Originally published at: Walz Calls Medicaid Freeze Out for What It Is: Another Layer Of Trump’s ‘Campaign of Retribution’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rolled out a sweeping new anti-fraud package he plans to ask his state legislature to pass just one day after Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration would freeze $259 million in Medicaid funding for Minnesota. During a press conference announcing the package, which he claimed the Trump administration…
Makes complete sense when you punish someone to make it worse by taking away mechanisms to improve behavior.
It’s for your own good, right?
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Walz said. “It does nothing, and they’ve given us no way to try and show that all the things they asked us to do, we’ve already done. They’re not even looking at that.”
Of course not. They just want the optics to make it look like they are tough on fraud.
This will give Trump new authority over elections, including the power to issue a national ban on things like states accepting mail-in ballots and the use of electronic voting machines.
So all those GOPers will not be able to vote since they are the ones that mostly use mail in ballots…like the CF. And there is no way to get results by midnight with hand counting. I can hear it now ‘ is this a hanging chad?’
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I have an in-law in her late 70s, some dementia, on Medicaid. Were she to lose that here in Calif, replacing that care would fall on my wife and myself and I’m not sure we could replace it. We just don’t have the strength and resources etc.
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IS HE DEAD YET!?!?!???
(This is my complete sentence) 
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Zohran Mamdami proves himself an excellent politician once again. While those of us who comment here would have either picked a (losing) fight or walked away mad, Mayor Mamdami charmed the socks off the iDJiT’s swollen feet and convinced him to release that innocent student. Without a lawsuit or even Supreme Court intervention!!!
A real professional there. May he go far.
Another image from the Kevin Drum collection. Tony:
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The Trump administration has been alluding to enacting such a sweeping hit to blue states for some time.
Can’t wait until we can order the southern states to fix their many, many, many real problems or lose federal funding which will be returned to us taxpayers as unspent funding.
Not only is this Republican administration not helping states, but it’s also deliberately wasting taxpayer’s dollars by the bucketful. If you want any state’s rights, you need to vote complete Democratic tickets.
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My late mother had Alzheimer’s. I cared for her at home until she reached the stage where she needed monitoring 24/7. Medicaid covered her nursing home & medical expenses until she passed a few years later. I don’t know what would have happened if it had been taken from her
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Tony is quite the beautiful tabby ! 
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What’s with the disappearing avatars ?
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“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes.”
Trump is aware of them because he’s helping them, particularly the Russians.
People in Minnesota aren’t interfering with the election process. Neither are the other 49 states, though I’d check Texas, Florida and the Deep South to be sure.
Yes. South. Deep South. Not Deep State.
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I’m not sure it’s really about fraud either. Crying fraud is just another excuse for what this is really about: Trump wants to get back at Walz for calling Trump weird during the 2024 campaign. So he’s punishing the entirety of Minnesota just to hurt Walz.
Because that’s how thin-skinned and petty Trump really is.
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More adventures with Bambu ballots and UV lights?
It’s ideas like this that drive me crazy. There are dozens of good ideas that are easy to present as good for society and these lawmakers focus on one that’s 1) unlikely to get passed, 2) will face significant court challenges, and 3) gives the people it would affect a cudgel to claim they’re the ones who need protecting. Stop wasting good energy on bad ideas.
If you want the people who work for ICE to be barred from law enforcement raise the requirements to serve in law enforcement for your state, the gravy seals won’t make the cut.
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Is a complete sentence as well
ETA: but my post was not…. Are you listening, discobot?
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There’s a messaging opportunity here, with respect not only to the withholding of Medicaid funds, but also the immigration surge. The existing frames are exhausted (the cruelty is the point), and don’t quite get there. I haven’t quite captured it, but it goes something like this.
It is most obvious with the Medicaid freeze - many real innocent people will be physically harmed, will be in pain, and some will die. The stated objective is to deal with Medicaid fraud; if you want to deal with fraud, take targetted action against the fraudsters. Most large scale Medicaid fraud is perpetrated by health care providers, not patients. Withdrawing Medicaid funds intentionally mass targets and harms patients, all patients, and turns them into victims. They are being punished for something they did not do.
The immigration system was broken. The remedy is to fix the immigration system in the broken places. The immigration surge is mass targetted to terrorize the entire local population. It inflicts physical harm on a narrower group of people, those it violently detains, removes and incarcerates in inhumane conditions for long periods before it ships them away to dangerous places. The physical harm impacts fewer people, but inflicts massive violence, harm, pain, and sometimes death on those who fall into the clutches of the ICE and CBP goons and the contractors who run detention facilities. The immigrants and by-standers who are victims of the surge have done nothing to cause the broken immigration system. They are being punished for something they did not do.
Both projects, the selective withholding of Medicaid funds, but particularly the immigration surge, are crimes against humanity. Say it.
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DJT: Callousness, Cruelty, and Classless
And there was a bill last year to fix it and the First Felon needed the political issue of the broken system so insisted to the GQP that they vote it down. Which they did. And here we are.
Always remember and never forget: the First Felon prolonged this mess by denying the passage of the bill.
S.4361 - Border Act of 2024
Procedural Block: The bill failed a crucial procedural vote (cloture) intended to begin debate on the measure.
Vote Count: The vote was 43-50, falling well short of the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster and advance the legislation.
Loss of Support: The bill actually received fewer votes in May than it did when it was first introduced as part of a larger foreign aid package in February 2024.
Opposition:
Republicans: Most Senate Republicans voted against it, following the lead of former President Donald Trump, who urged them to reject the deal.
Democrats: Several Democrats also voted against it, expressing concerns that the bill’s provisions were too restrictive or that the vote was a political maneuver.
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How is Vance adding his chances in 2028 by being Trump’s point man for this attack on the Trump base?