Trump ignores another law
The next item in the ongoing constitutional collapse here in the US is the Trump administration’s refusal to implement legislation that Congress passed by a massive majority.
The Trump administration has announced it will not impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite Congress passing a law allowing the President to do so.
With Monday the deadline for the White House to impose any new measures, the US State Department insisted the threat of sanctions was already acting as a deterrent.
The new sanctions would have required the US Treasury Department to penalise foreign governments and companies doing business with Russia’s defence and intelligence sectors.
The Trump admin says oh foreign governments and companies are already put off by the very mention of sanctions so we’re not going to actually impose any.
Congress voted almost unanimously to pass a bill last year that punished Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 US election and aggression in east Ukraine.
Mr Trump, who wanted warmer ties with Moscow and had opposed the legislation as it worked its way through Congress, signed it reluctantly in August, branding the bill “seriously flawed”.
And he’s simply refusing to carry it out.
The bill allowed sanctions to be delayed or waived, but any inaction would have to come with evidence to Congress that Russia was making progress in cutting back on cyber meddling.
And evidence means evidence, not just a Trump stooge uttering words.
The measure, known as the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)”, also required the administration to list “oligarchs” close to Russia president Vladimir Putin’s government and issue a report detailing possible consequences of penalising Russia’s sovereign debt.
Monday’s deadline to release those reports was seen as a test of Trump’s willingness to clamp down on Russia. Critics condemned him for failing to announce any sanctions.
And for releasing a laughably bogus list of oligarchs.
Why would Trump want to punish Russia for meddling? It gave him his extremely lucrative position of corrupt leadership that also allows him to bully many more people than he got to bully as a mere reality show TV star that we could all mostly ignore.
Apparently, any law is ignorable unless it contains a clause along the lines of ‘congress will force the president to do his fucking job by holding a loaded gun to his head.’
Well but the question isn’t supposed to be why would he want to. Congressional legislation isn’t supposed to be optional for the president in that relaxed way. As I understand it the legislation wasn’t a suggestion, it was a mandate.
Sure, Ophelia, I understand that, but the problem is basically what Holms says. It relies on a President who is prepared to enforce the law, and there really isn’t much of a mechanism for making him do it (though impeachment would be a possibility, I suppose, but this Congress has let so much go by that impeachment for not doing his job seems as unlikely as impeachment for gross violations of ethics).
Heh, I know you know that – I was just shouting in the general direction of Trump.
Oh, okay. I shout in the direction of Trump all the time. It doesn’t seem to bother him much, but I think my dog is getting worried.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1800670486618071/?type=3&theater