Everyone supports cutting government spending, until someone actually begins to cut government spending. Then, all Hell breaks loose.
Why? Because with a $6 trillion federal budget, far too many politicians and activists (and donors and universities and corporations) have their hands in the till. As Senator John Kennedy, R-La., has memorably said, when you start to cut the fat, the pigs will squeal.
On cue, Democrats are squealing. It turns out that they benefit from some of the wasteful spending being exposed by the Trump White House, as monies designated for addressing climate change, for instance, inappropriately flow to leftist think tanks and non-profits.
Thanks to the work of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Americans are getting a quick education on the ‘soft’ corruption corroding our government. It is not pretty. In his address to Congress, President Trump listed several idiotic expenditures of government monies; studies on transgender mice (which CNN and others wrongly claimed didn’t exist) received a lot of attention, and rightly so. Those disclosures may be why a new Rasmussen poll shows two-thirds of the country agree that it’s time to ‘drain the swamp.’
Democrats disagree; in an effort to undermine Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, they are fearmongering, warning voters that DOGE or Republicans in Congress are going to slash Medicaid benefits. President Trump is on record saying his government will not cut that program, but will investigate fraudulent payments.
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, recently said the GOP House spending bill would ‘set in motion the largest Medicaid cut in American history.’ New York Representative Mike Lawler disputed Jeffries’ claim, saying ‘show me where in the budget resolution it talks about specific cuts. It doesn’t.’ Lawler is correct, but Democrats insist that the plan’s $880 billion expected cut in spending from programs under the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction, like healthcare outlays, prove the program will be gutted.
