Less than 24 hours after Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar heckled Donald Trump during his State of the Union address, Vice President J.D. Vance launched the Trump administration’s so-called “war on fraud” (but not Trump’s exempted, no doubt) by singling out Minnesota first. On Wednesday, Vance declared, “We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money.” That amount is reportedly a quarter of a billion dollars.
Interesting timing, eh?
What Omar shouted was 100% true and 100% deserved. As Trump falsely described Minnesota’s Somali community as “pirates,” the Somali-born Omar called him a “liar” and correctly yelled, along with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, “You're killing Americans!"
Predictably, that prompted a Trump temper tantrum. The guy who thinks he deserves to dish it out and take nothing in return (especially from women) whined that the two female lawmakers “had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized." He also said, "We should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible," even though both are American citizens.
Then, less than 24 hours later, Vance made his announcement. “What we’re doing,” Vance intoned, “is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated against the American [taxpayers].”
In fact, the whole MAGA attack on Minnesota is about as big a load of BS as Trump and Vance lies about immigrants in Ohio.
Putting aside the billions of Trump corruption going on under Vance’s nose that he seems fine with, the move seems illegal. In fact, a reporter asked Yale Law School grad Vance to “talk about the legal authority under which the federal government pauses legally obligated funds, such as Medicaid?”
As Dr. Mehmet Oz grinned ghoulishly, Vance declared, “Congress appropriates the money. We’re the ones who actually make sure it actually goes to the people it ought to go to.”
That did not answer the question.
That’s probably because there is no legal authority. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to the cuts, saying, “Courts have repeatedly found that their pattern of cutting first and asking questions later is illegal, and if the federal government is unlawfully withholding money meant for the 1.2 million low-income Minnesotans on Medicaid, we will see them in court.”
