Michigan Republicans Slash Funding For Leftist Causes With Massive Government Spending Cuts

The Michigan Republican-controlled House used a little-known provision in state law to cut $645 million in government funding, including slashing multiple left-wing causes, last week.

The cuts were a major move for Republicans who are up against a Democrat-controlled state Senate and a Democratic governor that have pushed for bigger state budgets and a more expansive state government. Republican House Speaker Matt Hall told The Daily Wire that the cuts came after Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer asked for an extension on $2.7 billion that had been earmarked under a previous budget, but had not been spent by the end of the fiscal year.

“We had the opportunity using this law to cut more spending before Whitmer was able to put it into her slush funds,” Hall said.

The State Budget Office, which is controlled by Whitmer, sent letters to the House and Senate budget committees, requesting an extension on the $2.7 billion in funding that was not used, Bridge Michigan reported. The GOP-controlled House budget committee opposed many of the programs in the Whitmer administration’s funding request and decided to send $645 million back to the state’s general fund.

Hall accused Whitmer and Democrats of requesting “a lot more money than they need” for the budget extension, adding, “And then they keep the money and they work-project it into their slush fund, so they have it for years.”

The biggest cut was $159 million to Whitmer’s Make It in Michigan Competitiveness Fund. The fund, which Whitmer created with the approval of the state legislature in 2024, matches federal grants with the state’s job creation goals. Another target of the Republican cuts was the Community Enhancement Grants, which were denied nearly $103 million. Some of the money from the grants has gone toward a festival in Detroit to celebrate diversity, according to WWMT News Channel 3. The Community Enhancement Grants were combined under one line item, meaning Republicans had to cut all of them to slash funding for the grants that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

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Other priorities that were among the Republican cuts included over $1.2 million for a program aimed at stocking public bathrooms with feminine hygiene products. Hall told The Daily Wire that the program also requires boys’ bathrooms to be stocked with tampons. Republicans also slashed funding for some of Whitmer’s green energy projects, such as her goal to build electric vehicle chargers along the coast of Lake Michigan.

Another department that took a hit from the cuts was the Office of Global Michigan, which housed a program that Whitmer used to make government handouts available to illegal immigrants. The Office of Global Michigan, which lost around $1.3 million in the cuts, is also riddled with diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Michigan Democrats blasted Republicans over the cuts, calling them “cruel” and “disgusting.” Democrats specifically called out cuts to the RxKids program, which helps some parents pay for their children’s prescriptions. Democrats also blasted Republicans for making cuts to “Wigs for Kids,” which provides wigs and other services for children going through cancer treatments. Democratic state Rep. Will Snyder said the GOP cuts were one of the most “unprecedented displays of cruelty that I’ve ever seen during my time here in Lansing,” according to Michigan Advance.

“This budget instrument was never intended for this purpose, and using it with such haste and scale proves the dangerous nature of crossing pre-existing and long standing-lines, even if (it was) potentially legally permissible,” Snyder said. “We are just now beginning to understand the full scope of these disgusting actions.”

“There’s a special place in hell for someone willing to yank money away from moms and babies 15 days before Christmas,” said Senate Democratic Majority Leader Winnie Brinks. “I hope Matt Hall takes this holiday season to look within himself and reevaluate what exactly he’s doing here.”

Democratic leaders also suggested that they could pursue legal action to prevent the massive cuts.

Hall brushed off the criticism from Democrats, arguing that the state could still use some of the other government funding in its “slush fund” to put toward charities, such as Wigs for Kids.

“We can reappropriate funds that have a good purpose. We can come back through a supplemental budget, and we can put it back to use,” Hall said. “But I think the Whitmer administration should come in and they should explain to us where every one of these dollars is going. Something they wouldn’t do when they were trying to prevent us from making the cuts.”