Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) laid into his Republican colleagues at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, accusing them of ignoring direct attacks by the Trump administration on the separation of powers and specifically Congress' power to decide how money is spent, instead holding hearings about old grievances Republicans had with the Biden administration.
"We have the power of the purse," said Goldman. "Maybe it's wasteful, maybe it's not, I have no idea, you have no idea. But it's a blatant violation of the law and the Constitution. And apparently, my Republican colleagues are so weak and afraid of Donald Trump and Elon Musk that they're willing to undermine their own constitutional authority just to please them. You're giving away your own power in fealty to Donald Trump."
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"I ask for our next hearing we actually do some oversight and accountability of what this administration is doing right now, not what the Biden administration did years ago," he added.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has allowed his close ally and benefactor, tech billionaire Elon Musk, to use his "Department of Government Efficiency" task force to take over federal agencies across the board, gaining access to critical infrastructure and suspending huge chunks of the civil service, while at the same time instituting a freeze on grants and payments authorized by Congress from being distributed to a variety of nonprofits and organizations.
A number of federal judges have moved to put a stop to this, which has led Trump and his supporters to issue increasing threats against the judiciary.
Even many Republicans who are publicly praising the seizure of the administrative state have been working privately behind the scenes to beg Trump to make carveouts and exceptions for key expenditures that benefit their own states.
