When the sky’s red at night, we’re in for mild weather. When Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, we’re in for six more weeks of winter. And when Democrats start losing, we’re in for a lot of fearmongering about health care.
Rep. Al Green’s (D-Texas) outburst during President Trump’s address to Congress last week was the latest example of Democratic health care alarmism. The Texas congressman waved his cane and shouted that Trump had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid before the sergeant-at-arms escorted him from the floor. The House later censured him for the disruption. Though Green is known for his dramatic antics, this was part of a well-established tradition.
Republicans’ budget resolution is a good step in that direction, but they’ll need to work on their messaging to hold onto their House majority long enough to make a real difference.
In 2017, Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and presidency, positioning them to fulfill their 2010 promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. The proposed American Health Care Act aimed to modify key aspects of the law while preserving others, but it ultimately failed in the Senate.
The Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama, barred insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or charging them higher premiums. While intended to protect vulnerable patients, the policy led to higher premiums for everyone, including those already struggling to afford health care.
Republicans proposed a different solution: letting the states place people with pre-existing conditions into “high-risk pools,” allowing insurers to charge them high premiums, and providing government subsidies to offset those costs. The chronically ill could access the care they needed without driving up costs for everyone.
This all sounds fairly tame and technocratic, but if you watched Democrats’ campaign ads leading up to the 2018 midterms, you’d get the impression that Donald Trump and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Ohio) had personally executed every cancer-ridden grandma in the country. About half of the party’s ads that cycle focused on health care, especially the issue of pre-existing conditions.
And it worked. Democrats picked up 41 seats, ending Trump’s trifecta.
In 2022, Democrats were polling badly in the lead-up to that year’s midterms. Joe Biden was unpopular, the Afghanistan withdrawal had become a national embarrassment, and inflation was out of control. Right on cue, health care hysteria commenced.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) laid out an 11-point plan for that election cycle, which included a proposal that — in his words — “all federal legislation should sunset in five years” unless Congress repassed it. While this proposal probably wouldn’t have had much effect other than creating more work for Congress, Democrats saw their chance and pounced.
Then-Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) claimed Scott’s proposal would “end Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid.” The Democratic National Committee flooded the airwaves with the same alarmism.
That November, Democrats managed to hold down their losses in the House and even expanded their Senate majority. While it would be an overstatement to attribute their strong performance to health care alarmism alone, it certainly didn’t hurt.
Today, the Democrats find themselves in a similarly precarious situation. Republicans, once again, have a trifecta, and Trump is basking in the best approval ratings of his political career. Democrats have so far failed to marshal an effective resistance or even settle on a cohesive message — so they’re breaking out the old playbook.
Green’s theatrics about proposed Medicaid cuts attracted plenty of attention, but his fellow Democrats are starting to parrot the same talking points. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) recently warned that House Republicans’ plan “could take health care away from up to 25 million Americans.”
In reality, this is just more fearmongering. Advocates of socialized medicine like Wendell Potter, who quit his job as a Cigna executive to shill for single-payer health care, insist that expanding Medicaid is simply “the right thing to do.” Even though ironically, he also explained elsewhere how insurers turn Medicaid into their own personal piggy bank.
Sticking millions of more people on Medicaid — including illegal immigrants, if some Democrats have their way — hurts the very people it’s designed to help. Since Obama raised the eligibility threshold to 138% of the poverty line, the result has been overcrowding, provider shortages, and massive cost overruns.
It would be very convenient if lawmakers could fix American health care by throwing more money at it, but that’s simply not the case. Comprehensive reforms are needed to tackle systemic issues of waste, fraud, and inefficiency.
Republicans’ budget resolution is a good step in that direction, but they’ll need to work on their messaging to hold onto their House majority long enough to make a real difference. Otherwise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will ride a blue wave of health care alarmism straight to the speaker’s chair in 2026.
Republican leaders have repeatedly promised to “fight the next time” — a vow they’ve made and broken since the Tea Party era, even when they controlled all three branches of government.
