I was very closely watching the saga of OMB’s disastrous effort to freeze funding for a vast number of federal programs, and wrote about why it was actually revoked at New York.
This week the Trump administration set off chaos nationwide when it temporarily “paused” all federal grants and loans pending a review of which programs comply with Donald Trump’s policy edicts. The order came down in an unexpected memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget on Monday.
Now OMB has rescinded the memo without comment just as suddenly, less than a day after its implementation was halted by a federal judge. Adding to the pervasive confusion, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately insisted on Wednesday that the funding freeze was still on because Trump’s executive orders on DEI and other prohibited policies remained in place. But there’s no way this actually gets implemented without someone, somewhere, identifying exactly what’s being frozen. So for the moment, it’s safe to say the funding freeze is off.
Why did Team Trump back off this particular initiative so quickly? It’s easy to say the administration was responding to D.C. district judge Loren AliKhan’s injunction halting the freeze. But then again, the administration (and particularly OMB director nominee Russell Vought) has been spoiling for a court fight over the constitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act that the proposed freeze so obviously violated. Surely something else was wrong with the freeze, aside from the incredible degree of chaos associated with its rollout, requiring multiple clarifications of which agencies and programs it affected (which may have been a feature rather than a bug to the initiative’s government-hating designers). According to the New York Times, the original OMB memo, despite its unprecedented nature and sweeping scope, wasn’t even vetted by senior White House officials like alleged policy overlord Stephen Miller.
Democrats have been quick to claim that they helped generate a public backlash to the funding freeze that forced the administration to reverse direction, as Punchbowl News explained even before the OMB memo was rescinded:
“A Monday night memo from the Office of Management and Budget ordering a freeze in federal grant and loan programs sent congressional Republicans scrambling and helped Democrats rally behind a clear anti-Trump message. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Trump as ‘lawless, destructive, cruel.’
“D.C. senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, warned that thousands of federal programs could be impacted, including veterans, law enforcement and firefighters, suicide hotlines, military aid to foreign allies, and more …
“During a Senate Democratic Caucus lunch on Tuesday, Schumer urged his colleagues to make the freeze “relatable” to their constituents back home, a clear play for the messaging upper hand. Schumer also plans on doing several local TV interviews today.”
In other words, the funding freeze looks like a clear misstep for an administration and a Republican Party that were walking very tall after the 47th president’s first week in office, giving Democrats a rare perceived “win.” More broadly, it suggests that once the real-life implications of Trump’s agenda (including his assaults on federal spending and the “deep state”) are understood, his public support is going to drop like Wile E. Coyote with an anvil in his paws. If that doesn’t bother Trump or his disruptive sidekick, Elon Musk, it could bother some of the GOP members of Congress expected to implement the legislative elements of the MAGA to-do list for 2025.
It’s far too early, however, to imagine that the chaos machine humming along at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will fall silent even for a moment. OMB could very well issue a new funding-freeze memo the minute the injunction stopping the original one expires next week. If that doesn’t happen, there could be new presidential executive orders (like the ones that suspended certain foreign-aid programs and energy subsidies) and, eventually, congressional legislation. Democrats and Trump-skeptical Republicans will need to stay on their toes to keep up with this administration’s schemes and its willingness to shatter norms.
It’s true, nonetheless, that the electorate that lifted Trump to the White House for the second time almost surely wasn’t voting to sharply cut, if not terminate, the host of popular federal programs that appeared to be under the gun when OMB issued its funding freeze memo. Sooner or later the malice and the fiscal math that led to this and other efforts to destroy big areas of domestic governance will become hard to deny and impossible to rescind.
Biden should immediately switch to and highlight the platform of providing quality middle class jobs and deceasing outsourcing. Middle class has been the solid voting block for Democrats, and unfortunately being neglected in the 2016 election, and pretty much until now. We fight for immigrants, LGBT and women’s rights whom by far and large are middle-class themselves! The platform has to, at least to a degree, to highlight the plight of middle classes, and provide solid policy on bringing jobs back to America. Otherwise, we lose the election like we did in 2016. “It’s the economy, xxx” – of the middle class!
Take away the Republican’s Trump card:
“It’s the economy stupid!” – and Trump has borrowed unprecedented amounts to get re-elected. Why have I not been asked if I think that it is reasonable for Trump to have borrowed about $30,000 dollars per taxpayer ($48k+ per family) to float the economy until he gets re-elected? Why has Dems just let him have his strongest argument uncontested?
Simply put, he is a real estate con man that has completely succeeded in his greatest con. It is child play to tie the “King of Debt” to the king size debt he has built up. Why have I, as well as all voters, not been asked who do we think he will stick with this unprecedented bill?
In 2016, Republican’s had complete control our federal government. Did they fund the wall? No. Did they pass an anti-abortion law? No. Did they shrink the size of government? No. Did they reduce the deficit? No.
If fact, what they did is pass a huge tax cut for the rich. So why not show how Trump has played middle America? He lies to them. Trump also has lied about who pays the China Tariffs. We pay, of course. Why am I not hearing about how we are now paying more in the tariff tax than we have received in the tax cut? Why have I not heard about how this is another of Trump’s cons.
The underlying Republican strategy is to lie and cheat, and their lies will be effective. We are in the calm before the storm, and once they are done with muddying the water, then they will make the argument that we have to vote for them for the economy. TAKE THE TRUMP CARD AWAY!