On Monday, President Donald Trump’s appearing director for the Workplace of Administration and Funds (OMB), Matthew Vaeth, despatched out a memo successfully freezing all federal grants, loans, and different types of monetary help. The memo, which was initially interpreted to threaten such basic social applications as Medicaid and Social Safety, was met with widespread criticism, confusion, and panic.
Washington State Senator Patty Murray minced no phrases, describing it as “brazen and unlawful.” On Tuesday, Federal Decide Loren AliKhan of the District of Columbia issued a final minute injunction blocking the transfer. Then on Wednesday morning, Vaeth adopted as much as say the preliminary order was rescinded. Shortly after that, Trump’s pugnacious new spox, Karoline Leavitt, chimed in to say the order was not the truth is rescinded, solely the OMB memo.
So far as we will inform, Trump didn’t situation any govt order associated to federal grantees and mortgage recipients. There was solely ever the OMB memo. See if you may make any extra sense of her tweet about it than we will:
That is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.
It’s merely a rescission of the OMB memo.
Why? To finish any confusion created by the court docket’s injunction.
The President’s EO’s on federal funding stay in full pressure and impact, and will likely be rigorously carried out.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 29, 2025
Both means, whereas the cash faucet stays on, albeit threatened, Sen. Murray warned that, “this combat is way from over; the Trump administration continues to be illegally withholding funding for communities in purple states and in blue states.”
Senate Republicans, she famous, are nonetheless keen to verify Russ Vought, the person behind Mission 2025, a right-wing plan to dismantle the federal government and rebuild it in a Christian Nationalist picture.
So what would occur right here in Washington if Trump, Vaeth, and Vought do finally get their means? Would folks on Medicaid be denied protection for lifesaving treatment? Would instructor paychecks bounce? Would society collapse?
Not instantly, in line with State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti. Whereas all that would finally occur, we will maintain out for a bit, supplied we maintain plentiful money reserves and preserve our already wonderful Moody’s AAA credit standing.
“The [efforts] of the Trump administration to coerce states and different governments—it is going to come by way of federal funds,” Pellicciotti stated. “And that is simply the beginning of that. That is why we have to focus a lot as a state on preserving our reserves and sustaining our state’s credit score in order that we not solely have the funds essential to fill gaps in an emergency scenario, however with our sturdy credit score rankings, we’re additionally capable of borrow cash in a pinch if it comes all the way down to that.”
Nevertheless, one has to surprise simply how lengthy we will maintain out, even with ample wet day cash and borrowing energy. Per information compiled by Pellicciotti’s workplace throughout final 12 months’s election, when Mission 2025 first reared its ugly head, Washington State will get an entire lot of cash from the feds. Round $27 billion a 12 months, to be actual.
And that’s simply the state. Almost each municipality, county, and main nonprofit in our state will get at the least some federal grant funding. The Metropolis of Seattle is slated to get about $29 million in housing and homelessness associated grants in 2025, for starters. In the newest fiscal 12 months, Seattle pocketed $207 million in federal funds, together with a $50 million chunk from the non permanent Coronavirus Aid bundle.
United Approach, a corporation that funds an entire lot of smaller native nonprofits, will get at the least $750,000 a 12 months, the brink at which organizations qualify for a yearly federal audit. Wildfire catastrophe reduction and restoration efforts in Japanese Washington rely closely on federal funding. Washington State Ferries, the biggest commuter ferry system within the nation, is barely conserving it collectively and doing so partly because of $140 million in federal grants over the past two years. About 12,000 youngsters in our state obtain federally sponsored childcare each month.
Even the Downtown Emergency Providers Middle depends upon grant income for the lion’s share of its funding. Federal funding is so ubiquitous that just about each establishment conserving society chugging alongside at a considerably regular tempo depends upon it.
“I can’t sugarcoat it,” Pellicciotti stated, of the unique order, “withholding of federal {dollars} has a huge effect and never simply [on] the financial system and state funds or authorities. It has a huge effect on folks’s on a regular basis lives.”
As dire as issues may get, loads of our most important companies are already ready. The Seattle Housing Authority is an efficient instance of this.
“Federal housing {dollars} make up the biggest supply of working income for the Authority and the principal supply of funding for public housing capital,” the company wrote in its 2022 annual report. That 12 months, it took in about $255 million in federal cash for operations.. As dangerous as a $5 million per week gap within the working finances of our metropolis’s primary supplier of public housing may sound, it will take a really very long time for any low-income households to be negatively affected.
Susanna Linse, a spokesperson for the company, stated shortly after the freeze was first introduced that the company “has working reserves to proceed our work by way of and past February 10.”
She additionally famous that “SHA has obtained OMB steerage that the freeze famous within the memorandum doesn’t impression the rental help for SHA’s residents or Housing Alternative Voucher contributors.”
(Full disclosure: My mom, Kerry Coughlin, is SHA’s director of communications.)
