The Executive Branch Is About to Be 'Reorganized' into Oblivion

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53848/trump-executive-order-reorganization/

The Executive Branch Is About to Be 'Reorganized' into Oblivion

Steve Bannon's time has come.
By Charles P. Pierce
Mar 14, 2017


(Optional Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

This was ominous from the first tweet. While everyone was breathlessly awaiting the CBO numbers on the Republican tax-cut plan, the one that was so well-camouflaged beneath gauze and surgical gloves, the president* announced that he would be signing an executive order through which he planned to "reorganize" the executive branch of government. On Monday, not long after the CBO numbers lit the entire healthcare debate aflame again, he made good on his threat. He signed the "Comprehensive Plan For Reorganizing The Executive Branch." I didn't like the sound of this at the time, and it sounds even worse now that it's here.

Quite simply, this empowers the president* and his advisers simply to eviscerate the federal agencies that might inconvenience them by actually acting like they're part of the government or something. Not long ago, the president*'s plans for drastic budgetary cuts in discretionary spending leaked. People howled. (The Coast Guard? Really?). This latest move impresses me most as a backup plan in case those cuts don't fly in Congress. And considering that the White House really is being run by Steve Bannon, last heir to House Harkonnen and destroyer of the administrative state, it seems likely that this is the fundamental purpose behind the order.

In theory, the job has been handed to Mick Mulvaney, the new head of the Office and Management and Budget, most recently seen throwing shade at the CBO, and one of the original Tea Party fanatics elected in response to the Obama Presidency. (Mulvaney was one of the chief architects of the 2013 government shutdown.) But the fine print of the measure shows that it is likely more a creature of Bannon's professed love for vandalism for its own sake. From the order itself:

The proposed plan shall include, as appropriate, recommendations to eliminate unnecessary agencies, components of agencies, and agency programs, and to merge functions. The proposed plan shall include recommendations for any legislation or administrative measures necessary to achieve the proposed reorganization.

This "reorganization" of the executive departments sounds very much like how a polar bear "reorganizes" your innards prior to making a meal of you. That the job has been handed officially to a guy who doesn't believe in what many of those agencies do—and, unofficially, to a guy who wants to blow them up simply to see how pretty the shrapnel is—gives something of a lie to the public face of the initiative as a good-government effort to root out the unholy trinity of waste, fraud, and abuse.

This isn't a cost-cutting measure. It's a function-cutting measure. It's not about what the agencies are. It's about what they do. This is like handing a group of drunk teenagers a flamethrower and pointing them toward a lumber yard.

[SoCalNative]

1. Let's start at the top

and dump Drumpf

[dalton99a]

2. Bannon will not rest until we have a nonfunctioning government.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Executive orders are subject to judicial review just like laws enacted by Congress.

I sure hope somebody challenges this madness - the federal court system is the only agency left that can prevent some of this destruction. And they can't get rid of the courts because they were specifically created by the Constitution. But this shit is really scary.

[underpants]

4. Good points and yes it is.

[Amimnoch]

9. Nice thoughts, but do you think a little thing like the Constitution will stop him?

Every sitting president, and political figure usually has 2-4 of the 11 points of fascism that may be attributed to them. That's not abnormal. Trump has 11 of 11 now. Down the board, he is running a fascist program.

Trump's firms and ties to his business is in violation of the Constitution. Not being stopped.

The foreign payments going into Trump's firms that he still has ties to violates the Constitution.. not being stopped.

He is attacking the freedom of the press, with a scary level of success.

He is attacking the freedom of religion through his Muslim ban, and endorsements of Christianity - some resistance in the courts with his travel ban at least, but for the most part is running away with it. - violation of the equal protection clause.

Attacking the right of due process with his attacks on undocumented immigrants.

Infringement of the rights of habeas corpus with the detainments made at airports.

All of this, and he's been in office less than 2 months.

[Igel]

13. This one's fine.

It's asking agency heads to prepare recommendations based on certain criteria.

That's all the text does. The thing is short. It's clearly worded.

The rest is fear and suspicion.

Now, some things can be done by administrative fiat. Those probably aren't much subject to judicial review, unless there's some sort of malfeasance or law-breaking involved. Most can't be done with Congress, and if he tries then the courts will get involved.

First, though, we need to dial the fear down to 11 (out of 10).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Maybe, but the potential for abuse by this administration is considerable.

I'm not panicking but this bears watching.

[procon]

5. It's Bannon's plan, the "deconstruction of the administrative state".

He's bragged about destroying the government, "I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

The GOP has lusted after the long sought wet dream of "drowning government in the bathtub".

This is what they want, but what remains will be anarchy, survival of the fittest, walled enclaves where the wealthy live in obscene luxury while the masses are reduced to subsistence living.

[dewsgirl]

11. Much like Russia.

[yodermon]

6. welcome to the "Drown it in the Bathtub" phase

grover norquist wet dream

[spanone]

7. can we send trump home then?

[CousinIT]

8. THIS....illustrates how their E V I L plan comes together

BREAKING: So this Executive Order concerning the organization of the executive branch got signed today, and let me tell you what it does in non-legalese:

it invites the head of every agency of the government to submit a plan within the next six months to eliminate part OR ALL of any executive branch agency.

Read that again.

And then consider what the executive branch includes:

Dept. of Energy, currently headed by Rick Perry, who said he wanted to shut it down during his campaign for president

EPA, which Scott Pruitt has been battling for years

State, currently headed by friend-of-Putin, Rex Tillerson

Dep. of Education, currently headed by Betsy DeVos, who does not believe in public education

Treasury, currently headed by Goldman Sachs exec. Steve Mnuchin, who has every reason to gut every aspect of financial regulation

Justice, currently headed by Sessions, who basically doesn't believe in justice for anyone but white men

And on and on and on and on it goes.

NOW? NOW ALL THESE MONSTROUS CABINET APPOINTMENTS MAKE PERFECT SENSE.

Let's just hope he gets impeached within the next 180 days.

RESIST LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. Because it just might.

#IMPEACH

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethcronise/posts/10211942226254665?hc_location=ufi

[Initech]

10. Dump Trump and arrest Bannon.

Bannon is a traitor and is simply doing Putin's bidding. Without America, NATO, or the UN to stop him, he's free to begin Russia's take over of the world.

[Leith]

12. I've Been Through a Couple Corporate Changes of Ownership

and this has a striking resemblance to that. The new management comes in with their own people and set up restructured top management.

The former CEO, CFO, senior VPs, etc., are gone (with golden parachutes, of course). Some higher level middle management (directors, junior VPs) get the ax. Peons are pretty much left alone unless their department or branch is eliminated. There is no such thing as trying to move qualified low level employees to other departments. Assets are sold off or just thrown out.

It looks like the only promise orange boy is keeping is to run government like a business. Even Mitt Rmoney knew better than that. He made a fortune killing and picking the bones of an existing company, but I don't remember him saying that he would do that to the federal government. Welp, this is what it looks like.