No way to run a business let alone govern. Trump funding freeze sows chaos, confusion | Opinion

At the very least, President Trump’s executive order to freeze funding for federal grants, loans and assistance programs momentarily threw the country and Idaho into a state of confusion and chaos.

The Office of Management and Budget tried to issue guidelines to put people’s fears at rest, but the statement did little to clear up any confusion about what would get affected.

Would it affect the grant to Micron to build a new plant in Boise as part of the CHIPS Act? Who knows? What about loans for minority-owned businesses? OMB assured that funds “for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused,” but how could someone know whether Trump’s bans on specific funding doesn’t apply to those programs?

Would it affect any of the 38,000 active grants issued by the Department of Health and Human Services?

Trump’s broad categories of funding for “foreign aid” and “nongovernmental organizations” were so vague that they could encompass food programs and humanitarian aid.

Even grants that have already been awarded but not spent reportedly would be halted, at least temporarily.

The pause was scheduled to take place Tuesday afternoon — luckily a judge stepped in to halt it in response to one lawsuit — just one day after agencies were informed of the decision, leaving them scrambling to figure out the depth and scope of the order.

And, as we all know with Trump, it’s better to be safe than sorry, or else you’ll feel his wrath, which explains why so many once-respected Republicans now cower and kowtow to anything Trump decides to do — even if it’s the wrong thing to do.

Where is Idaho’s congressional delegation? By withholding money already approved by Congress, Trump once again tried to step over the line between legislative and executive power, thereby throwing off a cliff our system of checks and balances.

But Idaho’s delegation remains silent.

Well, silent on this issue anyway.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, spent his time Tuesday issuing a sycophantic news release about how he’s a co-sponsor on a bill to make Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy law. Is he going to do anything to defend Congress’ constitutional power to control the purse strings?

Simpson, of all people, should be speaking out against this executive overreach. After all, Simpson has served on the House Appropriations Committee since he was first elected in 1999. He’s currently chairman of the subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, which surely must be a target of Trump’s cuts.

And what of the federal funding that Simpson has garnered for his district? Is funding for a new downtown YMCA too “woke” for Trump and the far right? How about the $3 million for a Boys & Girls Club in Jerome?

Or what about the $2 million Simpson secured for the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, which includes goals of “green energy production and energy-use conservation”? Uh-oh, could be big trouble there.

For sure, the federal budget deficit and national debt are out of control and need to be addressed. Been that way forever. But declaring a funding freeze out of the blue, and on money that Congress already approved, is not only constitutionally suspect, but creates an environment of chaos and confusion.

And it’s painfully clear that Trump’s freeze wasn’t based on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, or anything sound. It was based on hateful, ideological motivation. Look at the statements: “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” and “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” according to a memo from OMB acting director Matthew Veath.

Fortunately, as mentioned, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday blocked Trump’s funding freeze, giving everyone at least a temporary respite from the confusion.

We’re only in the second week of Trump’s second term, and his incompetent, bumbling, erratic, irrational way of governing is at worst a violation of the Constitution, and at best a lousy way to run a business, let alone a government.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to govern, and this is clearly the wrong way.