Laura Barron-Lopez:
Well, we don’t really have a sense, Geoff. We asked the White House for a comprehensive list of all the programs that will be affected, and they didn’t provide one.
Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, blamed the press for the confusion, but Medicaid Web sites went offline, according to a number of Democratic senators. Republican leaders in Louisiana asked the White House for more clarity, worried that it could jeopardize their financial assistance.
And so, ultimately, there appears to be a bit of a pattern here, Geoff, which is that Stephen Miller has said and others in the Trump White House have said that they don’t believe that the Impoundment Control Act is constitutional. They don’t believe other laws that they are currently potentially violating are constitutional, and so they believe that the president does not have to follow them.
