Last night along a party-line vote, the U.S. Senate confirmed Russell Vought as the next director of the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has been at the epicenter of the Trump administration’s push to remake the federal government in an authoritarian image.
In so doing, Senate Republicans betrayed their constitutional duty of advice and consent. During his confirmation hearing, Vought admitted his hostility toward and intention to defy our constitutional order. This should have been categorically disqualifying for any officer of the United States, but especially one as powerful as the OMB Director.
Vought’s confirmation sets off a constitutional crisis unlike any other in our nation’s recent history. It isn’t a discrete event like the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but rather will unfold in a cascading, chaotic fashion. It is the constitutional equivalent of tossing pennies off the top of the Empire State Building with reckless indifference to the inevitable damage to our democracy that will occur.
