Salus populi est suprema lex – The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law
There’s so much ‘noise’ coming out of the United States these days since President Trump took office and appointed Elon Musk as head of The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
So much noise, in fact, that it would be difficult for anyone to stay across all of the fields of activity that The President, Musk, and Vice President, Vance have entered into on a daily basis; not to mention all of the speeches, sound bites and media posts. The legacy media, or rather, those who still have access to the White House Press Office, must be suffering from brain overload.
One issue that held sway for several days in the headlines (and, no doubt, is still simmering in the background) is the supposed Constitutional Crisis. I say ‘supposed’ simply because I have heard reasoned arguments from both sides; one side pushing a full-blown ‘end-of-days’ type crisis and the other calmly asserting that there’s nothing much to worry about.
The argument goes something like this: Some of The President’s Executive Orders and some actions taken by DOGE are illegal because Congress holds the powers concerning funding, not the Office of the President. There have been appeals to the judiciary in various places and some injunctions temporarily placing a hold on matters. These I expect, and maybe others besides, await resolution by the appropriate courts.
I imagine that I’m not alone as a ‘non-American’ to think that the idea that the Judiciary can be overt political appointments with the expectation that they will make judgments in favor of the incumbent and their policies, platforms or personal preferences, is simply crazy.
Yesterday (25th of February), The House of Representatives passed the Republicans’ highly contentious Budget Resolution (Blueprint) Bill. The Bill passed essentially along party lines. It sets out the guiding framework for appropriation bills to follow.
News reports suggest (that) With the resolution in its current form, Republicans appear set to make up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs, including food stamps, if they want to extend the tax cuts. According to MSN News.
Safety net programs. Programs, as the name suggests, that serve the poor and vulnerable; that hopefully stop them falling through the bottom of society’s net. $880 billion less is a whole lot smaller net.
Does this fit within Trump’s supposed austerity agenda? On its own, perhaps. But when it is noted that funding this bill will increase next year’s deficit by $323 Billion and part of the largess creating this number is corporate welfare to the tune of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts that will fund Trump’s extended tax credits; the credits he created when last in office in 2017.
The reason I have mentioned both the Legislature and the Judiciary and their goings on is that it reminded me of a maxim used by John Locke (attributed originally to Cicero): Salus populi est suprema lex – The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law. Locke used the principle in his Second Treatise on Government. His works heavily influenced the writers of the US Constitution, particularly Samuel Addams (but also Thomas Jefferson).
Of more than passing interest, the same Latin quotation (misquoted) was the title of the Fourth Leaflet issued by The White Rose movement against the Nazi regime. I wrote about the White Rose movement recently (see article).
I don’t think that even the most loyal Trump/Musk devotee could argue that this US budget is in keeping with the foundational principle that the welfare of the people should remain the highest priority. One might be able to say that tax credits and tax relief for big business might be an economic stimulus and provide benefits to many over the longer term. But an $880 million cut from safety net provisions upon which tens of millions of Americans rely goes way beyond the right-wing Project 2025 agenda that many see as ‘Trump’s playbook’.
Only one Republican member voted against the bill which now moves to the Senate.
I have to ask: in what world does this kind of behavior make any sense at all?
I have included below some campaign memes that point out who gets hurt by this. I wrote before about ‘my tribe’ and, yes, they are here. But so is your tribe.
And if you are tempted to the thought that this is all too far away, that it doesn’t or won’t affect you, I ask you to think again. They also say that ‘when the US sneezes the world catches a cold’!
Paul Russell: Musings 