Even if Trump could cut off funds, federal funding is a miniscule portion of funding for schools: 8.3% to be exact. But the little secret here is that presidents have very little to do with school policy. He forced the CDC to go back to the drawing board because he didn’t like their initial guidelines about school reopening. On another front, throughout this summer Trump has been insisting that schools open in the fall and he has been threatening withhold federal funding if they don’t. Senate Republicans proposed this funding and the lack of White House support was reported to have “infuriated” them. The White House has since dropped the idea.Įven more bizarre was Trump’s opposition to $25 billion in funding for federal health agencies and for coronavirus testing. Even as it became apparent that Senate Republicans were lukewarm at best, the White House kept on. That tax funds Social Security payments, and a cut is sometimes proposed but it is rarely taken seriously. His first idea was to lower the payroll tax. Trump’s lame duck status also showed up in the debate over what kind of stimulus bill should be passed. Days later, the Senate approved a similar bill (with the military base-name change provision included) by a lopsided vote of 86-14, a second veto-proof vote-with only four Republicans voting no. It passed 295 to 125, including enough Republicans to make it veto-proof. Then, last week, the House voted on the bill in spite of the fact that Trump had threatened to veto it just hours before. Senate Republicans were the first to balk, signaling very clearly that they opposed vetoing the bill over that provision. This bill was moving along in its typical bipartisan fashion until it acquired a provision that would remove the names of Confederate military leaders from American military bases. The first was passage of the behemoth NDAA (National Defense Appropriations Act) which funds our military. Signs of a lame duck presidency arose around Congress’s summer to-do list. There’s an awful lot of that going on in Trumpworld lately. The most important characteristic of lame duck-ness is that even your friends and supporters stop paying attention to your wishes and defy you in acts if not just in words. Nonetheless, President Trump’s tenure seems to be slipping into a premature lame duck period. But rarely does “lame duck” refer to a sitting president about to go into a re-election campaign. It doesn't mean he doesn't care, he might care more than ever since it's his last chance to accomplish something before leaving, but his tools to accomplish any goal have been eroded.In politics, a “lame duck” usually refers to a president in that period of time after an election and before the inauguration of a successor. So lame duck technically means his time is short and he has no opportunity for re-election, but the implication is often that he has diminished power and influence. His bargaining chips rapidly become worthless. He won't be around to enforce any political punishment (or hand out political rewards and support). And so that soft power of "persuasion" rapidly evaporates. And re-election is the Holy Grail of members of Congress.īut once the president is past the last election of his last term that means he will be gone well before the next Congressional election.
A president can help a Congress member get re-elected - by providing money (at least indirectly) and by providing public support. That aspect is that a lot of a president's power comes from his ability to make political deals with, and enforce political punishment on, members of Congress who do or don't cooperate with him. Click to expand.There is some of that, more high-minded, stuff but there is the other aspect, too.
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