Democratic lawmakers have introduced the novel and untested approach in at least four states.

The novel and untested approach has been introduced by Democratic lawmakers in at least four states.

Democratic legislators mostly in blue states are attempting to fight back against Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold funding from their states with bills that aim to give the federal government a taste of its own medicine.

The novel and untested approach — so far introduced in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin — would essentially allow states to withhold federal payments if lawmakers determine the federal government is delinquent in funding owed to them. Democrats in Washington state said they are in the process of drafting a similar measure.

These bills still have a long way to go before becoming law, and legal experts said they would face obstacles. But they mark the latest efforts by Democrats at the state level to counter what they say is a massive overreach by the Trump administration to cease providing federal funding for an array of programs that have helped states pay for health care, food assistance and environmental protections.

  • Azal@pawb.socialEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    I’m sorry, but fuck Texas and it’s “denied secession.”

    The American South plays victim every chance it can in its lost cause mythos and “look at how poor picked on we are” when they spent years pushing federal requirements like the Fugitive Slave Act on the non-slave states and got pissy when they couldn’t overtake the numbers of slave states over non-slave states so they wanted to take their ball and go home, but the North wouldn’t let them lea… no… wait… they fucking shot first. “War of northern aggression” indeed.

    The mess we’re in is the culture that created the civil war originally can’t get over themselves and have mythologized themselves into the victims when they were the assholes causing the problem.

    -Signed a southerner who is FUCKING sick of hearing how Texas never signed to rejoin the union every time he’s near at least three Texans.

      • Azal@pawb.socialEnglish
        1·
        28 days ago

        Understandable and I admit I kinda went off. If you don’t know much on US history, you’re in the same position of many MANY people in the US South.

        Before the current Trump situation, there was the statues being taken down and people crying about destroying history… there were 24 states that put up Confederate statues, many of them during the fight for Civil Rights for the black citizens. Only 11 states seceded.

        One of the biggest arguments the South loves to portray is “States Rights” IE: The south seceded not because of slavery but overreach of the Federal Government. The trouble with this theory is (beyond 7 states declarations of secession directly saying it was about slavery) that Fugitive Slave Acts where the southern states forced abolitionist states to allow bounty hunters to come in and round up “escaped property” (slaves that escaped)… which they weren’t exactly too picky, so many who were born free in abolitionist states got enslaved. When looking at ICE and the attitude on sanctuary cities… history has an unfortunate attitude of rhyming, just as the Republicans like to scream States Rights but they’re loving the lever of the federal government to crack down. But also on the states rights, the CSA constitution itself

        Article 1 Sec. 9 (4)

        No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.

        Article IV Sec2 (1)

        The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.

        (3)

        The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

        There’s a reason why one of the constant responses is “A states right to what?” because their federal government in fact denied states rights to outlaw slavery.

        The other myth I brought up is the “War of Northern Aggression”, it’s really just plain and on the tin, the Union was the aggressors in the war. Thing is the slave holders were trying to rapidly take over non-state territories to get them in the union to make them slave states to try to outnumber the abolitionist states, this is how Texas formed (when they stole the land from Mexico) and they tried to do it in formation of Kansas… but that got to a point called “Bleeding Kansas.” Look up John Brown, that alone is a wild story. Well Lincoln got elected and they panicked that he would stop expansion of slavery… he was famous on not even trying to end slavery, whatever he could do to keep the union together. The biggest thing was he wasn’t going to invade southern states nor end slavery where it was at BUT would use force to maintain possession of federal property that the CSA seized, basically the forts, mints, and customhouses, the rest he was pretty much let them have it, outright even saying if there was no ability for peaceful enforcement of federal law they’d pull US marshals and judges out of those states. Lincoln tried to negotiate with the states. So of course the confederates attacked the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina, then cried “why are we being attacked, we did nothing wrong” for the next 160 years.

        So that last part where I was talking about the myths where they cry themselves the victims is the Lost Cause myth that the southerners have adopted for the past century. It’s a combination of above with a doctrine that was summed up well by traitor Clement Evans

        If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession, we will go down in History solely as a brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal manner to overthrow the Union of our Country.

        This comes down to a six part mindset they preach.

        1. Secession wasn’t about slavery, it was constitutional (this is important for them to argue when being called traitors)
        2. Slavery is a positive good and the slaves were happy in their positions
        3. The Confederacy was only defeated because of the North’s number advantage in people resources. This is where the “Lost Cause” comes in.
        4. The Confederate soldier is to be seen as heroic, knightly, honorable.
        5. Robert E Lee. Since you don’t know much about US history, that name is more famous than many of our presidents because he was a southern general that the south worships more than Jesus.
        6. Southern women supported the cause and sacrificed more than the men.

        If you live in the South, it’s actually super easy to believe these things because it is inundated in the culture. You cannot avoid it. You grow up hearing “It’s heritage, not hate” a lot by people who carry the “confederate flag” (which is revisionism too because the longest running national flags of the CSA either looked too close to the US flag which lead to their own people shooting at each other, or the “stainless banner” which they changed months before they surrendered because hilariously it being a white flag looked like a flag of surrender) and the worst part is, many of the people believe it because the history isn’t taught well. I mean for fucks sake it’s illegal in Texas to teach the truth about the Alamo that it was a part of a bunch of slave traders stealing land from Mexico, but instead it’s the inspirational rally cry “Remember the Alamo!” The parts that made it shaky on the whole Lost Cause myth if you looked at it too hard was the combination of the constant push for the Southern States to figure out a new way to get Jim Crow laws back in, and hearing a constant “The South will rise again” growing up.

        But the reason I reacted as harshly as I did, is growing up before we’ve hit this boiling point of Trump This was a common sight and that particular march was about removing it from the state house in South Carolina. I don’t have a better analogy, because there is only one flag to a country that lost that really signifies it… this would be the equivalent of a march of like flags in modern day Germany because one of their national buildings was being ordered to take down the swastika flag that it flies daily.