politics

Jamie • /devrel • /bicycling • /chicago • /djs • home @ /chicagolife

I think a lot of people view the US Government as a monolith -- a single entity that marches in one direction with a coordinated plan.

But it isn't. It's the result of a lot of individual actors that all have their own goals and motives.

I think USAID is an example of the people that want to do good things. Keeping people from suffering and dying globally definitely has some powerful self-interest arguments, and that's what is used to justify the funding, but in the end it's just an organization full of people trying to help others.

Congress could cut the funding to the agency if they wanted, but when you sit a few hundred people together to discuss the impact of the work, they seem to come to the conclusion we should keep it.

The real topic is whether it's legal for a member of the executive branch to perform impoundment of congressionally approved funds, or for the executive to unilaterally reorganize an agency created by an act of Congress. It is not.