DOGE is an Unconstitutional and Fascist Hostile Takeover of Federal Government

DOGE, Elon Musk, and the Trump regime are violating Article I of the Constitution, the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, and a 1975 Supreme Court ruling determining the president has to spend the money allocated by Congress.

Corporate welfare queen, oligarch, and enemy of the people Elon Musk (above).

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has absolutely no authority to exist under the Constitution. Its actions have actually violated the constitutional order, a 1974 law limiting presidential impoundment of funds authorized by Congress, and a 1975 Supreme Court ruling that determined Nixon did not have the authority to hold back lawfully appropriated federal funding by Congress. This means the unelected, Nazi-saluting billionaire bureaucrat Elon Musk, the autocratic Donald Trump, and Congressional Republicans who support DOGE, which is not a department lawfully authorized by Congress, are all partners in a quite brazen unconstitutional dismantling of the federal government.

DOGE overtly violates the Constitution, which gives Congress the power of the purse. Article I, Section 9 gives Congress the sole power to order appropriations. The power to appropriate federal funds logically comes with the legal authority to mandate the funds are to be spent in the manner Congress has decided. To have it any other way would mean the president could set the spending priorities instead of Congress, which is not how the Constitution is written

This is why Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) in 1974, which was passed after President Nixon withheld (or impounded) funds for programs he opposed. The ICA says the president is required to spend the money appropriated by Congress. Under the ICA, the president can propose holding back appropriated funds and give Congress 45 days to pass a new law agreeing to such a holdback. However, if Congress does nothing after that period of time, the money appropriated must be spent by the executive branch. 

The Supreme Court ruled against the Nixon Administration the following year in Train v. City of New York (1975) when federal funds were held back and not spent as Congress had directed, reinforcing the limits on the executive branch to impound funds appropriated by Congress.

DOGE is as illegal and unconstitutional as it can get. The question is whether the conservative Supreme Court with 1/3 of its justices appointed by Trump will actually do its job in good faith and reach the same conclusion when DOGE inevitably ends up in front of it. 

Even if the Supreme Court does uphold the strict limits on impoundment, will the Trump monster it has created and emboldened with its disastrous presidential immunity ruling even abide by the ruling? How much of a federal bureaucracy will even be left by then?

Last Updated @ 4:58AM on 4.1.2025