Trump Budget Idiot HEREBY ORDERS Government To STOP. Because The Woke Marxism, Probably Witches.

If they weren't spending money on woke lesbian witches, they wouldn't be spending any money at all.

Remember that time Dear Leader went on Fox & Friends and fantasized, “When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster, then you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great”?

And crashing the economy by slamming the brakes of government (except for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security) seems to be the plan, because Elon Musk, Project 2025ers, and Christian dominionist sects with doomsday bunkers have been slobbering for a “great reset” for a while!

So apparently to that end, acting director of Office Management and Budget Matthew Vaeth — keeping the seat warm until Russ Vought, the Project 2025 self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who looks like the dad from “Get Out,” can be confirmed — unleashed chaos on Tuesday with a vague directive to agencies to “pause” funds appropriated by Congress as well as a “90-day pause” in foreign development assistance, with no advance notice, and no details about which agencies in particular are affected. This is flagrantly illegal; it’s Congress’s job to decide how the budget is spent, and according to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 the president can’t do shit about it, no matter how much he might personally disapprove that some states use Medicaid dollars to pay for gender-affirming wangdoodles and bazongas, or hate that poor children go to Head Start.

But nevertheless, here came a memo. The meat:

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. This memorandum requires Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements. For example, during the initial days of his Administration, President Donald J. Trump issued a series of executive orders to protect the American people and safeguard valuable taxpayer resources.

To implement these orders, each agency must 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. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal. This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities. The temporary pause will become effective on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM.

What do the employees in federal agencies think about this? Well, they’re gagged from speaking. But spokesblonde Karoline Leavitt held her first press scrum, pissily flapping her lip filler in a struggle to explain how this was legal.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Who advised the president on the legality of telling government agencies that they don't have to spend money that was already appropriated by Congress?

LEAVITT: Well as the OMB memo states, this is certainly within the confines of the law. So White House Counsel’s Office believes that this is within the president’s power to do it, so he’s doing it.

Oh, a guy named Matt wrote a MEMO, well then.

And, she said, if federal agencies don’t like it, they are welcome to call up Russ Vought (who is not confirmed yet) and kiss his hairy buttcheeks and plead for his mercy.

“The OMB is reviewing the federal funding that has been going out the door […] I also spoke with the incoming director of OMB this morning, and he told me to tell all of you that the line to his office is open for other federal government agencies across the board, and if they feel that programs are necessary and in line with the president’s agenda, then the Office of Management and Budget will review those policies.”

Again, NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS. Leavitt specified that direct payments to individuals would not be affected, but what about reimbursement payments to states for Medicaid? School lunches? Grants to colleges? Who knows! The Payment Management Portals to Medicaid and Head Start were down on Tuesday, with an ominous message: “🚩 PAYMENT DELAYS: Due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments.”

This came days after a similarly abrupt pause on purchasing and communications at the National Institutes of Health. “It’s difficult to tell if what’s going on is rank incompetence or a willful attempt to throw sand in the gears, but it really could be either, neither reflects well on them,” said former FDA official Dr. Peter Lurie, a quote that we can pre-paste into every single story about this administration for the next four years.

Democrats wrote Matthew Vaeth a disgusted letter, and the lawsuits immediately began! Attorneys general from 23 states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James have filed suit, and so have the National Council of Nonprofits, American Public Health Association, and Main Street Alliance, an advocacy organization for small businesses. So go ahead, acting Attorney General James McHenry, run your 🚩 memo up the flagpole and see if a judge salutes!

And Tuesday night a federal judge froze the freeze until February 3 pending further review.

Hey, how does the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, feel about being put out of a job? Not too bad! He’s been working on his swing at Trump’s Doral golf club, and told CNN’s Maju Raju, “I think that’s probably what you ought to do when you’re coming in as a new administration.” And: “I’m not a lawyer, I can’t pontificate on what’s legal but I suspect what’s happening is what most Republicans would be supportive of. Appropriations is not a law, it’s the directive of Congress.” Actually it is, but, whatever, go tee off, see you for the midterms!

In December, Cole pounded out a telling Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal: He’s all about cutting mandatory spending. “The nation recently boasted historic revenue receipts, yet our debt hasn’t budged downward. We can’t tax our way out of the problem. Nor can we afford to cut the Pentagon’s budget.”

Um, why the fuck not? The Pentagon budget is the size of the next nine largest countries’ combined. We could cut the Pentagon budget by more than half and still have the largest military budget in the world. And if you’re itching so hard to cut a trillion dollars out of the budget, there is simply no other way, even if you get rid of every single dime of discretionary spending. The GAO made everybody a nice graphic, and you can read more at the Kids’ Encyclopedia.

Make the Pentagon hold a bake sale to buy a bomber and leave grandma’s cancer treatment alone!

Sen. Chris Murphy knows what’s up with this power grab.

Anyway, story developing, and stay tuned.

[New York Times archive link/ CNN /National Council of Nonprofits et al vs. OMB]

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