Reacting to the Office of the Vice President’s assertion that it is not an “entity within the executive branch,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) will introduce an amendment this week to cut off funding to Cheney’s office. Last night on MSNBC, he was asked how much money is spent on Vice President Cheney for an executive office he claims he’s not apart of:
MATTHEWS: Do you know, Congressman, how much money — how much money is spent by the taxpayer to give this guy a huge operations staff, a huge policy staff? He’s got travel all over the world. Do you know how big a budget he has right now?
EMANUEL: He has a residence. He has an entire operation that supports him as vice president. And then he also has, as you said, the travel. I mean, it’s in the millions of dollars.
Now we have a number. Roll Call reports today that President Bush has requested $4.75 million in fiscal 2008 to fund the Vice President’s operations (parts of which are housed, notably, in the Executive Office Building.)
In related news, Emanuel’s proposal is gaining steam in the Senate. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the subcommittee that funds the vice president’s budget, yesterday warned Cheney that “his office would risk losing its budget” unless the vice president agrees to follow the executive order. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) also said he would “seriously consider” legislation to defund Cheney’s office, calling it “one of the only resorts we have.”
UPDATE: The White House budget request is HERE.
This Vice President isn’t in the Executive Branch argument is stacking up to be such an issue. It’s trivial in the scope of the Iraq War or the outrageous DoJ scandal, but it’s such a fine paradigm for the silly logic coming out of the White House that it may just be the proverbial straw. It’s certainly about time for such a showdown.
Throughout the tenure of this Administration, we’ve heard loophole after loophole threaded. They’re all similar – some as yet unknown reason being President or Vice President is like being God, or Emperor. What’s amazing about them is that they never really make sense. No-one ever intended for the Executive to be immune from oversight – in fact, from the founding of the country to the present, the opposite has always been true.
Cheney won’t back down. There’s a story in today’s Washington Post Series called ‘A Spine Quotient’ about Vermont Senator James M. Jeffords who threatened to bolt the GOP during negotiations over the president’s 2001 tax package. Cheney didn’t budge, even though they lost control of the Senate.
Most politicians "know when to hold them, and know when to fold them." That’s not Dick Cheney’s style. He never learned the lesson of Hegel’s Master-Slave conflict – the guy who stands in the middle of the field attempting to vanqish all comers will sooner or later meet his match and fall very hard. If he wants to duke it out over this absurd issue – Fine. It’s his line in the sand to draw. Let the jousting begin…
Reader JoyHollywood has an interesting analogy for Cheney – a cockroach, sneaking about in the dark cracks and crevices. Cutting off support for his office and staff may force him actually play that role directly. But for my own tastes, I’d prefer a more frontal approach. Crack and Crevice spray: Send the F.B.I. into his dark places, haul out all of those safes, and break out the blow torches.
Brilliant!! If they cut off his budget will they also denude him of his Secret Service officers? To my knowledge members of Congress and of the Judiciary have to walk around without the guards, so if he’s not part of the executive branch I don’t think he should get those either!