Truth...It is found with a barrel held to the head of the American citizen, their children, and their great grandchildren.This is the federal government, after all. It will "find" whatever money it wants to
Democrats take nothing off the table when it comes to winning.Several conservative commentators said reason nothing well get done is because the areas impacted are Republican voting areas, and this will make sure these swing states go blue.
I would hope this isn't about that.
No, this is clearly incompetence and d**k swinging. They dont have the expertise to execute the recovery, and will threaten to arrest people that DO have that ability because it makes them look bad. And they are stealing aid materials from those who are trying.Several conservative commentators said reason nothing well get done is because the areas impacted are Republican voting areas, and this will make sure these swing states go blue.
I would hope this isn't about that.
Apparently Elon got through
My very personal experiences with Government Funds and using them:
Spending money (i.e. committing or obligating the Federal Government) that hasn't been appropriated by Congress for that purpose used to be called an "R.S. 3679 Violation". It's long been a criminal act (3679 is an old section of law now superseded by a new section). As an Officer of the United States, I vividly remember being schooled vigorously on it several times. It was (and still is) a "Go Directly to Jail" offense. Claiming ignorance of how much money was appropriated or allocated for which purposes was no excuse, nor was claiming OOPSIE, "I made a mistake" (which incurred an additional crime: Dereliction of Duty). It's Zero Defects with Zero Tolerance. The current law is now embodied in Title 31, U.S. Code Sections 1341-1350. The primary Sections are 1341, 1342, and 1350, with Section 1350 containing the criminal penalties for violating it. (The other sections deal with nuances and details about travel expenditures, use of travel services, contractor use of contract funds, and similar.) There are also criminal penalties incurred for overspending what has been "allocated" for a specific purpose or diverting it to something for which it wasn't allocated. An "allocation" is a Congressional appropriation divvied up by a Federal Agency to its subordinate sub-agencies. The allocations must comply with the Congressionally appropriated purpose; allocations cannot be used as "Creative Accounting" to obfuscate and divert funds.
The underlying principle is sacrosanct:
An Officer or Employee of the United States committing or obligating money that wasn't appropriated for the purpose for which it has been committed or obligated usurps the sole power of Congress contained in Article I of the Constitution to appropriate money for specific purposes/uses. Committing or obligating money that wasn't allocated "from above" runs the extreme risk of the agency committing or obligating money that wasn't appropriated for it if everyone else spends their allocations.
We ran into this Big Time during the latter half of the 1970's with fuel prices skyrocketing and the allocations to the units I was assigned to running dry as they had been budgeted based on fuel prices that were half or less of what they had become. Welcome to Jimmy Carter inflation and fuel shortage crises. We ran into it again during the 1980's with dramatically increased levels of training requiring much higher levels of equipment maintenance that hadn't been budgeted and allocated for. We were in danger of non-compliance with required training, for which those who didn't comply with it could also be punished (Dereliction of Duty). It was a Catch-22. You were damned and it didn't matter what you did.
Knew of a few cases several decades ago that attempted "Creative Accounting" to knowingly divert one appropriation/allocation for another purpose. The perps involved went to prison. There was no mercy.
Footnote:
I've already contacted my Senators and Congressman telling all three that not one additional cent of money is to be appropriated by Congress to save DHS's ass. Let DHS figure out what to do with what it was appropriated and if it means kicking illegals to the curb and deporting them, so much the better.
Sadly this ONLY applies to the worker bees (yes in theory it applies to everyone) but as Ms. H. Clinton said....My very personal experiences with Government Funds and using them:
Spending money (i.e. committing or obligating the Federal Government) that hasn't been appropriated by Congress for that purpose used to be called an "R.S. 3679 Violation". It's long been a criminal act (3679 is an old section of law now superseded by a new section). As an Officer of the United States, I vividly remember being schooled vigorously on it several times. It was (and still is) a "Go Directly to Jail" offense. Claiming ignorance of how much money was appropriated or allocated for which purposes was no excuse, nor was claiming OOPSIE, "I made a mistake" (which incurred an additional crime: Dereliction of Duty). It's Zero Defects with Zero Tolerance. The current law is now embodied in Title 31, U.S. Code Sections 1341-1350. The primary Sections are 1341, 1342, and 1350, with Section 1350 containing the criminal penalties for violating it. (The other sections deal with nuances and details about travel expenditures, use of travel services, contractor use of contract funds, and similar.) There are also criminal penalties incurred for overspending what has been "allocated" for a specific purpose or diverting it to something for which it wasn't allocated. An "allocation" is a Congressional appropriation divvied up by a Federal Agency to its subordinate sub-agencies. The allocations must comply with the Congressionally appropriated purpose; allocations cannot be used as "Creative Accounting" to obfuscate and divert funds.
The underlying principle is sacrosanct:
An Officer or Employee of the United States committing or obligating money that wasn't appropriated for the purpose for which it has been committed or obligated usurps the sole power of Congress contained in Article I of the Constitution to appropriate money for specific purposes/uses. Committing or obligating money that wasn't allocated "from above" runs the extreme risk of the agency committing or obligating money that wasn't appropriated for it if everyone else spends their allocations.
We ran into this Big Time during the latter half of the 1970's with fuel prices skyrocketing and the allocations to the units I was assigned to running dry as they had been budgeted based on fuel prices that were half or less of what they had become. Welcome to Jimmy Carter inflation and fuel shortage crises. We ran into it again during the 1980's with dramatically increased levels of training requiring much higher levels of equipment maintenance that hadn't been budgeted and allocated for. We were in danger of non-compliance with required training, for which those who didn't comply with it could also be punished (Dereliction of Duty). It was a Catch-22. You were damned and it didn't matter what you did.
Knew of a few cases several decades ago that attempted "Creative Accounting" to knowingly divert one appropriation/allocation for another purpose. The perps involved went to prison. There was no mercy.
Footnote:
I've already contacted my Senators and Congressman telling all three that not one additional cent of money is to be appropriated by Congress to save DHS's ass. Let DHS figure out what to do with what it was appropriated and if it means kicking illegals to the curb and deporting them, so much the better.