Veterans who depend on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits and healthcare may be in for a big disappointment: the department acknowledged it will run roughly $15 billion short through this year and 2025.
VA benefits accounts could plunge $2.9 billion, and healthcare accounts could be almost $12 billion short next year.
“Right now, due in large part to the historic PACT Act, VA is delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes stated. “These results are life-changing for veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors, and VA will continue to push to make sure that they get the care and benefits they deserve.”
But according to <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/07/18/va-warns-congress-benefits-payments-are-risk-due-projected-15-billion-budget-shortfall.html">Military.com</a>, Congress was apprised in a slideshow that there could be “potential disruptions to benefits payments if there&#8217;s insufficient funding by the end of the fiscal year.”
“If VBA (Veterans Benefits Administration) has insufficient funding available, then compensation and pension payments to over 7 million veterans and survivors and readjustment benefit payments to over 500,000 individuals that are scheduled to be delivered on October 1, 2024, are at risk,” the slideshow stated.
“This represents by far the largest budget shortfall the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has experienced under any administration and a repudiation of the FY 2025 budget request that the Biden-Harris administration presented just four months ago,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL), Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman, wrote VA Secretary Denis McDonough on Wednesday. ”Not only have your chief financial officers thrown out the dollar amounts requested for many key accounts, they have abandoned many of the estimates and projections that underpinned their budget. This is not just fiscal mismanagement; it is strategic whiplash.”
“I understand that priorities may change, but it boggles my mind how the roughly 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workforce reduction and the nationwide VHA hiring restrictions that you defended just a few months ago have already become a more than 22,000 FTE increase. Hiring quality health care workers is difficult enough without a constantly moving target,” Bost added.

American Amputee Soldier On Road

Department Of Veterans Affairs Faces $15 Billion Shortfall

Budget

Department of Veterans Affairs

Military

Politics

As Michigan Democratic Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gretchen-whitmer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gretchen Whitmer</a> basks in the national spotlight and gets floated for a potential spot on the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, she’s being slammed at home for signing an education budget that cuts deep into school safety and mental health spending.
The budget, which passed the Michigan legislature with support from Democrats and was signed by Whitmer on Tuesday, cuts school safety and mental health funding by a whopping $300 million, a <a href="https://gophouse.org/posts/rep-martin-reiterates-concerns-over-cuts-to-schools-as-governor-signs-new-k-12-budget">92% decrease</a>, The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2024/07/23/gretchen-whitmer-school-funding-michigan-retiree-pensions-health-care/74509820007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The cuts also take from teachers’ pension funds and leave the per-student funding without an increase for the first time in 13 years.
The budget cuts have led to an outcry from Republicans in the state legislature, school district superintendents, and teachers. Education advocates — who often support Democratic Party politicians and policies — have also blasted Whitmer and Michigan Democrats over the education cuts.
“I have no words,” Republican state Rep. Gina Johnsen told The Daily Wire in a phone interview. Johnsen said that Republicans were given no time to read the budget before a vote was taken.
“The party that gets criticized for not caring cared, and the party that said they cared so much just gouged the education budget,” Johnsen said. The state representative added that multiple Democratic state legislators who voted for the budget are “now horrified by the last-minute changes that went through, and they’re saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I wouldn’t have voted for it had I known.’”
Johnsen predicted that Michigan would see “layoffs in the education field” because of the new budget cuts.
Michigan State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice, who was appointed by the Democrat-majority State Board of Education, also expressed concern about the budget.
“This reduction will slow Michigan’s recent momentum in addressing student mental health challenges,” he said in a <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2024/07/23/state-school-aid-budget-continues-strong-investments-in-helping-at-risk-students#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20reduction%20will%20slow%20Michigan's,health%20needs%20of%20our%20students.">statement</a>. “A $300 million reduction in funding for children’s mental health services and school safety fails to recognize the physical and mental health needs of our students.”
Robert McCann, the executive director of The K-12 Alliance of Michigan, blasted Whitmer’s education budget as “misguided.”
&#8220;There will, unfortunately, be consequences of this misguided budget felt in every school across Michigan,&#8221; he <a href="https://archive.ph/HjRgq#selection-679.129-679.179">said</a>. McCann <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccannr1">worked</a> as chief of staff for the Michigan Senate Democratic Caucus while Whitmer was the Michigan Senate Minority leader a decade ago.
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Michigan Education Association President Chandra Madafferi praised some aspects of the budget, but <a href="https://mea.org/mea-president-and-ceo-hails-return-of-3-of-salaries-back-to-educators-says-more-work-must-be-done/">acknowledged</a>, &#8220;There were deep cuts to categorical funding for school safety and student mental health — cuts that will need to be navigated at the local level to keep our schools safe learning spaces for all students and employees. Our hope is that state lawmakers will return after the summer break to pass a supplemental budget that funds these critical student mental health and safety priorities.&#8221;
While education faced a 92% cut, Whitmer and Michigan Democrats passed over $400 million in earmarked pet projects, including $10 million for a youth sports complex in Frankenmuth and $2 million for Downtown Boxing Gym in Detroit, among multiple other projects, Bridge Michigan <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-lawmakers-add-411m-pet-projects-state-budget">reported</a>.
Republican state Rep. Cam Cavitt told The Daily Wire that both sides of the aisle were working to get schools the funding they need for safety and mental health, but “the governor gutted that.”
“And why did the governor do that? So she could give out political gifts to her base who go back to the splash pads and the cricket fields,” Cavitt said.
“I have six school districts in my House district and not one of the superintendents is in favor of the budget,” he added.
The cuts to school safety and mental health spending are especially concerning to some educators and advocates in the wake of the Oxford High School shooting in November 2021, where a lone gunman claimed the lives of four of his classmates.
“Republicans made school safety and mental health top priorities in our education budgets, but now that Democrats have full control, they’re reversing course and cutting support for these critical student needs,” House Republican Leader Matt Hall <a href="https://gophouse.org/posts/rep-hall-democrat-budget-cuts-millions-in-safety-mental-health-funding-from-southwest-michigan-schools">said</a> earlier this month.
While the new budget has been signed, Democrats could still bring a supplemental package to the floor for a vote when the legislature returns from recess later this month.
The Daily Wire has reached out to Gov. Whitmer’s office, requesting comment on the budget.
The Michigan governor, who has been on tour to promote her new book &#8220;True Gretch,&#8221; is viewed as a powerful player in the future of the Democratic Party. Whitmer was floated as a potential replacement for Democrats as the party’s nominee for the 2024 election, and after Vice President Kamala Harris presumably locked up the nomination, some have speculated that Whitmer could be offered the VP slot.

