The cuts to several states come amid an escalating fraud fallout fueled by a dubious YouTube investigation of Minnesota day cares.
The Trump administration on Monday said it had slashed billions in social services funds to a handful of blue states as part of its escalating response to new and unproven fraud allegations in Minnesota.
The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze $10 billion worth of federal grants to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, an HHS official told HuffPost, confirming news first reported by The New York Post.
It’s not clear whether the freeze was inspired by specific fraud allegations or solely for political reasons. Officials did not immediately provide a public explanation.
Time for blue states to stop allowing federal taxes to be paid by their citizens. File suits on behalf of your constituents. No taxation without representation
It would be fucking phenomenal for my state to keep the dollars internal and invest in more in its citizens. Why the fuck am I working everyday to subsidize the fuckers in the south and midwest that keep voting to wreck everything around us.
Time for the Blue States to cut funding to the Red Oblasts.
alleged minnesota fraud that was fully debunked within 48 hours as hot bullshit.
The executive doesn’t have that unilateral authority. What he’s doing is illegal; unconstitutional, even.
“No taxation without representation” ring any bells?
Laws don’t fucking matter when the systems that hold the corrupt accountable have been subverted by the very corrupt they meant to police.
He can do whatever he wants. No one is stopping him. Your system needs to be torn down and rebuilt.
Is that you volunteering to throw the first brick?
I’m not allowed into your country, so I’m not really sure how to help you with that
Bummer dude, it’s a shithole here. You’re not missing much. Many of us want out.
“No taxation without representation” ring any bells?
If Trump’s actions are illegal or unconstitutional, the reason is not related to “No taxation without representation.” Minnesota has representation in the Senate and in the House.
Wrong. By unilaterally withholding congressionally-allocated tax funds (which is unconstitutional), he’s using executive power to bypass Congress.
In other words, the representational branch of the US government is being boxed out of their constitutional duty to allocate federal funds. The people’s elected representatives are not having the final say on how that tax money is being distributed, as the constitution prescribes.
The people are still paying taxes. Their elected representatives are being bypassed (unconstitutionally) by the executive, who is unilaterally withholding congressionally-allocated tax funds. That is not what it means to have representation.
Having the authority is inversely proportional to the rest of the government having a spine.
They’re spineless, so he has the authority.
What authority he has is spelled out in the constitution, and the authority to do what he’s doing is given to Congress. Doing it without congressional approval is unconstitutional.
Congress and the judiciary being spineless or complicit doesn’t confer authority. It might give him the leeway to overstep his authority, but that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t have the authority.
Let’s not muddy the waters. He would love for you to believe he does have the authority.
Yeah…my comment was obviously not intended to withstand legal scrutiny. You took it way too seriously. For the record - constitutionality is not a factor in restraining this president.
I know you meant it to be humorous. If I thought you were seriously trying to claim that he has the authority, my response would have been much sharper and likely gotten me banned.
That being said, I disagree that I took it too seriously. I take it very seriously. It’s a serious matter. I believe we must be firm and clear about that.
And I understand that so far he seems to be getting away with flagrantly violating the constitution at every turn. That pisses me off to no end. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is subject to the restraints imposed by the constitution. He has no legal basis for disregarding it, and I won’t mince words about that. Nor will I joke about it.
It’s already bad enough that he’s getting away with it. Let’s not pretend that means he’s actually allowed to do anything he wants.
I really don’t know why you’re trying to argue with me. It’s not like I disagree. Feel free to soapbox all you want, I guess.
And if nobody does anything then yes he has the authority. Didn’t someone in your government just say might makes right about taking over Greenland.
That’s going to be tough, some pretty serious weather and not much there until you “drill baby drill”
Canada on the other hand has lots of nice places to live and work. If he invades Canada, I’ll bet he gets lots of volunteers …. To march across the border and petition for asylum
That’s not what authority is.
And don’t pretend the inane drivel that comes out of steven miller’s mouth constitutes valid legal rationale.
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This decision was made based on a Youtube video, made by some rando with Trump-friendly views, directed at Minnesota’s most visible minority.
This should go without saying but: Youtubers. Should. NOT. Influence. Policy.
Correct me if I’m wrong but not even Rush Limbaugh or Alex Jones ever had this much sway on influencing policy.
Rush Limbaugh literally set the stage for this. The kind of guy who should have been immediately cancelled. Instead, he was allowed to live on as a celebrity radio hate monger. Hate radio poisoned an entire generation of people. Rush didn’t do it by himself, but he was the poster child for it.
Alex may have not had as big of an impact but he tortured people who lost their children in probably one of the most psychologically damaging ways possible.
Allowing people like that to make millions off of lies and hate is no kind of freedom for those who suffer. Of course Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I think he may have influenced a little more than policy.
