Using Federal Authority and Funds to Foster Partisan Advocacy and Lies

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Using Federal Authority and Funds to Foster Partisan Advocacy and Lies

“An employee may not engage in political activity— while the employee is on duty; in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an individual employed or holding office in the Government of the United States or any agency or instrumentality thereof… [except] the duties and responsibilities of whose position continue outside normal duty hours and while away from the normal duty post.” 

5 U.S. Code § 7322 excerpt from the Hatch Act of 1939 (as amended in 1940 & 1993)

“President Trump opposes a lapse in appropriations, and on September 19, the House of Representatives passed, with the Trump Administration’s support, a clean continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands.” 

 Excerpt from an official letter, on Veterans Administration stationery, sent to veterans on the first day of the shutdown.

“The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.” 

 Pop-up message on the website for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R.5371) leading to a government shutdown, [and] as soon as the shutdown is over, we are prepared to immediately return to the record-breaking services we are providing under the leadership of the Trump administration." 

 “Out of Office” telephone message inserted without consent on many federal employees’ individual federal office answering service by their respective federal agency after they were gone, furloughed by reason of the government shutdown.

Take a really good look at the photograph left above. It is Russell Vought, an avowed Christian Nationalist and conservative political analyst who has served as the 44th director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) since February 2025. He is also a principal architect of the rightwing Heritage Foundation 900-page Project 2025 policy agenda, a document that 2024 candidate Trump said he was not familiar with but which he has implemented page-by-page (he is a bit more than halfway done) dismembering the federal government. A seeming brother-in-arms to Trump’s de facto Rasputin, Stephen Miller, Vought is apparently in charge of using the shutdown as justification for permanently trimming the federal workforce – as opposed to the traditional practice of bringing back federal employees after a congressional budgetary shutdown is over – with a particular focus on “Democratic Agencies” and labeled left-leaning federal employees, who are not aligned with President Trump’s agenda.

“What’s a Democratic Agency” was not specified with any detail, but in the discussions that have followed, it seems that any agency still not halting “green energy” programs, congressionally approved federal infrastructure projects (including co-funding) in blue states, any agencies focused on civil rights or infrastructure projects benefiting minority communities, government funding of public defenders, universities where federal curriculum control is not accepted as demanded, and federal agencies and programs targeting citizen benefits, like the EPA, the remaining federal employees at HUD or the Department of Education, whistleblowers, immigration judges not producing the Trump agenda fast enough, inspectors general not towing the MAGA line.

Despite the dictates of the Hatch Act, which does not allow government administrators or employees to use their official political power, other than as approved directly by Congress, to advance a partisan political agenda or to discriminate against federal employees for how they vote or, in their private lives, how they support candidates and non-violent issues. The quotes above are unambiguous breaches of the Hatch Act, but we know that Donald Trump and his team don’t let “little things” like federal statutes or the Constitution stand in their way. Trump won’t stop using “emergencies” and seeming moments of obvious revenge. He has made absolutely no secret of his targeting Democrats “any which way he can” to extort their vote on the budgetary extension impasse.

And even though there is no statute existing or proposed (by Dems or anyone else) that supports providing the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid to undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump and MAGA congressional leaders are repeating quite the opposite, claiming that is what the Democrats want in their opposition to the budget extension bill… a piece of legislation that was created unilaterally by the Republican Party with no input whatsoever from the Dems in what has traditionally been a bipartisan process. Those statements are complete fabrications. When the senior Democratic leaders requested a meeting with the President, he initially signaled “no,” later changing his mind. He met with the bipartisan leadership for an hour – apparently spending literally only a few seconds on the above federal medical benefits, which everyone knew was not happening – and rejected every single concession to any Democratic Party request.

Americans are facing several increases to medical coverage costs, possibly massive. We know that during Trump 1.0, the GOP tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the ACA – medical coverage for legal American residents with subsidies for those who could not afford the premiums). But for the efforts of a Republican Senator from Arizona and former presidential candidate, John McCain, the ACA would have been repealed. The ACA is not popular with many exceptionally rich taxpayers.

Dems are justifiably afraid of the GOP’s perpetual effort to repeal the ACA, and while Republicans claim they will consider extending the ACA’s subsidies after the extension is signed (and they know the Big Beautiful literally tanked Medicaid as well), based on the past efforts to end the ACA, the Dems believe that, as a minority party, they need to protect these ACA medical realities now, when they have a little leverage. There is no guarantee to the Dems, who might still lose this fight, that without this leverage, they could exert some at least minimal protections for significant medical benefits that are absolutely not available to undocumented aliens here.

Without such extension to ACA subsidies, ACA premiums could increase even beyond 100% to average Americans. If Medicaid shortfalls from Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” are not repaired, ALL medical insurance in this country will rise in cost… significantly. Why? Because if an uninsured unconscious accident victim, for example, is dropped off to the closest emergency room, that hospital has to treat him or her… without knowing if they are insured. Where is that cost recouped without Medicaid? From other charges for medical care added on overhead… and covered by actual insurance policies. Sometimes the obvious is not seen by those who should be looking.

We have the most expensive medical coverage of any developed country on earth, 70% higher than the next most costly nation. The US spends north of 17% of our entire GDP on healthcare, which should be an embarrassment to us all. Every single other developed nation, and many that have not remotely achieved that level of national success, has universal healthcare. It is NOT socialism; it is a social benefit just like public school. Rich Americans seem to be calling all the shots these days, getting massive tax cuts as they shove the cost burdens onto everyone else. We have become a nation of ordinary citizens willing to self-inflict personal harm, simply because we consistently make decisions on a clever, but false, label.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is easier (cheaper) to prevent destruction than allow something to fall completely apart before addressing the issue, an unpleasant reality MAGA adherents still choose to ignore.