Congressional Fixation
All spending bills — such as the budget of the United States — must originate in the House of Representatives in accordance with the US Constitution. In many years, the Congress doesn’t do its job in a timely manner.
This year doesn’t look much different. We are in July with a fiscal year to start in October and the budget hasn’t made its way out of the House yet.
This month the House has the Defense Appropriation up for consideration. There are twelve such appropriations that make up the budget.
During the course of debating the Defense Appropriation, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md) proposed an amendment that would forbid the military from spending any money on any military exhibitions at which the President of the United States presides.
The amendment passed by a vote of 221-207 thereby attaching to the underlying bill for further consideration. [There are 235 Dems, 198 Reps, 1 Ind in the House.]
Above you see a picture of the Blue Angels flyover at the celebration of Independence Day on the 4th of July.
This celebration was presided over by President Trump. Just for the record, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the military under the US Constitution.
If the amendment were to make it through the Senate — not bloody likely — it would forbid the Blue Angels from performing for the 4th of July crowd because, arguably, the celebration was presided over by the President.