• Lung@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The article math linked lays it out but it’s always the same formula. Someone declares an emergency (like Blinken just did for Israel) and then just goes ahead and appropriates the funds

    But broadly, presidents may issue executive orders for just about anything. The way this works is congress reviews them after the fact, and new presidents tend to review them when they come into office

    Read the wiki page on Executive Orders, history, and constitutionality if you think I’m lying. And yes, Trump even declared an emergency and took privilege to build the wall in recent memory. But there’s been literally wars, desegregation, ordering all mined gold to be given to the treasury… by executive order

    The big picture is that American presidents have extremely broad powers and the only real recourse is impeachment. This is generally a good thing, it makes the government tremendously more efficient

    The other big picture is that the Pentagon refuses to explain where they use 1-2 trillion dollars per year. This is dark money that runs the world, and that’s not a secret. They don’t pass audits, and they barely try. So most of the country’s money is used for military spending, and frankly it’s hard to imagine they can’t find some cash for key nato borders