Thursday, September 25, 2025

Will Trump cause the collapse of the US Government?

 Perhaps it's time to admit that the US is a de facto Westminster Parliamentary Democracy. That is a system where the lower house of parliament has an ability to dismiss a government by "withholding (or blocking) supply" (rejecting a budget). This automatically leads to a call for new elections. 

Loss of supply occurs where a government in a parliamentary democracy using the Westminster System or a system derived from it is denied a supply of treasury or exchequer funds, by whichever house or houses of parliament or head of state is constitutionally entitled to grant and deny supply. A defeat on a budgetary vote is one way by which supply can be denied. Loss of supply is typically interpreted as indicating a loss of confidence in the government. Not all money bills are necessarily supply bills. For instance, in Australia, supply bills are defined as "bills which are required by the Government to carry on its day-to-day business". 

A similar deadlock can occur within a presidential system, where it is also known as a budget crisis. In contrast to parliamentary systems, the failure of the legislature to authorize spending may not in all circumstances result in an election, because some such legislatures enjoy fixed terms and so cannot be dissolved before a date of termination, which can result in a prolonged crisis. 

Wouldn't calling for an election to see how popular the government make far more sense than this? 

Other than it would put paid to the myth that the US system lives with compromise. Your governments would make Belgium or Italy look stable if you went to a parliamentary system.

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