Even if Trump was right about everything… Hillary’s emails, the '20 election, any random sentence. If he was literally correct every single time about it all… You can’t just punish whole states of citizens because you’re mad at the people in charge there.
The crazy amount of context you can take away without missing a beat about how wrong he is about everything he does is absolutely crazy.
SO WHAT ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES???
Don’t stop talking about this. Drumpf, the pedo rapist felon, wants us to stop talking about the Epstein/Trump Files. Do not stop talking about the Epstein/Trump Files because drumpf is a pedo rapist felon.
Remember that with Republicans and conservatives, every accusation is a confession.
They were going to cut welfare and social programs anyway, that’s all they’re here to do, they are gutting our treasury before they all get kicked out or guillotined. If the wind shifted in the wrong direction they would announce it’s reason to cut funding.
Pay attention people, this is your script. When you talk to people on the fence, tuned out or already leaning right, you do not argue about social policies, racism, immigration or any of the other hot-button social issues that are on fire right now. Average dumb fucks (which is everyone) don’t actually care about any of that. I’m sorry but people just broadly only care about themselves. Maybe that will change someday, but for now you are not going to get success finger-wagging and pointing out the suffering of marginalized people.
What you say is this: “Okay they’re cutting all this funding for medical care and poor people, they cut NASA and all these boards for health and education and environment protection, so where’s the benefit? Where is that money going? Are your groceries cheaper? Is your healthcare cheaper? Is anything getting better?”
That’s it. Just ask this one question. If it’s some MAGAss who starts ranting and sputtering, you let it go. Or just repeat the question. “Where is your money that they’re taking out of your check? Where is going to? Getting oil from Venezuela? Are YOU going to get a barrel of crude?”
We can leverage the average dumbass American if we make it a question not a lecture. People are dumber than they’ve ever been, but they still want to look smart, and if you ask them a question they can’t answer, they will chew on it so they know how to answer it next time someone asks.
Absolutely. People who don’t “care” about “politics” , they do care about economic issues that affect them
Along similar lines, I always noticed how we have a vigorous debate about tax rates but nobody ever seems to discuss the benefits you receive for them. The tax rate isn’t going down to zero for working people ever. As long as we have to pay, surely we should get something in return.
100%, we need to keep the focus on what our government is doing for us, we’re supposed to be the people who pay for and “own” our government, we pay their bills with our hard work and money, we sacrifice our future so that we can have a government. “We the people” needs to have meaning. Turn people’s desire to be patriotic against the right targets.
How do you afford those benefits? I have no objection to tax rates paid by 95% of the population, but I strongly object to the tax rates paid paid by Elon musk and others of that ilk
It’s not cause of the issues in Minnesota. It’s cause they are blue. Full stop.
Also, Trump is a convicted felon and pedophile. So there’s that.
He’s also a Traitor, and a Rapist.
Aren’t we pretty much at or close to trumps a child sex trafficker now in addition to being a pedophile?
Yeah. I think so. I was calling that like a month ago.
Those blue state citizens are what funds the red states…
I’ve been saying it for almost a year now, it won’t be easy but blue states need to stop having employees federal taxes sent off every check. Instead send it to a fund, when trump pulls shit like this, use the fund to make up the difference.
It’s gonna come to that point eventually and it’s a complicated process, so we should have it set up and ready to pull the trigger.
For real, if California and New York alone stopped paying federal taxes, the federal government would go bankrupt immediately.
Why pay into a system that won’t pay anything back out to you? Those funds are just going to the likes of Thiel and Musk, who already don’t pay enough taxes. Fuck em.
On an individual level everyone can do this today, change your federal withholding to $0 on a w4.
It’s 100% legal, and you will still need to pay taxes in April. But you can just not pay anything ahead of time. That whole process is essentially a payment plan that’s relatively new but already taken for granted of by the government.
We’ve already seen enough examples of “doing things at the individual level” to know that not even close to “everyone” will be on board.
By all means, do it. But don’t expect the level of solidarity required to make the federal treasury even notice.
Things like this require collective action, and since the average american is union-phobic, the only organizations we can look to are the state governments. But since they don’t handle federal taxes, there’s not much they can do short of seceding from the union. Which would be a bit too extreme as long as there’s even an inkling of hope in a free and fair election followed by a peaceful transfer of power saving us.
In short, we’re fucked.
I’m not even pushing it, just saying technically anyone could do it easily.
I agree, and I even explained that in a different comment somewhere. I just find it highly doubtful that enough people will do it for it to make a difference.
Do you know how many people would flock to blue states if they thought didn’t have to pay federal income tax? It would be madness.
isn’t that the point?
They would still be paying the tax
Blue states have most of the adults worth having.
