Congress Loses Its Grip on the Power to Spend

Washington Post: “There are really three political parties in Washington, according to an old saying: Democrats, Republicans and appropriators.”

“The latter are members of Congress lucky enough to get placed on the powerful committees that dole out roughly $1.6 trillion in federal funds for the military and government services each year. They have traditionally shared a common goal of jealously guarding their tremendous ability to steer federal resources. It’s a bond that often defies the political rules of gravity that govern everything else on Capitol Hill.”

“But now, those ties are being tested like never before: The White House was aggressively encroaching on Congress’s power of the purse even before it began using the ongoing government shutdown as justification for rolling back billions more in spending.”