Despite holding leverage at the start of each Congress, Republicans — including Donald Trump — have shown a persistent fear of government shutdowns. They begin with numerous opportunities to push their campaign promises by attaching them to must-pass appropriation bills, debt ceiling increases, and reauthorization measures. Yet as deadlines approach, they repeatedly cave, funding left-wing priorities while assuring their base that they’ll stand firm in the next round. This pattern has played out consistently since 2011.
Executive actions seem to be the only option left for cutting spending.
As a result, every major budget bill passed during recent GOP trifectas has relied more on Democratic support than Republican. Now, despite a historic mandate, it appears that Republicans are poised to repeat the cycle yet again. Even the Freedom Caucus seems ready to fall in line, following Trump’s directive of “no dissent.”
After the Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling requiring Trump to continue some USAID funding, the Freedom Caucus declared it would oppose any bill that fails to codify DOGE cuts. Recognizing that the courts would likely overturn any significant executive cuts, the House Freedom Caucus and nine GOP senators released a letter stating, “No DOGE, no deal.”
Minutes later, Trump announced his support for a continuing resolution to fund the government for the next six months at the same level as Biden’s budget — a level Republicans had previously condemned as a driver of inflation.
Instead of pressuring lukewarm Republicans, Trump silenced the Freedom Caucus in a way no one else could. Now, the caucus is defending the delay on spending cuts, claiming it gives the DOGE time to identify savings. But even if significant savings could be found outside the military, veterans’ benefits, and entitlements — it cannot — the courts have made it clear that they will not allow broad spending cuts enacted solely through the executive branch.
Republicans added more than $200 billion to Biden’s budget levels in December, claiming it was a temporary move until March, when Trump could influence the fiscal year 2025 budget. Yet here we are, still funding Biden’s spending levels and policies, with Republicans promising that “next time” will be the real fight.
But it won’t be. The same fear of a government shutdown persists and will likely intensify during a recession. Either Republicans are willing to risk a shutdown for spending cuts, or they’re not. Either Trump understands that he has a louder megaphone than Democrats to make the case for cuts, or he doesn’t.
As history shows, leverage doesn’t increase the farther we get from an election — it diminishes. Without exception.
We can’t repeat the mistakes of Trump’s last term, when good executive policies didn’t last because Trump himself blocked conservatives from codifying them in the budget. The pattern of delaying spending cuts was exhausting. From April 2017 to March 2018, we heard promises of “next time” — only for Trump to sign an omnibus bill that increased spending on everything he had vowed to cut, followed by another round of the same the next fiscal year after he said “never again.” Every must-pass bill during that period passed with more Democratic votes than Republican ones.
Republicans’ plan to erase the automatic 1% spending cuts is a blatant betrayal. These cuts would have taken effect automatically if Congress did nothing. Back in June 2023, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) handed Joe Biden a clean debt limit suspension, leading to $4.8 trillion in new debt in just 18 months — without a recession or a war. The one upside of that deal was a provision that would trigger a 1% across-the-board spending cut if Congress failed to pass all 12 appropriations bills by the start of the next calendar year.
So what happened to that agreement?
After backfilling those cuts in a deal last year, House Republicans now argue that Section 102 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 only triggers the 1% cuts if they fail to fund the government for the rest of the year. Even though they’re pushing a continuing resolution instead of a full appropriations bill, they claim that as long as the CR funds the government through year’s end, the sequestration won’t apply.
Johnson’s betrayal last year was bad enough, but this year’s maneuver is even worse. Their excuse — fear of defense cuts — no longer holds water, since they plan to backfill more mandatory defense spending through budget reconciliation.
The reality is clear: This isn’t about timing or hoping for a better budget fight later in the year. Not with their political capital waning and the economy possibly entering a recession. Republicans have no intention of using their control to pass meaningful spending cuts in a budget bill. Period.
Executive actions seem to be the only option left for cutting spending. Defenders of the status quo dismiss concerns by suggesting that Trump will refuse to spend excess funds and will impound undesirable accounts and programs. The problem is clear: Courts have already ordered him to spend $2 billion in USAID funding. It’s unrealistic to expect the courts to support defunding entire agencies or devolving the Department of Education to the states, especially after Congress re-funds them in response to Trump’s initial signals.
