Democrats Should Cut Administration Paychecks

Another day, another act of contempt of Congress. From CNN.

There are none of those, by the way, but it's a nice phrase. And brigades of lawyers are going to get rich arguing about it over the next several months, unless the House folds in some way, which seems sadly possible.

Also in the news are calls for Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta to resign due to his role in letting Jeffrey Epstein skate when Acosta was a U.S. Attorney down in Florida. Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on board with that one. From the Washington Post:

Of course, it was known to him. That was the whole point of kicking Acosta upstairs in the first place. And there seems to be some stirring within Camp Runamuck to toss Acosta to the mob. This Bloomberg story reeks of the we-never-liked-What's-His-Name-anyway whispering that usually precedes this administration*'s firing somebody who'd grown inconvenient.

That's not hardly enough, especially since it's still possible that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago may need to keep Acosta happy, for a while yet, anyway.

I'm increasingly becoming enamored of a strategy floated a while back by House Judiciary Chairman Elijah Cummings. At the beginning of May, frustrated by the stonewalling of administration* officials from many departments across the Executive, Cummings suggested a new way of hitting them where it hurts the most. From Politico:

Time to tap those hidden assets, Wilbur. You're not getting our money any more.

It seems to me that Cummings would be on solid legal and constitutional grounds to turn off the tap on these folks. And, even if that's debatable, it's worth debating. Send those brigades of lawyers into court to fight over whether or not Alex Acosta needs to work for free for a while. And cut off Stephen Miller's paycheck, too. Just for laughs.

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Source: Esquire.com

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Democratic Party (United States) • Act of Congress • Contempt of Congress • CNN • Alexander Acosta • Jeffrey Epstein • United States Attorney • Florida • Nancy Pelosi • The Washington Post • Jim Acosta • Camp Runamuck • Jim Acosta • Bloomberg L.P. • Caudillo • Mar-a-Lago • Alexander Acosta • Judiciary • Elijah Cummings • Politico • Stephen Miller (political advisor) • Just for Laughs • Esquire (magazine) • Facebook •