In the first days of the Trump-MAGA Republican instigated Government Shutdown, the regimes version of budgetary Dr. Death, American Mein Kampf-Project 2025’s White Christian nationalist enthusiast Russell Vought targeted his wrath and war on science on blue states, cancelling about eight billion dollars in clean energy grants and freezing $18 billion in infrastructure funding for New York’s transit system.
The states affected by this cancelling of clean energy grants are California, Minnesota, Oregon, New York, Connecticut, New Mexico, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington.
Red States like Montana, Texas, Florida, and South Carolina have also been impacted because of regional projects like a new battery factory in the Southeast.
The main grants affected, according to the New York Times are:
- $1.2 billion to projects in California and $1 billion to projects in the Pacific Northwest focused on the production, transportation and storage of clean hydrogen. This will affect Montana as well as California, Oregon, and Washington.
- Upgrading the nation’s electric grid.
- Methane cleanup in Colorado.
All of these states voted for Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the last three Presidential Elections.
Reacting to this war on science, prosperous clean energy future, and anything Joe Biden achieved, Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Senior Director of Domestic Policy, Climate and Energy Program at Third Way issued a statement that read:
“Investments in energy innovation and infrastructure improve grid reliability, keep America globally competitive, and lower electricity prices. By cancelling billions of dollars for crucial projects—overwhelmingly funded through bipartisan legislation—the Trump Administration is turning its back on energy workers, pulling the rug out from under businesses investing in America, and raising costs nationwide.
“Energy and research facilities aren’t built overnight. They require significant planning. Contracts have to be signed, supplies have to be purchased, and workers have to be hired. Companies enter federal agreements with one expectation: the federal government will keep its word. With this decision, the Administration once again demonstrates its word means nothing.
“Americans are deeply alarmed about rising costs. But instead of tackling surging prices, Trump is driving them even higher, and we’ve yet to see Republicans stop him. Energy costs are a major strain on families and businesses, and with this callous decision, Trump is making it harder to affordably meet our growing energy needs.
“And that is on top of a health care cost crisis that Republicans created by slashing millions of Americans from Medicaid, decimating rural hospitals, and now refusing to stop the health care that middle-class families need from doubling in cost. Real people will be hurt. That’s why Democrats are fighting back for hardworking Americans and demanding Republicans reverse these massive price hikes.”
In post on The Cycle written by Rachel Bitecofer and published on Substack, she warned that this is just what Vought and Trump wanted with the shutdown: “Because it hands them the keys to Project 2025’s wet dream — strip the government down and reopen only what Trump wants, under his personal control.”
Bitecofer cited Trump’s own words:
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irre- versible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast num- bers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
She also played Utah Senator Mike Lee’s quote that Russell Vought has dreamed about doing this since puberty.
Bitecofer is right when she calls Lee’s assertion “creepy.”
She finished her article laughing at Republicans for their mismanagement of the shutdown that has given Democrats a chance to finally fight back for the American People, stating:
This was supposed to hurt Democrats. Instead, Republicans are literally out of town while the country burns. They lit the fire, they’re filming themselves calling 911, and they think voters won’t notice the gasoline on their hands.
“I don’t cry over spilled milk. I adapt. And what I see now gives me a little hope:
- They’ve already blown the optics.
- They’re about to go so far off the rails that even the comatose middle can’t ignore it.
- And with Trump’s tariffs already crushing the economy, this shutdown could be the shove that tips us into a recession — right on their watch.
Republicans wanted this shutdown to consolidate power. Instead, they might have lit the fuse on their own political demolition.”
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.