The US is entering an era of a crisis of governance

МОСКВА, 06 августа 2021, Институт РУССТРАТ. An ordinary citizen of any country practically does not notice the processes that transform their state, since it is quite ordinary for them. Only years later do historians isolate the turning points of the development of certain states. However, now, watching the transformation processes in the United States, in my opinion, one of the turning points of the country's development can be clearly recorded - it is August 3, 2021, and the consequences of what happened can determine a lot in the future of this country. To understand the background of the current situation, it is necessary to explain that at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, the US Congress adopted special legislation declaring a moratorium on the eviction of citizens from rented premises until the end of July. In September 2020, the US federal agency "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" (CDC) issued its own decision extending the moratorium, and then repeatedly extended this moratorium, the most recent time – until July 31, 2021. Naturally, landlords were not ready to put up with the lingering losses and wanted to reclaim what was theirs, the US Department of Justice even had to come out with a warning about the inadmissibility of violating the moratorium on eviction. Nevertheless, the landlords tried to challenge the moratorium in local courts and reached the US Supreme Court in this matter. On June 29, the US Supreme Court, by a split vote of 5 to 4, rejected the decision of the Alabama District Court satisfying the claim of the landlords' association to lift the moratorium on eviction, which was issued by the CDC. A member of the Supreme Court, an appointee of Trump, Brett Kavanaugh commented on the decision on behalf of the majority: "I agree with the District Court and the applicants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium. Because the CDC plans to end the moratorium in only a few weeks, on July 31, and because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds, I vote at this time to deny the application to vacate the District Court’s stay of its order. In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31”. On July 29, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement stating that “President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available”. “In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the President calls on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay”. However, according to the head of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, such a proposal from the White House administration was a surprise for her. On July 30, the US Democratic Party even failed to gain its simple majority to vote in favour of the bill on the issue, and also failed to win over enough Republican representatives to its side. Nancy Pelosi categorically refused to convene a special session of the House of Representatives to extend the moratorium, being at the very beginning of a long parliamentary recess. Speaking on Friday, July 30, in the absence of a decision to extend the moratorium on evictions, Joe Biden called on state and local governments to "take all possible measures to immediately allocate" funds for "emergency rental assistance." Over the weekend, representatives of the Democratic Party and the White House tried to work out a plan for the speedy distribution of $46.5 billion in assistance to landlords approved by Congress in December 2020 and March 2021. To date, only $3 billion has been distributed, or about 6.6% of the total amount. Then Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen was involved in this process, and thus received a portion of criticism from lawmakers for being slow in distributing funds. On Monday, August 2, White House press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden asked the CDC on Sunday to consider extending the moratorium for 30 days, but the agency "could not find legal grounds for a new, targeted moratorium on evictions." However, on August 3, the CDC still issued an instruction declaring a moratorium on evictions until October 3, 2021, citing the outbreak of the Delta strain of COVID-19. Joe Biden, speaking to reporters, said: "I've sought out constitutional scholars to determine what is the best possibility that would come from executive action of the CDC's judgment. What could they do that was most likely to pass muster, constitutionally? The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it's not likely to pass constitutional muster, number one. But there are several key scholars who think that it may and it's worth the effort." Biden explained that "at minimum" while the issue is going through the courts, some of the funds will be able to reach the tenants in need. If any of the readers found meaning in the words of Joe Biden, I advise you to re-read the explanation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which says directly that the CDC does not have the authority to declare a nationwide moratorium on evictions, and this can only be implemented by Congress under the new legislation. Adding to the cynicism of such statements is the fact that the new moratorium on evictions provides for criminal penalties for landlords who will evict tenants. Thus, the document states that an eviction that "does not lead to death" can be punished with a fine of up to $100,000 and one year in prison. Eviction that "resulted in death" is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and one year in prison. For organisations, the fines are $200,000 and $500,000, respectively. It is unclear who will be responsible for the broken lives and illegal sentences. Reviewing what happened, we can say that the White House administration directly violated the decision of the US Supreme Court, and Joe Biden himself explained that the time to appeal these illegal actions in court will help distribute part of the funds already allocated. The motivation of the White House is quite clear: according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, about 6 million tenants could lose their homes over their heads. According to researchers from the Aspen Institute, this is about 15 million people. The eviction of such a number of people in a short time would definitely lead to a social explosion, which the Democratic Party cannot allow in any way, since the pre-election race for Congress elections in 2022 has almost begun. Here it should be noted that what led the White House to such an unauthorised decision is the loss of control in the Democratic Party itself. The US Supreme Court, "gritting its teeth", went about political expediency and gave Congress a whole month to make a decision on extending the moratorium on evictions. However, the leadership of the Democratic Party was fixated on the adoption of the "infrastructure plan", in which there are trillions of dollars, and lost sight of another fundamental issue. Since it is not so exciting to distribute the money already divided among those in need. Of course, it is impossible to exclude the possibility that such passivity of congressmen was lobbied by financial corporations, such as Black Rock, which buys real estate in the United States “at the root” with dollars printed by the Fed. The absurdity of the American reality also lies in the fact that no party seeks to inflate this scandal in the media. The Democrats are not going to admit their mistakes, and the Republicans are afraid of angering voters who have received a much-needed reprieve for eviction. Of course, some individuals directly state what happened. Republican Senator Tom Cotton wrote on the topic: “Unconstitutional - and they know it”. His colleague and fellow party member Pat Toomey wrote on Twitter that the moratorium “lacks both a legal basis and an economic justification. Even the president admitted today that the ‘bulk of constitutional scholars say . . . it's not likely to pass constitutional muster’”. Even a Democrat, member of the House of Representatives Mondaire Jones from New York, criticised Joe Biden's behaviour: “It is odd, I think, to raise issues about the constitutionality of your own executive action shortly before making that executive action,” he said, predicting that lawyers for landlords who will challenge the moratorium will quote Biden's words in court. As a result, it can be recorded that the degradation of the American elite and management institutions has led to the fact that the American tree of separation of powers is falling in front of everyone's eyes. The judicial branch of the US government, following the interests of the establishment, ignored a number of egregious facts of violations in the 2020 election and did not even consider them on their merits. Therefore, it is not surprising that now the executive branch of government is trying to use it in a more crude form. It is very interesting how the US Supreme Court will get out of this situation, because if it ignores the current situation, there are no guarantees that other branches of government will execute its subsequent decisions. However, if his reaction is sharp, it can provoke a constitutional crisis in the country. If the question "Is this a democratic state?" has become relevant for the United States since 2020, then in 2021 the question "Is this a legal state?” was added. The most important conclusion that can be drawn from what is happening is that without a general reformatting of the United States, this crisis of power will no longer be overcome. And this again raises the question of the legitimacy of Joe Biden and, accordingly, the capabilities of the United States in the international arena, which RUSSTRAT experts have repeatedly asked.