On January 6, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled ten billion dollars worth of funding to the states of Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado, all of which voted against him during each of his Presidential runs.
Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado will be cut off from around $7.3 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance to households with children, the Department of Health and Human Services announced. The five states will also lose access to nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund, which supports child care for working parents, and around $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk.
The New York Times
To justify these cuts, the administration claimed that there was widespread fraud in all of those states, without presenting any evidence. These cuts were also made despite the money being appropriated by Congress, making them legally questionable.
The reduction in federal aid risks the welfare of “hundreds of thousands of low-income households in the five states.” The Governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, warned that about 152,000 children may be affected by the cancellation of funds. This is despite Trump and his movement claiming to be one that favors the working and middle classes.
Months ago, Trump punished several of the same majority Democratic states by freezing funding for infrastructure projects.
