Illinois politicians made the state's citizens proud today. They spoke out as all politicians of conscience should speak out each day — every day until the degenerate fraudulence infesting the White House and plaguing the nation is wiped clean from our lives and it gets hauled back to its foul, fetid, stinking swamp.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza released this statement, full transcript courtesy of WREX-TV, Rockford:
I am prepared to stand with Governor JB Pritzker [et al.] in fighting this egregious action by President Trump. The freezing of vital federal funds will immediately impact millions of students, parents, medical and health care recipients, women and children, and our schools in Illinois.
We are talking about medical care, law enforcement, veterans care, student loans, TANF, WIC, childcare assistance, school breakfast and lunch programs, Head Start programs, and more-federal programs that were authorized by the U.S. Congress....
On Thursday we processed all $518 million in Medicaid bills on-hand and received our federal match yesterday before the administration shut down our access to the Medicaid system....
It is reckless for President Trump to take this action with essentially no guidance or explanation about exactly which federal funds are included, leaving states to pick up the pieces and figure out how to best protect and provide services to their residents.
Our most vulnerable residents in all 102 counties, along with our healthcare, human services and social service providers, should not be punished by this action dictated by the Trump Administration....
These actions create widespread disruption and chaos rather than stability and predictability, putting American lives at risk.
Likewise, no executive officer, even the President, should undermine the authority of the U.S. Congress in appropriating funds for federal programs.
The people across America that these federally funded programs serve, represent all walks of life – urban, rural, Democrat, Republican and everyone in-between. Disease and disability do not choose to affect one political party over another.
Freezing federal funds critical to providing medical and health care and every other critical category targeted poses a serious threat to all impacted Americans and no one should welcome this misguided action. If President Trump will not reverse his reckless and unconstitutional executive order, I hope and pray the courts will quickly do it for him.
Sen. Dick Durbin's statement, in part:
[It's] unconstitutional. Above all else, it’s inhumane. Every American relies on federal funding-from public safety, disaster relief, medical research funding, and small business loans to Head Start and child care programs, veterans care, nutrition assistance, food inspectors, and so much more. Denying critical funding for our families will not make America great.
Rep. Bill Foster's, again, in part:
Trump's order to indiscriminately freeze federal aid and grants is illegal, willfully ignorant, and cruel.
And Rep. Eric Sorensen's:
Incredibly irresponsible and hurtful to hard working families in our country.
This is not "resistance." This is reaction, a counteraction — and so soon — the very kind of full-throated assault against petty tyranny that will obliterate the motherlode of this malicious fathead's electoral support and, day by triumphant day, take. him. down.
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