Super interesting and not someone I had heard of or expected. The donor is rumored to be Timothy Mellon. Mellon is the heir to the Mellon fortune (banking and railroad money) and grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon. What has caught my attention even more though is how the donor has worked to keep his ID out of the press. Timothy Mellon is known to be a pretty reclusive figure that lives in Wyoming so it does all fit him.

While the Senate Republicans have so far been unable to flip enough Senate Democrats moves like this ramp up pressure in a entirely new way. The Pentagon said it accepted the donation under the “general gift acceptance authority.” However many have cried foul and said they couldn't do that. Those opposed highlight the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money in excess of congressional appropriations or from accepting voluntary services.

When it comes to the Antideficiency Act the purpose of it was to stop the Executive Branch from creating obligations Congress would be forced to fund. In the argument people have made so far about spending excess of congressional approps… there isn't any and these funds in this situation are being used to paid people the government has deemed essential and are being forced to work. With the voluntary services the donation isn't a service and I haven't been able to see it labeled as such within current law. The services section also does have a carve out for emergencies which one could argue is currently going on within the Pentagon.

Since the Pentagon has accepted this donation it puts Democrats in a bind. If they come out and argue against it and bash the idea one easy to hit point is then just vote to pay them. To pay everyone and reopen the government. The second and in my opinion bigger one is for the party that screams for billionaires to pay more…. Isn't this exactly that? Why would you argue against something like this when it is what you want? Your average person isn't having to pay a dime it is the top 1%.

All of this aside my question to y'all is… should we allow this though? What are y'all thoughts and opinions? I have started to wonder if this could be the start of billionaires in some cases stepping up. George Soros is always donating big time to the democrats so does he bust open his account to provide funding for SNAP? He has a whole network of friends who he could go to and tap to fund it for a month.