Gretchen Whitmer

Whitmer Blasted From All Sides For Signing Massive Cuts To Education While She Basks In National Spotlight

Democratic Party

Education

Michigan

U.S.

On Monday, House Judiciary Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) submitted a plan to defund the prosecutors who are taking on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> in court battles that the former president — who is seeking re-election — and his allies claim are politically motivated.
The proposals, which appear in Jordan&#8217;s latest <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-06-03%20JDJ%20to%20Cole%20re%20Appropriations%20Riders%20List.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">budget request</a> to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) for the fiscal year 2025, do not mention particular cases or any prosecutors by name, but they do describe situations that match the criminal matters involving Trump on the state and federal levels. The Judiciary Committee GOP <a href="https://x.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1797713087912632664" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> on X that Trump prosecutors are the focus.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jim_Jordan</a> submits legislative proposals to DEFUND lawfare by Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James. 
Also, no money for new FBI headquarters. 
Read the full appropriations package here: <a href="https://t.co/YnofN174Xb">https://t.co/YnofN174Xb</a> <a href="https://t.co/cmFOvXzRTL">pic.twitter.com/cmFOvXzRTL</a>
&mdash; House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1797713087912632664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;We have conducted oversight of the troubling rise in politicized prosecutions and the use of abusive &#8216;lawfare&#8217; tactics to target political opponents,&#8221; Jordan wrote in his <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-06-03%20JDJ%20to%20Cole%20re%20Appropriations%20Riders%20List.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cover letter</a> to Cole. &#8220;We have seen rogue prosecutors abuse the rules of professional conduct and their duty to do justice in service of politicized ends. We recommend that the Appropriations Committee, with appropriate consultation from leadership, include language to eliminate federal funding for state prosecutors or state attorneys general involved in lawfare and to zero out federal funding for federal prosecutors engaged in such abuse.&#8221;
A New York jury returned a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/verdict-trump-found-guilty-on-all-charges-in-hush-money-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guilty verdict</a> against Trump last week on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up payments in a bid to conceal a tryst with adult film star Stormy Daniels as part of a “catch-and-kill” scheme to influence the 2016 election. Trump, who denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges, said he would be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-race-plunges-into-uncharted-territory-trump-awaits-july-sentencing-2024-05-31/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;appealing this scam</a>.&#8221; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who led the case, praised the jury and said his team followed &#8220;the facts and the law without fear or favor.&#8221; Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
Three other criminal matters on the state and federal levels hang over Trump as he seeks re-election this year. Special counsel Jack Smith is spearheading a classified documents case and a 2020 election case against Trump in Florida and Washington, D.C., respectively. Georgia&#8217;s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is leading a separate 2020 case. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges he faces and claimed he is the victim of a &#8220;witch hunt.&#8221;
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said that Republicans will <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-gop-smoking-out-political-retribution-by-prosecutors-in-trump-cases-speaker-johnson-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;fight back&#8221;</a> with &#8220;everything in our arsenal&#8221; against &#8220;political retribution in the court system to go after political opponents.&#8221; He also noted, &#8220;We have the funding streams. We have mechanisms to try to get control of that. We&#8217;ll be doing that within the confines of our jurisdiction.&#8221; In the Democrat-controlled Senate, a band of Republican senators have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/10-senate-republicans-sign-pledge-to-oppose-bidens-agenda-following-trump-guilty-verdict" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to do what they can to stand in the way of President Joe Biden&#8217;s agenda — including opposing his political and judicial nominees — to protest the prosecutions against Trump, though their ability to stop forward progress on their own is limited.
Jordan&#8217;s fiscal 2025 budget proposals included several other provisions geared toward immigration enforcement, border security, protecting FBI whistleblowers, addressing crime in Democrat-run cities, and fighting censorship of public discourse on the internet. The chairman also took aim at the <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/prince-georges-county-council-asks-to-be-included-in-fbi-headquarters-relocation-letter-to-congress/65-39849e1c-e32a-46ef-ab6a-046d844b52ed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposal to relocate</a> the FBI&#8217;s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Prince George&#8217;s County, Maryland. One section in Jordan&#8217;s cover letter to Cole notes testimony about alleged &#8220;misconduct&#8221; by leadership with the FBI and talks about a recommendation to include language &#8220;to eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not essential for the agency to execute its mission, including rescinding prior appropriations and prohibiting new taxpayer funding for any new FBI headquarters facility.&#8221;

Rep. Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan Proposes Defunding Prosecutors In Trump Cases

