Trump’s illegal orders set the United States on a path to dictatorship. You and I and everyone who cares about our democracy must block that path now.
On January 27, the Trump administration issued an edict freezing public spending. That shut down Medicaid reimbursement portals in all 50 states on January 28. Other health funding, housing assistance, and Head Start funding were affected as well.
This shutdown is totally illegal. The Constitution gives Congress the power to allocate funding. Congress did that. Trump has NO authority to change the Congressional funding decision.
We have three branches of government. Each of them has certain responsibilities under the Constitution. We do not have a king or a dictator who can make his own rules.
The memo freezing public spending said that in the future all federal spending must go through Trump’s “senior political appointees” and conform to his priorities. That kind of power is claimed by dictators, not by U.S. presidents.
Is education an “Administration priority?” What about food stamps? Or medical care for people with disabilities?
We already know that enforcing civil rights laws is not an “Administration priority.” On his first full day in office, Trump revoked the Equal Employment Opportunity rule signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. Think about that: a civil rights rule in force for 60 years, now revoked.
The 1974 Impoundment Control Act bars a president from NOT spending money Congress has appropriated. In 1975, in Train vs. City of New York, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the Impoundment Control Act is constitutional.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia immediately sued to stop this illegal power grab. So did a coalition of public-health advocates, nonprofits and businesses including the National Council of Nonprofits, American Public Health Association, Mainstreet Alliance and SAGE.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan immediately ordered a temporary halt to the Trump administration order freezing funding. Judge AliKhan described his order as a “brief administrative stay” through 5 p.m. February 3. The case will now begin a long journey, probably ending in the Supreme Court.
Call your members of Congress. Call your Senators. Tell them to stand up for their rights and ours. Tell them that they must stand for the rule of law and against the insane usurpations of the Trump administration.
Tell your Senators to vote against confirming Russell Vought, the Trump nominee for the Office of Management and Budget. He is the architect of Project 2025 and deeply implicated in this illegal funding freeze.
Stopping the funding freeze is crucial. Stopping our nation’s headlong descent into dictatorship is even more important.
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Mary Turck
Hi Mary – it’s been a while, but I try to keep up on your excellent posts.
Your comments on the new unsanctioned freeze on public spending is right on point. The strangling of public spending is a keystone of the new administration, stemming as you indicate from the Project 2025 directives. The full document is available here:
https://archive.org/details/project-2025-mandate-for-leadership-full_202309-manifesto/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL/
I encourage people to use a research tool like Google’s Notebook.LM to upload this or any document for research and analysis.
Using Notebook.LM when you upload Project 2025 you can then start asking questions, such as “Government Spending on Entitlements” – you’ll get a detailed summary and breakdown of what the document says on the matter.
It can be enlightening, such as seeing that it recommends the government to move “… food and nutrition programs from the USDA to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)”.
This is the department they want headed by RFK Jr.
Again, thanks for your insights, Mary.
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