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.
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.