Tag: office of management and budget
Stephen Miller

Is Funding Freeze A 'Media Hoax' -- Or A 'Gift To Terrorists'?

Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff, is under fire after appearing repeatedly to attempt to whitewash the Office of Management and Budget memo that ordered a funding freeze on “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.”

The OMB memo, which was not publicly rolled out but rather discovered by journalist Marisa Kabas, appears to have led to the shuttering on Tuesday of the Medicaid portals in all 50 states. There were also reports that in addition to the Medicaid portal, the portal for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as “food stamps,” also went down on Tuesday, along with other sources or recipients of federal funding.

Miller declared that the massive nationwide concern and confusion were a media creation.

“I can’t help it if left-wing media outlets published a fake news story that caused confusion,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. The confusion, Miller insisted, was a “false story” that was “created by the media.”

Later on Tuesday Miller doubled down, declaring on social media, “Welcome to the first dumb media hoax of 2025. OMB ordered a review of funding to NGOs, foreign governments and large discretionary contracts. It explicitly excluded all aid and benefit programs. Leftwing media outright lied and some people fell for the hoax.”

OMB was forced to issue an explainer Tuesday after media outlets accurately reported what the OMB memo stated. But some say that the FAQ was an opportunity for OMB to backtrack after massive, nationwide anger, fear, and confusion — which was somewhat quieted after a federal judge issued a temporary partial pause on the OMB memo.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) responded to Miller’s remarks, writing: “They are back-tracking because we spoke up. Good. But make no mistake: their OMB memo ordered a freeze of *all* grants. The Medicaid and SNAP portals went dark. Head Start providers couldn’t draw funds. This was not a coincidence. It was their plan. And they screwed up bigly.”

Despite Miller’s repeated claims that the memo was clear and did not affect a wide array of federally-funded programs, The Boston Globe reported that “Children’s Friend, a Head Start program in Rhode Island, said it was unable to draw down $500,000 for this week’s payroll,” and “Open Door Health, an LGBTQ+ health clinic, said it could not access its federal funds on Tuesday.”

Rep. Magaziner also posted a list of organizations that he says are being blocked from receiving funding by the Trump Department of Homeland Security. “This is a gift to terrorists and our adversaries across the world. Trump needs to stop this madness and resume funding now,” Magaziner, the Homeland Security Ranking Member for Counterterrorism, wrote:

Outrage at Miller’s remarks calling the massive public upset and confusion over OMB’s memo a “dumb media hoax” was extensive.

“Completely false. Your first lie of the year. Payment Management Services (PMS), through which states get Medicaid funds from the federal government, had a banner saying payments were stopped because of Trump’s order. Stop lying,” wrote MSNBC columnist Rotimi Adeoye, whose bio says he is a former congressional aide and advisor for the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

“Sure there are dumb media hoaxes but if you accidentally turn off Medicaid people notice,” observed Matt Stoller, a political commentator, author, and the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Senate Democrats: Trump Put Federal Workers At COVID-19 Risk

Senate Democrats: Trump Put Federal Workers At COVID-19 Risk

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Democratic senators are questioning the Trump administration about whether it has been doing enough to protect federal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent Monday to the White House, the senators demanded more information about the administration's policies, and they cited ProPublica coverage detailing how agencies have come up short.

The administration has the “authority and responsibility to make sure that federal agencies have effective and clear policies to protect these employees," wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 20 other lawmakers.

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Trump Budget Chief Can’t Explain Why GOP Blocked Military Pay During Shutdown

Trump Budget Chief Can’t Explain Why GOP Blocked Military Pay During Shutdown

Republicans have been backed into a corner for blocking military pay, and they have no good answers for why they’re harming the troops through their political gamesmanship.
Donald Trump’s budget chief Mick Mulvaney had no real answer when asked why the White House and Republican Party are blocking service members’ pay and benefits during the GOP-engineered shutdown of the federal government.

Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced a resolution to ensure that military personnel continue to receive their pay during the shutdown, as President Obama had done during the Republican-led shutdown in 2013.

But that lie was exposed on Sunday morning when Mulvaney was confronted by Face the Nation host John Dickerson about comments he made during the 2013 shutdown, in which Mulvaney pointed out that “our troops are still being paid.”

“I have a much greater understanding of a shutdown now that I’m the O.M.B. director,” Mulvaney insisted, but then falsely implied that military pay was deferred in 2013, as it will likely be this time around.

But Dickerson wasn’t dissuaded. “Claire McCaskill … brought up a vote to pay them while the shutdown was going on,” Dickerson said, adding “That vote — Mitch McConnell didn’t bring that up for vote.”

“Why wouldn’t the White House, the executive branch, do everything they can to take care of the troops while this is being adjudicated?” Dickerson asked.

Mulvaney first tried to dodge the question by vaguely referring to other unrelated resolutions that were proposed Friday night into Saturday morning, but finally chalked the blocking of military pay by Republicans to “the sort of the dynamic flow in the Senate.”

Unfortunately, our troops can’t pay their bills with Mulvaney’s excuses.

All day long on Sunday, Trump officials like Mulvaney tried to escape the consequences of their shutdown, and time and again, those efforts were met with failure.

Hopefully, that failure will lead them to end this shutdown quickly, and stop holding Americans hostage to their destructive agenda.

Budget Director Mulvaney: It’s “Kind Of Cool” To Shut Down Government

Budget Director Mulvaney: It’s “Kind Of Cool” To Shut Down Government

The Republican effort to pin the blame on Democrats for the shutdown the GOP engineered has suffered another blow, with Donald Trump’s own budget director openly stating that he considers his role in enacting the shutdown “kind of cool.”

Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. They decide what legislation comes up for a vote, what is allowed to proceed, and which bills become the law.

But when Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office of Management and Budget, spoke to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he offered a stunning moment of honesty.

As Hannity tried to minimize the fallout from a shutdown, Mulvaney told him that “the Office of Management and Budget is charged with, you know, sort-of implementing running a shutdown.”

“In fact, I found out for the first time last night that the person who technically shuts the government down is me, which is kind of cool,” he added.

That doesn’t sound like someone who sees shutting down the government as a negative thing.

And if it isn’t negative, that gives up the entire unfortunate game Republicans have been playing with the most important government in the world.

Mulvaney’s flippancy echoes Trump himself, who wrote in May of last year, “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’.” That same month, Mulvaney argued that “a shutdown in September” could be a way for Trump to “change Washington.”

When he served in Congress, Mike Pence was part of the team pushing for a shutdown in 2011. And Mulvaney, who represented South Carolina in Congress, was part of that push as well.

Republicans wanted a shutdown and so they engineered one. But the idea is extremely unpopular with Americans. The blame for the current crisis is falling squarely on Republican shoulders, particularly Trump.

And in the safe space of right-wing media, speaking to fellow travelers like Hannity, Trump’s team is still letting it slip that they find the entire sordid affair “kind of cool.”

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