Tony Romm

Right, absolutely.

This is not just rhetorical.

This is an attempt to inflict real pain on the president's political enemies, in this case, Democrats.

And they have done this on a number of fronts.

They have taken steps to halt or cancel billions of dollars that the federal government had previously approved for cities and states and congressional districts led by Democratic leaders.

They have taken steps to fire thousands of federal workers who serve at agencies that the president, at least, believes to be, quote, Democrat agencies or on Democrat programs.

Yeah, it's a great question.

And I think the president has used this phrase, Democrat agencies or Democrat programs, as shorthand to describe kind of two different things.

The first is agencies and programs that largely track the areas that Democrats increased when President Joe Biden was in power, things like health and education and housing and research.

But I think second, more broadly, this White House sees the function of government as inherently democratic.

And they see the cuts to the work of government as bringing government more in line with their vision that, you know, Washington and the bureaucracy should have less of a role in people's lives and in the management of the economy.

Well, I think the best way to answer that question is maybe.

You know, as a general rule, Congress writes laws.

It tells the president how to spend money, and the president has to spend money on those things that Congress told him to spend the money on.

There's a provision in law that allows the president to move some money around at the Department of Defense, but the amount is capped and the use of that money is restricted.

can't just grab a bucket of money from the Department of Homeland Security and use that to, you know, pay for something at the Department of Energy.

And so that's what's made the president's actions so remarkable and in some ways unorthodox here, because he has pushed the limits of his ability to reprogram parts of the budget without Congress.

And privately, though, when you talk to some of these folks on the Hill and elsewhere, they will tell you that they are super concerned because even though they like paying the troops, they have this concern about this ends justify the means argument that the administration is sometimes making with the budget.

Because for, you know, right now, it's okay that he's using money for a purpose that both parties would like to see him spend it on with the troops.

But nothing is to say that the president will continue to push that envelope in ways that would see him use the money for more controversial purposes, perhaps in defiance of what Congress has said.