Instead send it to a fund, when trump pulls shit like this, use the fund to make up the difference.
Do you know how many people would flock to blue States if they thought their taxes were going to be spent on anything that will benefit them?
More people would flock to blue states if they could do basic math surrounding long term cost of living expenses.
So…they’ll leave the states where taxes above and beyond what they pay are spent on them? That seems like an incredibly ignorant response, so it tracks.
I think that would be a feature, not a bug.
And it would go to show the spines of the proud Red Staters when they all flee to a blue state because its 1000x better
Why would blue states still pay into the federal government when they’re not getting anything out of it anymore? Seems to me they’re financing their own abusive relationship. I don’t understand how this works. Aren’t blue states the only reason these crappy red states are even still slightly functional?
I’m not American but it seems to me that collectively the blue states would hold a lot of power if they’re the financial backbone of the country. Can’t they swing their weight around a little?
You are correct. Unfortunately, state governments don’t have a hand in federal taxation. Employers typically withhold the estimated amount from employee’s paychecks, and at the beginning of each year everyone submits a tax form. If they paid over their obligation, they get a refund; if they underpaid, they owe money.
Even if someone opts out of tax withholdings, they’re responsible for sending their taxes to the federal government each year; typically through a third-party for-profit business (especially now that Republicans trashed the recent IRS pilot which allowed people to file their taxes directly to the federal government for free).
The only solution would be for every resident of that state to individually opt out of federal tax withholdings from their employer, but then they’d be individually liable for submitting their taxes each year. While the IRS doesn’t currently have the staffing to handle that if everyone does it, that would require a level of collective trust-in-ones-fellows that simply doesn’t exist in this era.
It would be much better if states could offer their protection, but apparently states can’t even keep ICE out so the IRS would be no different…
I already do this because they seize my refund to pay off student loans.
That sucks, dude
You would think. Our stupid country has senators based on statehood rather than representation of population. The pocket of Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana has ~3.5 million people combined, yet has 4x the voting power of California which has 10x the population. It’s a garbage system.
Also if you look at virtually any statistic by state. Red states are a dumpster fire. Literacy, STDs, teen pregnancy, income, obesity, etc.
Only a complete fucking moron could be a republican. The evidence of their failure and unnecessary cruelty is overwhelming.
Taxes levied by the US federal government are against individuals and businesses directly. States also levy their own taxes independently. So these funds paid to the federal government (largely) don’t go through state hands.
Ah I see. Then it makes sense. The population itself would have to stop paying taxes. That’s a bit more complicated because then individuals would be sanctioned by the government and people probably don’t want to take that risk.
They could withhold taxes on state employees. That would be easy. If they wanted to go full second civil war, They could pass laws making it illegal for companies to pay taxes to the federal government.
So the states can just say “hey everyone, until we say to resume, just dont bother paying your federal taxes anymore and we’ll keep the feds outside our borders”?
What are they gonna do, build a wall?
Individuals don’t pay their own taxes, their employers do. When you “pay your taxes” at the end of the year, you are just paying difference between what you should have paid and what you did pay. The exception being contract workers.
And if you don’t pay your taxes, the government can just seize the money from your bank accounts. Of course, if everybody stopped paying, employers included, the federal government would have a hard time processing it all, but if it wasn’t a sudden massive stop, they would just start raiding people’s bank accounts, probably without due process.
Except they can’t physically keep the federal government away their people, just look at what ICE is doing. It would also prevent people from traveling out of state, or risk getting arrested in a red state.
Even MAGAs are so upset with this regime that they are proposing a tax strike. This seems like a cause everyone could support.
I was kinda anti tax evasion (even legal tax evasion) prior to the second Trump admin. Nowadays, I’m in support of everyone doing their best to send as little money to the federal government as possible.
FYI “legal tax evasion” is called tax avoidance. It’s a form of direct action against a government that doesn’t represent you at all.
I’m happy to pay my California taxes.
I’m happy to pay my California taxes.
Same
Can’t they swing their weight around a little?
Well, they could, MAGAs don’t mind abusing their authority at all, even when they DON’T have it, but Dems think its impolite, and people are watching, and demonstrating politeness and non-confrontational dialogue are the most important things to Democratic leaders, even more than winning races and protecting American Democracy from corrupt traitors, pedophiles, and rapists. Smugness is all-important.
The social-media-conspiracy-to-federal-policy pipeline is becoming suspiciously short.
When you are run by a dictator, you only need to convince one person to make a change. It’s madness.
They are desperate to start an insurrection so they can cancel the 2026 midterms
And you know, once you bring your population to the point of violent, open rebellion, things will settle right down with a little martial law!
If they are smart, they will still hold the elections just refuse to seat reps from 5-6 blue states. That would keep them in power for another 2 years.
Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose
