That's just a federal mandate with extra steps, like how the feds got the states to impose a 21-year minimum drinking age even though they didn't have the Const

That's just a federal mandate with extra steps, like how the feds got the states to impose a 21-year minimum drinking age even though they didn't have the Constitutional authority to do so. When the federal government gets two-thirds of all tax revenue and use it as a cudgel to circumvent its prescribed limits, it's a mandate. "States can refuse the mandate and the money" is possible only when state and federal tax receipts are at similar levels.