To The Eagle:

The biggest slush fund in history is now at the disposal of the Treasury and Grifter-In-Chief, Trump. Our rapaciously greedy Chief Executive will unleash unprecedented fraud and abuse upon the new $2.2 trillion law — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act after purposely weakening its accounting oversight. In an astonishingly brazen move, Trump wiped away, by imperial decree, safeguards written into the act in order to ignore and subvert the intent and letter of the law.

The president clearly wants to completely control major disbursements, especially to business. Our wannabe emperor aims once again to challenge Congress's power and use the Justice Department to undermine the will of the U.S. Congress.

One of the most important safeguards sees the appointment of a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) to monitor the U.S. Treasury's disbursement of $500 billion in aid to corporations.

Trump, noting that the law says the SIGPR should submit reports "without delay" to Congress, stated: "I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress without presidential supervision."

In yet another clear sign of Trump seeing his as an imperial presidency, the White House is taking the view that the SIGPR should not be nominated by Congress but rather by the President, and as part of his administration be subject to executive privilege (and coercion).

Donald Trump and his campaign team will be treating the new CARE Act as a golden opportunity to parcel out campaign favors. Wherever that money will come in handy to win a race or a state, one can rest assured that Donald Trump and his Republicans are prepared to spend it for their own benefit.

JB Bouchard

Puget Island