Cutting government waste should be a "bipartisan no-brainer," but Democrats are overgeneralizing with their objections to President Donald Trump's agenda and judges are siding with them, former federal prosecutor Doug Burns said on Newsmax Sunday.
"In our toxic media world, Democrats jump on and say you're cutting aid for a grandmother who has cancer," Burns told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "That's not productive, and it's an overgeneralization."
But Republicans are saying, "with much more credibility," that they are cutting waste and fraud, said Burns.
Burns responded to a ruling from U.S. District Judge John McConnell Thursday that blocked the Trump administration's efforts to freeze funding for programs that do not align with the president's mandate, siding with Democrat attorneys general from 22 states and Washington, D.C.
McConnell said in his ruling that the executive branch, with its orders to freeze funding, was trying to put itself “above Congress," which "undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.”
"What really got lost as it got translated into the media is that it was an authorization to pay for work that had already been completed," said Burns. "I think everybody didn't focus on that. Certainly, the left didn't want to focus on it."
The issue, he added, involves the scope of executive power and whether a president can freeze funds without congressional approval.
"I mean, Barack Obama told us all you need is a fountain pen," said Burns. "Everybody forgot that, apparently."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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