Alvin Bragg

Donald Trump

Fani Willis

Jack Smith

Jim Jordan

If Joe Biden&#8217;s policies were wildly popular, everybody would overlook the fact that the man walks into walls.
But his policies are terrible.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the index of consumer prices rose 3.2% in February from one year earlier. We try to keep the rate at 2%. But we are still clocking in at well above 3% — which is 50% higher than what we want. Core price inflation is sitting at 3.8%; again, we aim for 2%.
That means all of the interest rates are going to remain high for the foreseeable future. The Federal Reserve tries to combat inflation by increasing interest rates — the overnight rate at which the Federal Reserve lends to banks and the banks lend to one another — and that is then passed on to the consumer.
The basic idea is that when you tighten up the credit, fewer people are borrowing; less money flowing around the economy means the prices tend to decrease. That&#8217;s the reason to increase interest rates.
The Federal Reserve wanted to decrease the interest rates in advance of the election to get that money flowing again, to heat up the economy, to make sure that hiring stays at really high levels leading up to Biden&#8217;s reelection effort in November.
But inflation is not cooperating, so interest rates are likely to stay high — which is why a few years ago you could get a mortgage for 3% and now a mortgage is costing you roughly 7%.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1923-spending-like-there-s-no-tomorrow-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
The stickiness in the real estate market is created not by demand for single family housing, but by the lack of actual supply. No one can sell their high-priced house right now because if they did, the interest rate for their current mortgage, which they took out five years ago at 3%, would increase to 7% for the new mortgage for the new house.
So nobody&#8217;s actually selling right now.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-jones-03-11-2024/card/white-house-forecasts-somewhat-higher-interest-rates-6wcHJKhbxfffDfPSpAKs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Monday:
<blockquote>President Biden signaled optimism during a campaign event last week that the Federal Reserve was going to cut interest rates soon. The economic forecasts in his <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-budget-kicks-off-election-year-fight-over-medicare-social-security-42c7318f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">budget released Monday</a> offer a different message: curb your enthusiasm. …
Economic forecasts released Monday as part of the White House’s 2025 budget proposal assume that three-month Treasury bill rates will average 5.1% this year, the same as in 2023, before declining to 4% next year and 3.3% in 2026.
The White House sees the average 10-year Treasury note yield rising to 4.4% this year from 4.1% last year and then declining gradually to 3.7% by the end of this decade. 
The White House last year projected a somewhat lower path for interest rates in part because it assumed a meaningful slowdown in growth for 2023 that didn’t materialize. </blockquote>
If you sell a bond and interest rates are high — 7% or 8%, or in this case 5% — that means that the U.S. government is going to have to pay that off down the road.
This means when you take on new debt, it is more expensive — and that&#8217;s a big problem because we are blowing out spending like nobody&#8217;s business.
Joe Biden has a plan. His political plan is twofold. One: Promise to spend more money than anybody has in human history. Two: Soak the rich. That&#8217;s going to be his two-pronged economic plan, which is nothing new; we&#8217;ve seen that from every Democrat since Bill Clinton. The idea was to promise the world to voters, promise to spend money that does not exist, and do so by borrowing and taxing.
But the taxes never actually materialized because tax revenue is not capable of sustaining the kind of spending we are doing now, unless you decide to really tax the middle class. What Democrats want is the Norwegian standard of living without the kind of oil wealth provided by the Norwegian oil industry and without taxing the middle class in the way that Norway does.
