President Trump, after completing his highly successful trade and diplomacy trip to the Indo-Pacific region—where he outfoxed and cornered Communist China in numerous areas—wrote a lengthy Truth Social post advocating for an end to the government shutdown by employing what is known as the “nuclear option.” He wrote:
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option. Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW.”
I can surely understand Mr. Trump’s frustration with the radical Democratic Party, which is being driven by the Mamdani-AOC-Bernie Sanders socialist wing. Yet, I do not think ending the filibuster is a good idea.
Speaking as someone who strongly supports the president’s agenda—tax cuts, deregulation, energy dominance, reciprocal free trade, closing the border, and so forth—I believe ending the filibuster would do great damage to those pro-growth policies, which miraculously passed under “one big, beautiful” bill.
Mr. Trump himself admits in his Truth Social post that the Democrats fought hard to end the filibuster but failed. He even notes that ending the filibuster would eventually allow Democrats to pack the Supreme Court, make Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico new states, thereby picking up four Senate seats, along with many House seats and electoral votes from those ultra-liberal places.
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity adds to this list policies that would have passed without the filibuster: a national voter ID ban, the Green New Deal, card check for union elections, a $15 minimum wage, a cap-and-trade national energy tax, completely socialized medicine, and the PRO Act’s forced unionization. Let’s not go there.
I have a much better idea: presidential impoundment.
Mr. Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, is ready to pull the trigger on non-essential federal employees who will remain non-essential, forever. I call it DOGE 2.0. In short, keep the non-essential non-essential; that’s existential.
All those pork-barrel Democratic spending items that President Biden lined up for his re-election last year? That stuff was so bad it even gives “waste, fraud, and abuse” a bad name. I’ll be polite: they’re all non-essential.
Because the government is presently unfunded, the chief executive has the authority to impound personnel and non-entitlement programs. While Mr. Vought has his weapon locked and loaded, he’s currently being held back by a lower court judge who has enjoined the administration from taking these actions. Yet, all that is on appeal and is likely to be overturned.
Unquestionably, Mr. Trump, as the chief executive of the federal government, has the inherent constitutional power to impound during this period.
If Democrats come back to power without the filibuster rule to restrain them, they will spend, tax, and regulate a quadrillion dollars worth of programs that will destroy the economy.
On the other hand, if Mr. Trump exercises his executive authority to impound non-essential programs and personnel, he will greatly slim down the size and scope of the federal government, while reducing deficits and debt along the way. In that scenario, economic prosperity will flourish almost more than anybody can possibly imagine.
—From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network
https://www.nysun.com/article/impound-dont-go-nuclear