This leads us to the last tool: a rescissions package. Under the Budget Control Act of 1974, the president can propose a list of expenditures to rescind, triggering a privileged motion in Congress that can pass without a filibuster. The catch? When rescissions are separate from “must-pass” bills, many weak-kneed Republicans will vote them down, even without Democratic help. Even USAID, a seemingly obvious target for cuts, has several defenders in Congress, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). In fact, RINOs blocked a rescissions package from Trump in 2019.
The only way for rescissions to work is for Trump to apply pressure. He must publicly confront the RINOs with the same intensity he reserves for Freedom Caucus members who dissent from the right. The problem is that Trump has never shown a willingness to confront those who oppose him from the left.
Maybe he will — next time.
Rumors are swirling that the feds are buying $400 million worth of Tesla Cybertrucks.
That would be a huge conflict of interest, considering that Tesla chief Elon Musk is heading up the Department of Government Efficiency in its campaign to curb out-of-control government spending.
But is it true?
Not according to Musk. “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” Musk posted on X last week.
Some clarification is in order. Yes, some state officials will be driving around in special armored versions of the stainless steel pickup. The U.S. State Department has budgeted for new “Armored Electric Vehicles” over the next five years.
But it's important to note that this budget was first drafted under the Biden administration in December of last year. Then it specifically included “Armored Teslas” as one of its line items. Also included were armored sedans and armored BMW X5 and X7s. A December State Department procurement list also included $400 million in Cybertrucks.
Under Trump, the State Department has changed all of those to the more generic “Armored Electric Vehicles.” The program has a target for delivery through the next five years.
These were first listed under the code for "miscellaneous food manufacturing." That's since been updated with the code for "armored car services."
That could be a simple clerical error. But a bigger question remains. No matter who makes these vehicles, why does the State Department need $400 million worth?
The State Department buys all types of armored trucks and gas vehicles annually. My guess is that this is a tempest in a teapot and that much of this government purchase will be canceled.
We'll be watching if something comes of this story.
The Department of Government Efficiency launched aggressive efforts to rein in federal bureaucracy. But limited-government conservatives should not assume fiscal responsibility is within reach.
The reality of America’s financial situation remains dire. In fiscal 2024, the federal government spent $6.8 trillion but collected only $4.9 trillion in taxes. That left a deficit of $1.9 trillion, pushing the national debt to $35.5 trillion by year’s end.
How did our constitutional republic end up in this mess?
To balance the budget, the DOGE must eliminate nearly $2 trillion in annual spending. Until then, the national debt will continue to rise.
So far, the Trump administration’s crackdown on waste, fraud, and abuse has saved about $100 billion. But that’s a fraction of what’s needed, and the challenge ahead remains enormous.
The executive orders and DOGE actions are weak by nature and not built to last. Without legislative backing, they can be reversed by the next administration. Meanwhile, entrenched bureaucrats will resist implementation, requiring strict enforcement from the administration.
Legal challenges are already moving through the courts, and civil service regulations will be used to slow progress. The left-leaning media, still reeling from Trump’s early moves, is preparing for a full-scale counteroffensive of disinformation and manufactured outrage. As temperatures rise across the country, expect the media’s rhetoric to heat up, fueling protests that will likely lead to violence and destruction.
When that happens, Republican legislators will waver, as they always do. As spending battles unfold — through continuing resolutions, omnibus bills, debt-ceiling fights, or an elusive budget proposal — uniparty politicians will band together to protect the bureaucratic status quo.
They will do so for three reasons. First, many are entrenched in the system and benefit from it — they’re swamp-dwellers. Second, Republicans hold only a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress, and those facing re-election in battleground districts will avoid controversial legislation. Third, Democrats could retake the House or Senate in the midterms, eliminating any appetite for shrinking the federal bureaucracy.
Even if lawmakers find the will to act, another major obstacle remains: entitlement spending. Congress has already approved massive and popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. As more Baby Boomers retire, these programs will automatically cost more. Social Security has been paying out more than it collects in taxes since 2010, depleting its trust fund. Worse, the federal government borrowed $1.7 trillion from that trust fund to cover other expenses. This means the DOGE must not only cut $2 trillion annually to balance the budget but also figure out how to repay that $1.7 trillion while continuing to fund retiree benefits.
