Fed Funding Freeze Causes Chaos & Indie Book Site Takes On Amazon
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What is the chaos caused by the federal funding freeze?
Then the Trump administration's vague directive to halt $3 trillion in federal funding has hit a bit of a roadblock. It's Wednesday, January 29th. Let's ride.
Happy Lunar New Year, if you're one of the more than 1 billion people celebrating the arrival of the year of the snake, the wood snake this year, to be precise. Sounds a little spooky, but it isn't. Unlike in Western culture, snakes aren't considered the manifestation of evil and temptation in China. Instead, the slithery animals are associated with spirituality, charisma, intelligence, and art, but also cunning and mystery. Some people you may have heard of who were born in the year of the snake, Mahatma Gandhi, Bob Dylan, and Taylor Swift. Toby, obviously this had me checking my Chinese zodiac sign, and turns out I was born in the year of the goat, which is no surprise because, well, I'm the goat. What's your sign?
I am the year of the ox, Neil, which is unfortunately really bad news for the podcast because apparently, according to the Chinese Zodiac, ox and goat are not compatible at all and should in fact avoid each other wherever possible. So it might be time for me to pack it up and you need to go out and find a pig or a rabbit because apparently that is what you are compatible with. Okay.
Oh, so it was really a concentrated sell-off. Neil, you know what? You're always on it. Where do you even come up with all these facts?
Well, I usually just give Yahoo Finance a peruse.
Oh, so I was giving you too much credit. You derive your power from perusing Yahoo Finance. Hey, it's right there for you to access too.
I'm just a better peruser than you.
How does the Trump administration's directive affect federal funding?
If you want to up your perusing game to Neil levels, head to yahoofinance.com. On Monday, the Trump administration directed all federal agencies to pause hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and loans, creating deep uncertainty among those who rely on federal funding. But yesterday evening, a federal judge played an Uno reverse card and temporarily froze Trump's freeze until February 3rd. The administration spent most of yesterday clarifying their memo, saying it wasn't a blanket pause and it wouldn't affect programs offering direct payments to individuals like Social Security or Medicare. The goal of the pause was to take stock and make sure programs align with the president's priorities and also rein in government spending on grant programs and federal assistance, which hit $3 trillion last fiscal year. That is nearly half of the $7 trillion the government is expected to spend in fiscal year 2025. The pause also likely sets up a constitutional fight over spending powers.
The executive branch is only allowed to spend money allocated by Congress and signed by the president. And many see Trump's order as an unconstitutional attack on Congress's power of the purse. Already states are pushing back. A coalition of attorneys generals filed a suit yesterday to block the order. So Neil, not only does this order affect a lot of cash and a lot of people, but it will no doubt also find its way to the courts.
This was absolute chaos yesterday. It was very similar to a self-imposed federal government shutdown where Congress is stymied by the fact that they can't spend any money because the government has shut down. There's no budget. It was very similar to that where there's just no money flowing from the government. As you mentioned, there's tens of hundreds of billions of dollars going from D.C.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the chaos caused by the federal funding freeze?
0:37–2:31
2
How does the Trump administration's directive affect federal funding?
2:31–9:41
3
What are the legal implications of the funding freeze?
9:41–13:14
4
What changes are being made to Google Maps?
13:14–14:25
5
What is the significance of the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico?
14:25–18:25
6
What advancements are happening in supersonic travel?
18:25–20:24
7
What challenges does Boom Supersonic face for commercial flights?
20:24–27:20
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Morning Brew Daily
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