The dirty secret of living in Scandinavia is that they tax everybody who makes about $60,000 a year at the same rate they tax those who make $500,000 a year. But America has an incredibly progressive tax system. People at the top of the income spectrum pay nearly all the taxes in the United States. That is not true in the social democracies of European countries, which start taxing people at exorbitant rates when they hit the lower-middle class.
But that&#8217;s something Democrats don&#8217;t want to do because they understand that if they do so, it would be politically unpopular with many of the people who are going to vote for them.
So, instead, they decide to promise extraordinary levels of spending and try to force Republicans into the corner — because Republicans are going to say we can&#8217;t spend that much.
This is why Biden has now released his fiscal 2025 budget, which has no chance of passage. It’s a list of priorities for Biden. And what exactly are Biden&#8217;s priorities?
Taxing people a lot of money, cutting military spending in the face of the most chaotic world situation of the modern era, and maintaining the spending trajectory of Social Security and Medicare.
And somehow, he says this is going to lower the deficit.
How is it going to do that? He’s assuming he can radically increase taxes without affecting the economy, which of course, is not the way any of this works. Radically increasing taxes causes people to spend less money. That&#8217;s the way it tends to work. You can tax something to death. But you cannot tax something into prosperity.
He&#8217;s proposing a $7.3 trillion budget. This is patently insane on its face. First, even during the pandemic in 2021, we did not spend that much money. The United States government spent about $6.8 trillion. The same was true in 2020. That was during a full-scale pandemic when people were told to stay home and the federal government paid everyone&#8217;s bills for a year.
These levels of government spending are not justified. We&#8217;re not even in the middle of a pandemic.
Biden’s budget would raise taxes on wealthy people and large corporations. When you tax a corporation, that cost is passed on to the people who work for the corporation; they have less money to pay their employees.
But Biden says this will somehow trim the deficit and lower the cost of prescription drugs, childcare, and housing. When he says he will lower the costs of goods and services like this, what he really means is that the federal government is going to start subsidizing.
And there has yet to be a product developed by human beings subsidized by the federal government in which the cost does not go up.
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Biden is already stagnating the economy. The real threat to the American economy in the long-term is not inflation. Inflation will come back down under control. The real danger is the stagnating economy for the foreseeable future.
In an article titled “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-budget-fy-2025-defense-spending-taxes-25f09b63" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden Offers a Budget Fantasy</a>,” the Wall Street Journal reports, “Mr. Biden’s deficits mean that debt as a share of the economy also keeps rising. He foresees debt held by the public rising to 102.2% in 2025, though it was only 79% as recently as 2019.”
That means more money will be spent in terms of servicing our national debt than we spent on our military budget every year in the very near future.
“Public debt in his budget keeps growing and growing — to 106% of GDP in 2030. Interest on that debt will surpass defense spending this year when it hits $890 billion, and it keeps climbing to $1.57 trillion over the next decade,” the Wall Street Journal added.
None of this makes any fiscal sense. When he says he&#8217;s going to tax the rich to get out of this, the simple fact of the matter is that there is no way to tax the rich enough to pay for the kinds of things Biden wants to pay for. He doesn&#8217;t really want to pay for them because he knows this is not going to pass.
So why does Biden propose nonsensical things that will go nowhere?
Because he&#8217;s trying to pick fights with Republicans. That&#8217;s really what this is all about.