A larger crisis looms. The federal government spent $900 billion on interest payments in fiscal year 2024, making it the second-largest budget item after Social Security. As the national debt grows and interest rates rise, interest payments will soon surpass Social Security costs. With a $40 trillion debt and 5% interest rates, annual interest payments could hit $2 trillion — another financial mountain for the DOGE to climb.
How did our constitutional republic end up in this mess?
The problem lies in the legislative branch’s unchecked ability to expand the bureaucracy and increase spending. The only real restraint is the willingness of voters to hold lawmakers accountable at the ballot box. But that never happens. Power shifts between parties, yet the federal government keeps growing, no matter who is in charge.
At some point, the American people must summon the political will to amend the Constitution and impose limits on the legislature. Potential safeguards include capping government spending (for example, limiting current-year spending to 10% of the prior year’s GDP), imposing term limits to reduce the influence of lobbyists, requiring single-issue bills to prevent pork-barrel spending, granting the president a line-item veto, and mandating a balanced budget.
America’s founders miscalculated. They never envisioned that a nation that fought a revolution against government overreach would allow another oppressive system to take its place. They could not have imagined that a country built by rugged individualists — who produced the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution — would become a society captivated by collectivist ideologies.
The DOGE’s initial efforts are a promising start, but they are not enough. The fight for fiscal sanity will span multiple administrations and possibly generations. Limited-government conservatives must prepare for a long battle. The DOGE is just the first step on a much longer journey.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) managed to flip enough Republican votes to narrowly pass his "big beautiful" reconciliation bill Tuesday night, securing a major victory for the speaker.
Leading up to the late-night vote, Johnson was facing four Republican "no" votes on his reconciliation bill despite having President Donald Trump's endorsement. Given the GOP's historically narrow House majority, Johnson could afford to lose only one vote, which made reeling in Republican defectors a tall task.
Nevertheless, Johnson flipped three of the four Republican holdouts for a final 217-215 vote tally. To nobody's surprise, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the lone Republican holdout.
'The House laid the groundwork to fund America First priorities while bending the spending curve down.'
"House Republicans got it done tonight. This vote was a key step in the process to deliver President Trump’s full America First agenda," Johnson said in a statement following the vote. "I’m grateful to my colleagues, especially Chairman Arrington and Chairman Smith. Tomorrow, we roll up our sleeves and get right back at it."
"Big First Step Win for Speaker Mike Johnson, and AMERICA," Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday. "Now let’s start to BALANCE THE BUDGET. IT CAN BE DONE!!! DJT."
Although a handful of Republicans gave Johnson a hard time, several fiscal conservatives were in support of the bill before it ever hit the floor. Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Chip Roy of Texas, who have historically been defectors in previous spending fights, affirmed their support for the Trump-backed bill.
"Last night, the House laid the groundwork to fund America First priorities while bending the spending curve down," Biggs said in a Wednesday post on X. "House Republicans are committed to fulfilling the mandate delivered by the American people."
'I am hopeful and optimistic, and we’ll see if they can pull it off.'
The budget blueprint sets the stage to extend Trump's tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. The bill additionally allocates much-needed border and defense spending while also reducing certain aspects of spending.
The House is now caught up with the Senate, which approved its own budget blueprint the week before. Although both the House and the Senate are addressing Trump's policy priorities like border funding, tax extensions, and spending cuts, the Senate has opted for a two-bill approach as opposed to the House's single-bill approach.
With the Senate bill acting as a backup, Republicans are hopeful they can get Johnson's budget proposal through.
“I am hopeful and optimistic, and we’ll see if they can pull it off,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said.
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The ructions in financial markets over the past few weeks and Washington’s dependence on foreign entities to keep funding our (over) spending illustrate why lawmakers need to do something to get our fiscal house in order.
The best way for Congress to extend Trump's tax cuts is to do what it has failed to do for decades: get serious about lowering spending.
Democrats call any reduction in government spending a 'cut.' Republicans shouldn't fall for it.
A continuing resolution is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's the medicine we need to heal the country.
This idea that the taxpayers now can and will have oversight of federal bureaucracies has been unleashed.
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