Vice President JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would "temporarily halt" over $200 million in Medicare funds for Minnesota in an effort to address fraud in the state.
They can’t get around it for private employers, but state and local governments are employers and perform withholding.
The state could also enact a job placement program, and function as a temp agency: the worker is the employee of the temp agency, not the client company they are contracted to.
Those are good ideas, though the court costs of fighting Fed lawsuits might outweigh the amount garnered. And/or the Feds would retaliate by withholding other fed money owed to the state (like it’s already doing in some cases! Like the medicaid money for Minnesota, etc).
They can’t get around it for private employers, but state and local governments are employers and perform withholding.
The state could also enact a job placement program, and function as a temp agency: the worker is the employee of the temp agency, not the client company they are contracted to.
Those are good ideas, though the court costs of fighting Fed lawsuits might outweigh the amount garnered. And/or the Feds would retaliate by withholding other fed money owed to the state (like it’s already doing in some cases! Like the medicaid money for Minnesota, etc).