Those federal workers who still had jobs at the start of this week were greeted with news that the Trump administration plans to cease funding a slew of federal programs. The order, which was blocked for the moment by a federal judge late Tuesday, arrived as  a two-page memo that left much of Washington in a state of confused panic. In it, the Office of Management and Budget announced a temporary freeze to all federal financial assistance, including grants and loans. In fiscal year 2024, those programs accounted for one-third of the $10 billion the federal government spent.

Kicking off with a reminder that “The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States,” the OMB ordered department heads to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities to ensure it is

dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending “wokeness” and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again. The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.

The memo ordered federal agencies to “complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.”

Programs included in a very long list of those under scrutiny include Pell Grants for low-income students, the Fulbright program, Opioid Use Disorder Workforce Expansion Program, Section 8 housing, the Appalachian Regional Commission, Federal Transit Administration, Farmers Market Promotion Program, National Science Foundation, Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program, FEMA Preparedness Grants and the Disaster Relief Fund. 

The potential for a sudden and unexpected stop to federal cash flow has sent shockwaves through everything from rural assistance to space exploration and Meals on Wheels…

…to Medicaid:

Meanwhile, the National Science Foundation cancelled more than 60 grant review meetings scheduled for this week. “It’s a considerable amount of effort,” Romi Burks, a biologist at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, told NPR. She had spent weeks preparing to serve on her NSF panel. “It’s extremely disappointing for it to be canceled for political reasons.”

The funding freeze will now face a court hearing, and although it’s so far unclear which programs could ultimately be defunded, the president’s targets are clear in its references to “wokeness” and “Marxist equity.” The latter, in particular, has been an obsession of Trump’s live-in Tooth Fairy, Elon Musk, who used his social media platform during the presidential campaign to confusedly accuse Kamala Harris of being “quite literally a communist.”

McCarthyism is also alive and well among the new breed of right-wing academics who view the tenet of equity as a cover for disenfranchising whites. “Advocating for equity is advocating for communism,” they admonish, again, with a decidedly loose grasp of all these definitions.

Trump wasted no time after taking office to trash the government’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies, many of which were instituted under the Biden administration. Now, like a pig on truffles, he’s using the OMB to root out anything that whiffs of the leftist agenda.

For those on the right, it’s a savvy show of righteous force — and one we should all get used to:

In his second term, [Trump] also seems determined to use every lever at his disposal to advance his agenda, including things he might have been talked out of, or not considered, the first time around. If there is an authority hiding somewhere in the federal code that might be of use, his team is surely ferreting it out.

In some cases, however, his overzealous axing may sever the limb he’s perched on. The president quickly attempted to nix the previous administration’s crowning achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act, which committed more than $107 billion to projects that would spur investment in green energy, help Americans reduce their energy costs and drive U.S. manufacturing. Already, though, Trump has been forced to clarify which aspects of the bill he wants to stop, leaving the administration to try to figure out exactly where its authority ends and its constituents’ desires and interests begin.

Democrats now find themselves invoking the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which enshrined Congress with the power of the purse and forbids the president from refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated. However, Trump’s choice for OMB director, Russ Vought has repeatedly called that law unconstitutional, asserting that the president does have the power to ignore sections of spending law that have been passed by Congress. Democrats are urging the GOP to delay its confirmation of Vought to the role of White House budget director, which is nonetheless likely to happen in the coming weeks.

According to Damon Linker, senior lecturer in the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania, Vought squares his belief in the constitutionalism of executive overreach with

the theory of the “unitary executive,” the idea of extra-political independence is “not something that the Constitution understands.” The president heads the executive branch; these departments and agencies reside within it; that puts the president in charge of them, empowered by the voters who elected him. In short, he is their boss, and they must do as he wishes. The idea that they can operate independently of such oversight and accountability is incompatible with self-government.

Speaking of accountability, it’s worth noting that the ICA was enacted to stop then-President Richard Nixon from impounding funds for programs he didn’t like. Twenty-eight days after it passed, Tricky Dick had the decency to resign from the Oval Office rather than further defile it.

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