It’s disappointing, though not surprising, to witness freshman congressmen Dave Min and Derek Tran engage in transparent fear-mongering over the Trump Administration’s temporary pause on certain types of federal spending.
Min, an ambitious demagogue of the worst kind, has been employing the same, tired “people will die” scare-monger rhetoric the Left employs whenever anyone tries to place any restraints on the federal spending leviathan.
Min and other progressives decry the Trump targeted spending pause as “unconstitutional.”
But that’s baloney.
The “unconstitutional” memo from the Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies to put a hold on grants that hadn’t been paid out, giving new Trump appointees the opportunity to review them.
“It’s well within Mr. Trump’s executive authority to pause disbursement of discretionary funds to ensure they comply with the law and his priorities,” editorialized the Wall Street Journal. Dave Min, allegedly a law professor, should know this.
A big reason for all this squawking is the terrifying prospect that Trump may taking the long overdue step of withholding our tax dollars from politicized non-profits that use those funds foist their progressive politics on the rest of us, and indirectly support progressive Democrat pols like Min and Tran.
The Orange County Register reported on the presser held by Min, Tran and a coterie of such non-profits, such as the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California.
What the Register overlooks is these are more than social service agencies. They’re political advocacy rackets.
OCAPICA is run by Mary Anne Foo. She’s standing next to Min in his X.com post, and talking to Tran in the OCR photo.
Foo is a partisan Democrat. During the 2023-24 election cycle, she donated $2557.78 to federal races — 100% of it to Democrats.
Thanks to the Biden Administration spending blow-out, OCAPICA’s budget ballooned. In 2023, the organization received nearly $19 million in government funds.
According to OCAPICA’s Form 990 disclosure for 2023, it spent $3,399,556 on “grants and other assistance” to individuals. However, it spent twice that amount on staff compensation: $6,817,547.
Foo’s total compensation that year was $207,344, according to the group’s financial report.
According to its website, OCAPICA provides mental and physical health programs, and housing assistance programs. It also engages in “youth development”:
“ROOTED empowers high school students across Anaheim Union High School District to become active leaders in their communities and future careers. This fellowship focuses on leadership through the lenses of social justice, civic engagement, career development, and wellness. LUNA focuses on mental health awareness and resource navigation for both junior high and high school students, with a focus on Latinx/Hispanic youth.”
Translation: training teenagers to become woke progressive activists – on your dime.
OCAPICA also use tax money for political action:
“OCAPICA’s goal is to increase under served and underrepresented communities’ voices and participation in civic engagement and public policy. Focus areas include addressing disparities in health, education and community and economic development, non-partisan voter mobilization, and more.”
Translation: OCAPICA operates taxpayer-funded GOTV campaigns for the benefit of progressive politicians like Min and Tran. In other words, OCAPICA is using tax dollars to push policies and politicians who’s agenda is inimical to many of the citizens from whom those taxes are extracted.
Take a look at the group’s “Policy” page. OCAPICA is pushing the kinds of woke, race-based policies that Americans are rebelling against.
Another of these non-profits credulously profiled in the OC Register article is Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL).
Yeah – that doesn’t sound like a left-wing activist group.
Check out their website. It screams social justice warrior chic.
More than a third of AJSOCAL’s 2023 revenues of $14,549,019 came from the government: $5,646,596, to be exact.
AJSOCAL’s top staff are paying themselves handsomely to fight for marginalized communities: compensation for their top ten staffer is north of $1.5 million.
Total staff compensation in 2023 was $8,819, 873. That’s more than half the group’s budget.
It looks less like AJSOCAL “addresses the needs of Asian Americans” and more like it’s maintaining a standing army of progressive activists.
Last week, AJSOCAL blared that it “strongly condemns the Trump Administration’s overtly racist and anti-immigrant policies, rhetoric, and actions, which undermine the principles of equity, justice, and human dignity.” The group is referring to the Administration moves secure our southern border and end birthright citizenship – neither of which are racist, unjust or inequitable.
The statement went so far as to suggest the Administration has Nazi ties – referring to the debunked lie that Elon Musk was giving the Nazi salute.
Mr. Trump campaigned on securing the border, ending illegal immigration and getting rid of birthright citizenship. He won the popular vote and an Electoral College landslide, and the GOP took control of Congress.
AJSOCAL clearly believes at least half of Americans are racists or possibly Nazis. Why should this group be allowed to use those Americans tax dollars against them?
This is why Min and Tran and OCAPICA and the rest of these political non-profits are so alarmed. They’re terrified the Trump Administration is going to turn off the tax dollar spigot, that the federal funding gravy train is coming to a halt.
