> How is a cut illegal?

If the Office of Management and Budget follows a president's order to cut NSF funds and they violate the Anti-Deficiency Act, it's literally a crime. If the president orders the violation in order to achieve some political outcome, that's also bribery and extortion.

In this mafia regime it's a case of 'throw it on the pile,' but it doesn't change the fact that this stuff is wildly illegal. The president's job is to be the dumb unthinking agent of Congress and to execute the laws they pass on behalf of the people. Budgets are laws.

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Supermancho 16 hours ago | parent [-]

> The president's job is to be the dumb unthinking agent of Congress

Execution will never be as simple as the textual content of a bill, so I'm not sure 'mindless' is a useful term.

While the POTUS is expected to be a bureaucrat, functionally and conceptually that is only one aspect of their responsibilities. Military oversight and diplomatic coordination as head of state, comes to mind.

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mullingitover 15 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm oversimplifying, but when it comes to the budget I'm pretty accurate: the president can't just decide they won't spend the money because they don't like where it's going or who it's going to. They certainly can't extort the lawful recipients of the money.

	▲	blooalien 36 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not 100% sure about your usage of the word "can't" since it's been actively happening. Maybe "shouldn't" might apply better to the reality of the world we now find ourselves living in.