Myrtle Beach, SC I want the test on the wall and I want to start by running it on our own side, because two of the exhibits our side has been waving fail it. The four-part screen this Forum has been building is sound. Is it authorized as written or as stretched? Does it have … Continue reading When critics call every DOGE target “the dismantling of the administrative state,” and supporters call every target “waste,” what test should separate a bad program from a disputed program?
Author: thinkingoutsidetheboxe
How should this package be weighed against earlier last-day clemency — ordinary end-of-term custom, or a new scale that changes what “pardon” means?
Gastonia, NC Before anybody in this Forum declares a new scale, somebody should read the Nixon pardon, because I did and it is not what I remembered. Ford's proclamation of September 8, 1974 grants "a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has … Continue reading How should this package be weighed against earlier last-day clemency — ordinary end-of-term custom, or a new scale that changes what “pardon” means?
Officials connected to pandemic rules, military and intelligence controversies, or the January 6 investigation received preemptive coverage. Does that look like mercy — or like closing the file before the next Department of Justice can open it?
Myrtle Beach, SC The fastest way to understand what this package is comes from reading who is not on it. Jack Smith is not on it. The special counsel who indicted the incoming president twice, who was named more often than anyone else in two years of retribution talk, who resigned on January 10 — … Continue reading Officials connected to pandemic rules, military and intelligence controversies, or the January 6 investigation received preemptive coverage. Does that look like mercy — or like closing the file before the next Department of Justice can open it?
Are large-scale buyouts, hiring freezes, and return-to-office rules a legitimate first cut at a bloated workforce, or a blunt instrument that will hollow out the few functions the public still wants done well?
Gastonia, NC The question asks about buyouts, freezes, and return-to-office. Those are the three things that were announced. They are not the three things that happened. The buyout happened and produced about seventy-five thousand acceptances — roughly three percent of the civilian workforce, against a stated hope of five to ten percent. The freeze happened. … Continue reading Are large-scale buyouts, hiring freezes, and return-to-office rules a legitimate first cut at a bloated workforce, or a blunt instrument that will hollow out the few functions the public still wants done well?
When family members are included in a last-day package, should voters treat that as an unavoidable human temptation of the office, or as the moment the pardon power becomes a household legal plan?
Gastonia, NC Temptation explains a father who cannot watch his son go to prison. It does not explain a promise made a dozen times in public and broken in a written statement on a Sunday night in December. That is the fact this question turns on and I have not seen it stated once in … Continue reading When family members are included in a last-day package, should voters treat that as an unavoidable human temptation of the office, or as the moment the pardon power becomes a household legal plan?
Do preemptive pardons — covering conduct not charged, and in some cases not fully known — fit the pardon power as the Founders described it, or do they turn clemency into a blanket against future investigation?
Myrtle Beach, SC The instinct behind this question is that mercy requires a known wrong, and that a pardon for something nobody has identified is a different animal wearing the same word. The instinct is right about the second half and wrong about the history, and the history matters because it is the first thing … Continue reading Do preemptive pardons — covering conduct not charged, and in some cases not fully known — fit the pardon power as the Founders described it, or do they turn clemency into a blanket against future investigation?
Should a review team get access to payment files, contractor data, and headcount records — or does that access itself create a new risk that outweighs the audit?
Myrtle Beach, SC The most informative thing that happened in this story happened three days ago and almost nobody has covered it. David Lebryk was the Fiscal Assistant Secretary at Treasury. Career civil servant, more than thirty years in the department, the senior official responsible for the systems that move federal money. He was placed … Continue reading Should a review team get access to payment files, contractor data, and headcount records — or does that access itself create a new risk that outweighs the audit?
Was the last-day clemency a legitimate use of a president’s most personal constitutional power, or a package timed so the incoming administration could not answer in the same office?
Gastonia, NC The clause is real. The timing is the tell. But before anybody builds an argument on the timing, somebody in this Forum should read the actual list, because the version circulating in conservative media is not the version on the White House website. There was no last-day volume. The volume came in December … Continue reading Was the last-day clemency a legitimate use of a president’s most personal constitutional power, or a package timed so the incoming administration could not answer in the same office?
Do Elon Musk’s federal contracts and regulatory exposure disqualify him from directing efficiency policy, or is that a manageable conflict if the scope is disclosed?
Gastonia, NC Everybody in this argument is debating a recusal wall. Before you can build one you have to know which law is doing the building, and right now the answer is none. The federal conflict-of-interest statute reaches officers and employees of the executive branch. That is the whole of its coverage. It criminalises participating … Continue reading Do Elon Musk’s federal contracts and regulatory exposure disqualify him from directing efficiency policy, or is that a manageable conflict if the scope is disclosed?
Is the increasing politicization of once-neutral institutions now a greater long-term risk than any single policy failure?
Wheeling, WV Correspondent — Policy failures can be corrected by later elections. A shared factual and procedural baseline can't be restored the same way. I'd say the part that makes this question hard rather than easy in December. The coalition that has spent a decade making this argument is about to hold the executive branch. … Continue reading Is the increasing politicization of once-neutral institutions now a greater long-term risk than any single policy failure?
