After the advent of Donald Trump’s second term as president, the US bureaucracy is in a period of great analysis and review of all federal programs and initiatives identified by the Office of Management and Budget to receive the green light to continue operating, or in the worst case to be cancelled by turning off the tap of government resources that allow them to operate.
The million-dollar question is not how many and which ones are under scrutiny, the big question should be which ones are not? According to the NYT, the Trump administration sent a memorandum to federal agencies in the United States ordering them to “temporarily freeze funding for programs across the government,” which of course took its toll on both insiders and outsiders, as these are programs of the most varied kinds that cannot be stopped and are not for profit.
The strangest thing is the basis for this order, as according to the document it seeks to ensure that these programs “do not promote Marxist equity, transgenderism and the social engineering policies of the Green New Deal”, so much so that one of the questions in the questionnaire is as specific as this: “Does this program promote gender ideology?”
What programs and initiatives will not be affected?
Listing all the programs and initiatives is an excess, considering that practically all of them are in this memorandum, but there are honorable exceptions.
Judge Loren L. AliKhan rightly said: “It appears that the federal government does not currently really know the full extent of the programs that will be subject to the pause,” which are listed in 51 pages sent to all agencies and departments with a questionnaire to be submitted by February 7.
Trump administration officials said that “programs that provide direct assistance such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Head Start, student loans and nutrition assistance programs such as food stamps or SNAP would not be affected.”
Here are just a few of the most important ones that are particularly relevant because of their weight, budget and dependence, as it has not been specified what will happen to the fine detail, which Trump initially said would not be affected:
- Offices that provide nutritional assistance to poor mothers and young children.
- Individual rental assistance programs
- Tax credit programs, grant programs or loans
- Interest on the federal debt that the United States pays to its creditors.
