reported breaching of the U.S. Agency for International Development, sensitive data held by the Treasury Department, and, now, the Education Department, is a “blatantly illegal” intrusion and an affront to the constitutional separation of powers, which gives Congress, and not an unelected billionaire, the power to stand up agencies and dictate…
Why did Schatz say just state department nominees – they should inflict maximal delays on ALL nominees. The dems are so feckless it is just incomprehensible
It’s already illegal and unconstitutional for the Trump regime and government contractor/private citizen Elon Musk to shut down congressionally approved agencies. Rather than wasting time on a bill that will never pass, Senate Democrats need to grind all work to a stop. Approve nothing. Refuse to agree to any nomination — and not just the state department— and gum up the works.
Stop cooperating with fascists.
Said this elsewhere, but Republicans are now “tyrant curious”:
So just in case it wasn’t painfully obvious for the past several decades (Narrator: “It was”) all that GOP gun-humping had absolutely sh-t all to do with “preventing tyranny”.
Shorter congressional MAGAts: “we surrender our constitutional power to Trump and Musk. They spend money we appropriate as they see fit. They can shut down agencies we approve. We want a presidential dictatorship.”
We are in a constitutional crisis and Democrats need to yell, stop everything they can, and do all that is possible to prevent the coup from succeeding before there is a literal civil war.
Senator Tillis is proving with his actions that he does not actually believe that he will face reelection in 2 years. He’s giving up the game with his strategy.
This is, um, not good.
Tillis: “I don’t mind the disruptive thought process that we’re going through now.
The thought process occurred during the last four years. They’re not thinking anymore.
Aren’t there any rules concerning having a quorum present in Congress ? The entire Democratic Caucus should leave town and refuse to cooperate any further with the lawless regime
“Just moving fast and breaking things, officer”.
Things billionaires don’t need to worry about and don’t belong to them, such as the law, the constitution and the future of the country. No biggie.
President Musk is still pushing federal employees to submit their resignations. I wonder if we’ll ever get a count of how many fell for the scam? Another e-mail from “OPM” went out today with the subject line “Fork in the Road Reminder,” saying:
"Please note the Deferred Resignation program (“Fork in the Road”) expires at 11:59pmET on Thursday February 6.
There will NOT be an extension of this program."
“I’m happy anybody’s taking a look at all the waste, fraud and abuse throughout government,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told TPM. “I’m very supportive of their efforts.”
Is “their” Musk’s preferred pronoun?
How great it must be to have a high paying job with many perks any just show up to vote the way President Musk tells you to.
Do you know why he said that or what the rules are? I don’t. Maybe it depends on committee membership. Maybe he limited his statement to state department nominees because those are the only nominees he can exercise that power with. Maybe it’s not fecklessness at all. Do you even know? I know I don’t. Maybe we should find out.
Later: I discovered Schatz is on the Foreign Relations Committee. Think maybe that’s relevant?
“I don’t mind the disruptive thought process that we’re going through now."
Sen. Tillis files his entry for the Euphemism of the Year award.
For some reason I’m thinking of the disruptive thought processes so many French citizens went through back in the 1790s thanks in part to Dr. Guillotin’s invention.
“Thom Tillis says Trump and Musk can have a little bit of unconstitutional behavior…”
“… but only on Day One, right?”
To your point, the Democratic senate and reps should execute every means of obstruction available. We do know the republicans identified all of these forms of obstruction over the last 4 years with much success. Schatz’ is spot on.
According to Alt National Parks, a resistance coalition of government employees currently approaching 100,000 strong, a disheartening 20,000 have accepted so far.
Congress had wimped out. Musk and minions should be in jail for stealing classified stuff. Even when security cleared one cannot walk off with classified docs.
No one seems to care
This is what $250M can buy on the open meat market.