Certainly, an fascinating a part of this complete freeze saga was that the Trump administration, after issuing a reasonably fucking daring, huge boy govt order, nearly instantly walked it again to clarify that it wasn’t planning to pause all the favored stuff. Or, to place a finer level on it, the duct tape and wire holding our financial system collectively and/or conserving us all from rioting.
Earlier than giving up on the entire thing, the OMB despatched a follow-up memo promising that, “any program that gives direct advantages to Individuals is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this overview course of. Along with Social Safety and Medicare —already explicitly excluded within the steerage—obligatory applications like Medicaid and SNAP will proceed with out pause.”
Additionally they gave a move to Pell Grants, Head Begin, rental help, and a slew of different types of direct authorities help. As our state’s fearless mother in tennis footwear put it, “Not even 24 hours later, they’re issuing new steerage making an attempt to scrub up the huge mess they’ve made.”
Murray is most definitely not fallacious there. The follow-up memo did additional harm management by emphasizing that the overview was non permanent and that it was particularly targeted on bringing grantees and mortgage recipients into compliance with Trump’s different wackadoo govt orders, which have taken direct intention on the fundamental proper of trans folks to exist and such unpopular insurance policies as changing to scrub vitality earlier than we’re all burned off the face of the fucking planet.
Per the Washington Publish’s helpful tracker of what was and wasn’t formally topic to the now-hypothetical freeze, the applications most in danger had been analysis efforts, clear vitality incentives, and discretionary training grants, which go to such unpopular applications like after college care and the Particular Olympics.
Primarily, the positive of us at Mission 2025 — err, the OMB — have promised that as long as you’re not getting federal cash to run free curling classes for unlawful immigrants, you’ll get your grant again quickly sufficient. It would beggar perception that our federal authorities, even underneath the astute management of the man who paid to get boosted in Path of Exile 2 in the course of the inauguration, may full a complete overview of all federal grantees earlier than vitally necessary applications ran out of money and closed up store, however positive, no matter, it was solely meant to be non permanent.
That stated, the actual takeaway right here is that our sitting president got here dangerously near tanking the financial system over some tradition struggle bullshit. The bizarre right-wing accounts celebrating this shit on-line are by no means involved with authorities spending. In the event that they had been, they’d be tweeting in regards to the mission incapable F-35, now projected to value taxpayers $2 trillion over its lifetime, as an alternative of shit like this:
The answer? Everybody get a job and put away your begging bowl.
— richard (@richwink1) January 28, 2025
What it’s actually about is, because it at all times is for these MAGA ghouls, proudly owning the libs. The factor is, in the event that they assume that ending analysis grants in service of rooting out “Marxist fairness, transgenderism, and Inexperienced New Deal social engineering insurance policies” goes to do something concrete, something in addition to enraging their on-line enemies and placing a number of professors out of labor, they’ve acquired one other factor coming.
Like, when you assume DEI applications are foolish and that victims of pure disasters, homeless folks, and other people affected by opioid dependancy ought to simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps, you’re entitled to your misanthropic opinion. However it’s important to at the least acknowledge that math-wise it makes much more sense to ax the F-35 program first, proper? Proper!?
Truly, no, you get a move on this one. We’re probably the most aggressively propagandized nation on earth, and since nicely earlier than the time period “welfare queen” was ever coined, we’ve been advised that it is the poor inflicting issues in our nation when it’s actually the wealthy. For those who’re studying this although, take this as your final move. Unlawful immigrants didn’t take our jobs, the firms moved all of them abroad to take advantage of much less organized and extra determined staff. There isn’t any world wherein even the silliest, most superfluous federally funded nonprofit is responsible for our $36 trillion deficit or the more and more brutal financial circumstances dealing with staff.
That blame lies squarely on personal fairness, company tax cheats, and other people like Elon Musk, the fool billionaire behind this authorities waste witch hunt. Tesla and related firms have taken in $333 million in federal grants and tax credit. The corporate additionally loved a five-year interval the place they paid $0 in federal revenue taxes. Actually, they even acquired a $1 million refund. Possibly Musk ought to begin his anti-spending campaign at dwelling, in entrance of a mirror.
Anyway, the lengthy and the wanting it’s that there’s not a lot we as Washingtonians can do right here in addition to fear. We didn’t vote for the man doing this, we did vote for a wholly blue state legislature and govt department (together with Lawyer Basic Nick Brown, who rapidly and efficiently sued to dam this factor), and we don’t get to vote for something in addition to social housing (vote “Sure” and “Choice 1A,” please) for awhile.
However we shouldn’t fear. Trump knew full nicely he couldn’t get away with this. He did it to sow confusion and create chaos. He did it to maintain us trying the fallacious means. As a substitute, we should always look this lifeless within the eye. Everyone knows who’s bankrupting the nation, and it ain’t the DEI hires.