The Trump administration on Tuesday said it was deferring more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to Minnesota and California because of “suspected fraud and noncompliance,” the latest in a series of punitive steps it has linked to allegations of fraud in mostly Democratic-led states.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the new actions — which come after previously announced Medicaid funding deferrals in those states — are part of the administration’s strategy to “stop the fraud before it happens” rather than claw back problematic spending after bad actors are prosecuted, as previous administrations had done.
“We have a duty to stop the payments, demand answers and then follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Kennedy told a news conference.
The tactic is part of the administration’s sweeping campaign to show it’s cracking down on fraud and saving taxpayers money when rising healthcare costs and other economic stressors have made affordability a top voter concern in November’s midterm elections.
I’m of two minds about this:
I hate that Donald is using this tactic to, ostensibly, punish people who vote against him and impose silent sabotage on his Gestapo rebrand. (Successfully, at that.)
I also hate that we can’t elect a progressive willing to go to these lengths to fight states that are embracing fascism, though getting Mamdani elected was a functional equivalent of electing a president of another country given NYC’s size and wealth, so there’s that. Like, why shouldn’t we have a president willing to withhold federal funding from Alabama until they pass a living wage or from Texas unitl they enact meaningful gun control? It’s only ever going to be a hypothetical, but that’s just where my mind went.
Because it’s horrific and unethical, that’s why.
Less so than fascism or the stupid notion that terrible things shouldn’t be stopped because of precious norms.
No, not less so. Actual living people depend on those Medicaid payments.
California should defer $1B in federal tax payments until they get the Medicaid payment lol
It’s ironic that so much of that money comes from California.
A state they ridicule endlessly. I think all the blue states are getting tired of funding the fascist deadbeats.
100%
I’d love to see the South panic without the welfare that Californians fund for them.