That’s mostly because Congress writes the budget, and the President “spends” what is allocated to the SEC on the SEC (no surprise). So the SEC (and IRS) is/are

That’s mostly because Congress writes the budget, and the President “spends” what is allocated to the SEC on the SEC (no surprise). So the SEC (and IRS) is/are kneecapped because Congress doesn’t give them enough money (either because they don’t want to, or the President doesn’t ask for enough). The cynical take is that Congress profits from insider trading, tax evasion, etc. and want to prevent themselves from being investigated. Whether that’s true or not would be hard to prove.