Staff & Interns: Protect Our Democracy from Concentrated Executive Power

This message is to Congressional staff and interns. Did you get into politics to expand executive power at the expense of the citizenry? I don’t think you did. But the 2025 budget is a dangerous political blueprint that consolidates oligarchic power and concentrates power in the executive branch. Think carefully whether this is why you got into politics. This budget extracts, monitors, and suppresses. It undermines independent oversight by eliminating or bringing inspectors general, ethics offices, and watchdog agencies under tighter executive control. It weakens bureaucracy’s capacity to say no. When institutions that safeguard the public are captured, accountability vanishes, and the government serves power, not the public. Did you get into politics so one person could decide how to spend public money? The 2025 budget grants the president increased discretion over how money is spent. Mandatory programs are converted into block grants, and what was once earmarked spending is now subject to executive flexibility. This gives the President more leverage over which states and communities receive support—and which are left wanting. It turns public resources into bargaining chips in a game of patronage, rewarding the loyal and disciplining others. Did you get into politics to care or to control? The budget prioritizes control over care. The budget cuts health, education, and social services programs, but paramilitary agencies for immigration control, border surveillance, and domestic intelligence operations get funding increases. The government is signaling that it doesn’t want to care for us, but to discipline us. Did you get into politics to create public goods or erode them? Agencies serving the public— the NSF, NIH, and NOAA—are being defunded and restructured under political appointees. Scientists are leaving public service. Did you get into politics to build an authoritarian state? Concentrating power and shielding the wealthiest Americans from taxes shifts collective risk to individuals and vulnerable communities. This is the road to authoritarianism. This budget hands Trump the machinery of state control and hollows out democracy’s institutions. Power will answer to itself only. Is this why you got into politics? Your elders left you a mess. The provisions in the 2025 budget make it worse by concentrating executive power, undermining oversight, and dismantling public institutions. You get few chances in a life to defend democratic accountability, to advocate for the public’s welfare, and to ensure that our government serves all citizens, not just private and political interests. If you choose to protect the integrity of our democratic institutions and prevent the further erosion of public accountability, there are people out here ready to support you.