Will GOP Drive The Getaway Car forTrump’s $1.8 Billion Robbery?
Most of us at some time or other likely have heard the tale of the Arab merchant who loaded his camel with heavy goods for a journey. Bundle after bundle, until the camel was on the verge of collapsing. Finally, he added one last piece of straw. It was one too many, and it broke the camel’s back.
That’s how Republican leaders should respond to Trump’s latest outrage: Stealing $1.8 billion of taxpayer money for himself and his convicted felon friends.
Of all the corrupt and egregious acts Trump has performed, why should this one be the back breaker?
--It’s the culmination of a $10 billion suit Trump filed against the U.S. government in which he claimed to be an “injured party.” Who was he suing? The American taxpayers. Who would defend the taxpayers? The Justice Department which Trump effectively controls. The very definition of conflict of interest. The timing headed off a judge who was about to rule so.
A Daylight Robbery of Taxpayer Money
--The deal assumes that the January 6 rioters who trashed the Capitol, injured 174 police officers trying to defend it, threatened to lynch Vice President Mike Pence, and subvert the peaceful transfer of power--that these people were actually victims. Victims? Nearly all plead guilty or were convicted for their crimes in courts of law!
--Trump’s hand-picked panel would decide who would get the money and how much. In other words, much of it would wind up in Trump’s pocket, directly, indirectly, or through his political slush funds.
--And just when you would assume this act of self-dealing could not be worse, we learn that it includes what amounts to a get-out-of-jail free card for any tax fraud the IRS might find in auditing Trump, his family, or his company.
If the Republican majority in Congress doesn’t stop it, then each and every member bears responsibility for driving the getaway car for Trump’s robbery-in-plain-sight of U.S. taxpayers.
What does it say to the outnumbered police who risked their lives to heroically fight the frenzied mob at the Capitol? Or to all of us who watched with our own eyes, in real time, in disbelief, as Trump tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power? Or to the 62+ judges, many of them Trump-appointed, who gave Trump his day in court, then ruled against Trump’s claim of a rigged 2020 election?
Will Republicans Finally Draw the Line?
At minimum, enough Republican members must join Democrats to specifically deny spending taxpayer dollars or to give Trump a free audit pass on this outrageous deal.
Republicans in Congress have sat mute while Trump illegally withheld money they appropriated, violated treaties they negotiated, corrupted our system of justice, and made war without their approval. Will they now remain silent while Trump decides he can openly steal the public’s money for himself and his convicted felon friends? That there are absolutely no red lines he can’t cross with impunity?
Let’s hope not.
There’s more than enough evidence to remove Trump from office. It’s Congress’s right and duty when faced with such corruption, incompetence and constitutional malfeasance. Judging by the latest polls, ridding our government of Trump would be cheered by a vast majority of the American public.
This should be the final straw.
Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net
Always Get It’s Always Something
Sign up to get the most recent column set to your inbox for free.
What happens when a fun-loving, charismatic, reform-minded Mexican-American billionairess becomes president of the United States and strikes fear in the pocketbooks of a cabal of the rich and powerful?