Waste, Fraud and Abuse
By Thomas Lamia
AL CAPONE, the original Public Enemy Number one, admired by the President for his toughness.
Neither the Constitution nor any rule or law defines “waste, fraud and abuse” but these words, used as a single phrase, are the common basis for trimming budgets in Congress. The phrase is heard repeatedly and vehemently from opponents of spending. It is not meant to be specific, only a summary denunciation of what is unacceptable. We all know this and consequently pay little notice to the specifics, either of the differences among the words in the phrase or the precise meaning of any one of them.
The utility of the phrase comes from its being essentially undefinable and therefore unanswerable, a parry without a riposte. The imprecision is the point (pardon the fencing pun). Each word, and the phrase itself, is a meaningless pejorative. Representatives can line up behind a party position and enthusiastically engage in denouncing a spending proposal with no risk of being at a loss for words. The target, like Schrodinger’s cat, is everywhere at once and cannot be pinned down. Any negative argument will do.
But it is not a useless mission to examine the application of each word in the phrase to the president and his administration.
First, “Waste” — Unproductive, needless, excessive and unaccountable spending is found in Washington government offices, of course, and in no more blatant form than in the pomp and circumstance of ego-flattering events marking milestones favored by the man in charge: Victory Day on May 8 was once known as VE Day. (Note, Victory Day is celebrated on May 9 in Moscow.) There are also plans for a military parade in Washington, D.C. on June 14 marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and the president’s birthday. While grumbling over pennies spent on the poor and needy, the president is using Air Force One as his personal Uber service for golf outings at his far-flung real estate holdings. On each such caravan he is accompanied by personal attendants for security, communications and other presidential needs. The Guardian newspaper recently reported on the frequency, cost and scope of these outings in this presidential term. The numbers, the hypocrisy, the self-enrichment are staggering. To look away from this as inconsequential is to see the government as a defenseless, bottomless purse for showy privilege for one who has the power to do whatever comes to mind. I do acknowledge that he needs an occasional break from the heavy burdens of office, but the frequency, geographic scope, expense and self-enrichment of these outings are excessive. This is waste.
Next, “Fraud” — a Trump family tradition. A few relevant examples: conviction on 34 counts of felony fraud before “limbo-ing” under the protective cover of the presidency; being found liable for $450 million in civil fraud damages in a suit by New York State during his time out of office; many civil suits for fraud by alleged victims of Trump ventures, of which Trump University is a notorious example; fraud in obtaining bank loans over the years, to the point of losing relationships with all major banks in New York City other than Deutsche Bank; federal and state indictments for fraud arising out of the January 6 insurrection; indictments for fraud in responses under oath to the United States over documents removed from the White House at the end of his first term as president and stored at Mar-a-Lago.
Last, “Abuse” — both the most obvious and most pernicious personal quality evident in Trump’s actions as president. Abuse in the form of cruelty is a central feature of Trump’s immigration policy. Political pundits often say that it is the point of the policy. The first thought that comes to mind when assessing Trump government policy in general is unnecessary cruelty. Separating children from parents is a favorite technique, apparently chosen for its effectiveness in discouraging family immigration. Withholding access to courts and counsel, family and other resources needed to prove innocence seems also to be a feature of unannounced arrests on public streets and in homes, workplaces, job sites, schools and shelters by armed ICE agents, masked and in plainclothes, followed immediately by removal to detention at a special purpose holding center in Louisiana. There detainees are held incommunicado while being processed in groups for removal to jurisdictions beyond the reach of U.S. justice. This is lean and mean and praised within MAGA world for being such. It is also cruel, abusive and unlawful. It is a national shame.
Where is MAGA heading? Perhaps to set constitutional democracy aside in favor of direct unregulated action, trusting in ideologically pure private contractor technocrats, such as Elon Musk, to carry out the work of purifying our society. The model that comes to mind is that of Ayn Rand and her philosophical trust in strong leadership. There is also more than a whiff of McCarthyism in the mix. MAGA’s goal may be a “unitary executive” placing all power in the executive, the president. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, says that the president “…shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed…” Is the president thereby given the power to determine the meaning of the laws he or she must execute? No, that power was given to the Supreme Court by its decision in Marbury v. Madison in1801. It is beyond speculation that the Supreme Court would now reverse itself and give that power to the president.
In his plurality opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007) Chief Justice Roberts said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Well, the way to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in government is for leaders to stop being wasteful, fraudulent and abusive.
