Asks CT Republicans “What is so ‘common sense’ about this?”
HARTFORD – Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) released the following statement today after the back-and-forth chaos of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s confusing and reckless potential freeze on federal aid:
“Connecticut Republicans backed President Trump’s proposed federal aid freeze and called the move ‘common sense.’ What is so ‘common sense’ about the potential shutdown of basic funding for every community in our state?
“From the moment this disastrous and politically motivated freeze was announced, Connecticut Senate Democrats made our outrage loud, clear, and unequivocal. We were horrified that Donald Trump’s White House, Republicans in Washington, and their Republican enablers here in Connecticut would be so dismissive of the funding that our communities rely on.
“We hoped that Connecticut Republicans will join us and speak out against Trump’s proposed cuts to the programs that we all rely on, but their response to date has been callous and cold-hearted. They applauded Trump’s ‘common-sense efforts’ and declared Connecticut’s concerns about Trump as ‘theatrics’ and ‘gaslighting.’ But the bedlam of the Trump administration speaks for itself:
-On Monday evening at 7 p.m., Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a broadly worded memo declaring that trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans to states would become unavailable as of Tuesday at 5 p.m. The memo immediately sparked mass confusion across the country, prompting frantic calls to elected officials from parents, educators, public safety officers, social service providers and others.
-On Tuesday afternoon, as national news reports of the public outrage grew, Trump’s OMB ‘clarified’ its message to say that the funding freeze applied only to ‘the use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.’
-Just hours later, on that same Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., a federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued a temporary injunction against implementing Trump’s funding freeze.
-Then, earlier today (Wednesday afternoon), Trump’s OMB completely backed off its own Monday evening memo, saying the freeze that Trump had ordered is now ‘completely rescinded.’
-But just moments later, White House Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that only the original Monday memo calling for the freeze had been rescinded, and that efforts to ‘end the egregious waste of federal funding’ will continue and that Trump’s review of federal funds for states will ‘remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.’
“If Connecticut Republicans have no interest in the role and responsibilities of government, they can leave the governing to us, as the people of Connecticut so recently indicated they prefer, as they elected overwhelming Democratic majorities in both the state House, the state Senate, and in our Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.
“We are not even two weeks into Trump’s term, and we know there will be more chaos similar to the past three days. We hope the next time Connecticut Republicans will decide to join us and speak out against drastic cuts to hard-working families all across the state.”
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