HARTFORD, CT - President Donald Trump may be trying to rein in waste, fraud, and abuse, but taxpayers in blue states can always count on their far-left governors to do so. Such is the case in Connecticut, where Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont approved a far-left slush fund that will direct $2.8 million to illegal immigration, alphabet groups, and abortion mill Planned Parenthood.
News 12 reports that citing a “compelling” need, Lamont went to an immigration agency in the cesspool of Bridgeport to brag about dropping nearly $3 million on leftist pet projects.
News 12 reported that Republican critics in the state called the money an unvetted “giveaway” to Lamont’s political allies.
Some immigration “advocates” were nervous after President Trump was reelected, especially after he tapped Elon Musk to head up administration efforts to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“We were expecting more of what happened the last time this administration was in place–that it would be kind of slow–a slow decline,” said Susan Schnitzer, head of the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants in Bridgeport. “Not really the hatchet job that’s happening,” a result that has conservatives and those opposed to government waste applauding.
The organization is one of several in Connecticut that resettles “refugees” in the state. The White House canceled that contract in January, so what other funding might be at risk is unknown.
Schnitzer called it “heartbreaking.”
Lamont chose CIRI to host the ceremonial bill signing. Approximately half a million dollars will go to CIRI, which is shuttering its New Haven office due to a $4 million loss.
News 12 reported that Rainbow groups, including pride centers in Bridgeport and New Haven and the Triangle Community Center in Norwalk, are receiving $1 million.
“We are seeing the federal government target the most marginalized among us,’ said Rachel Simon, the center’s executive director.
Part of the funding will go to so-called “gender transition services” in the state. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the US, which has also been accused of organ harvesting of aborted babies for “research,” is receiving $800,000.
Connecticut Republicans slammed the giveaway to pet Democrat groups.
“None of these organizations were vetted. None of these people submit, you know, their budgets to us,” said CT House GOP Leader Vin Candelora. “So, it’s a giveaway.”
Lamont disagreed.
“Planned Parenthood is not a political ally,” Lamont said. “Planned Parenthood is fighting for women’s rights. I think that’s a bipartisan issue.”
Ironically, Lamont supports biological men being allowed to go into women’s restrooms and locker rooms and play women’s sports.
So much for “fighting for women’s rights.”
Only a week earlier, Lamont had vetoed the same funding, stating that the state can’t bail out every organization targeted by the administration.
“There are 12 worthy not-for-profits–15–that said, I’m getting hammered by Donald Trump’s DOGE cuts. I need help,” Lamont said a week earlier. You’re going to have 12 more come up every week for the next six weeks.”
However, Lamont, up for reelection next year, must have been spoken to, which led to his change of heart.
“We have to take each circumstance as it comes up,” Lamont told reporters. “I thought this–given the timing, given the urgency–was so compelling that we wanted to do something. We wanted to do it in a fiscally responsible way.”
The spending was moved outside the state budget after the Democrat-controlled legislature threatened to override his veto.
Republicans slammed Lamont’s about-face.
“I have never seen a governor in my life veto a bill and, within three hours, change his mind and cut a deal that does the exact same thing we voted on last week–but it violates the principles of the fiscal guardrails we put in place,” Candelora said.
Schnitzer claimed the CIRI money “pays for itself.”
“There’s more money going back into the state because people are paying taxes,” she said. “People are purchasing things and utilizing usually local markets.”
She claimed that many migrants become “teachers and nurses.”
She did not address the cost to taxpayers of paying for matters such as Medicaid and other state-mandated programs.
Comments
8 hours ago | Comment by: Brian
The voters of Ct are free to spend their tax dollars on any bs program they want…just not a single dime of federal taxpayer money.