President Biden Speaks On Lowering Costs

Biden’s Economy Makes No Sense. It’s Simply An Excuse To Attack Republicans

2024 Election

Ben Shapiro

Entitlement Reform

Federal Government

Interest Rates

Joe Biden

National Debt

Opinion

Readers Pass

There is a big lie that we in the United States keep telling ourselves. It is particularly true on the political Right, but it&#8217;s true across the board.
Here’s the lie: We want our government to be fiscally responsible in some way, shape, or form. It&#8217;s clearly a lie because we keep electing politicians who eschew being fiscally responsible in any way, shape, or form, regardless of who runs the government.
The spending keeps going in one direction — and that direction is up. There&#8217;s a reason we are running a $34 trillion national debt at this point in time, and it is likely that that more debt is going to continue to accrue because nobody takes this problem particularly seriously.
And they&#8217;re not going to take that problem seriously until we run smack into a wall.
That is typically how fiscal crises work: A country spends too much money. They&#8217;re unable to rein it back in because there are too many people who become dependent on that spending of the money. Then, instead of creating some sort of plan to get out of debt, people just keep running up those debts, keep running up those deficits until the time comes we have to take extremely harsh remediating action.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1888-the-big-lie-americans-tell-ourselves-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
That is the high likelihood here. Why do I say this? Because yesterday the House Republicans, as well as the House Democrats, overwhelmingly passed yet another continuing resolution. And this is the way we now fund the government because we&#8217;re not able to actually have serious negotiations on any department level with regard to spending; we&#8217;re not able to negotiate over how much should be spent on defense or how much should be spent on education.
Instead, we wrap everything up into a ball and when we can&#8217;t get approval on a year-long budget, we go to continuing resolutions, which are the short-form budgets that continue the government spending. And we keep the drain running and the trend will run until the train runs completely off those tracks.
And by the way, the people who are telling you that the continuing resolution should have been pushed aside in favor of something harsher, in favor of a government shutdown, or in favor of a harder bargaining position with Joe Biden, are fibbing to you about the incentive structure. Unless you have a unified Republican control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, you&#8217;re not going to get the kind of spending cuts that make it worthwhile for you to risk your seats. Because I&#8217;ll tell you what happens: You do a government shutdown, you&#8217;re going to end up passing a continuing resolution anyway, and a bunch more people are going to lose their seats.
The easiest thing in Congress is to get lost in a crowd, to simply side with an overwhelming majority of people who say status quo, “Let&#8217;s just keep doing what it is that we are doing right now.”  Internal Republican rules prevent any Republican from moving forward with a bill that does not have at least the support of the majority of Republicans. So it came very close to the wire on this particular bill.
Texas Republican Chip Roy, who does take the problem of spending seriously, was blasting everybody Right, Left, and Center about not only the spending, but also the fact that nobody in Congress seems to want to solve serious problems anymore. He wound up saying, “It doesn&#8217;t matter who&#8217;s sitting in the Speaker&#8217;s seat or who has the majority. We keep doing the same stupid stuff.”
That requires us to ask a pretty simple question: Why is it that we keep doing the same stupid stuff? Is that a matter of not having the right people in power? Or is it just that the American people refuse to recognize the reality about themselves, which is that we constantly say that we want to balance the budget; we constantly say we want to spend less money, and then as soon as there is a poll asking what we would like to cut, we all run for the hills and we have no idea what it is that we would like to cut.
The reality is, in order for any serious major change to get done, you must have unified party control over Congress, over the Senate, over the presidency, and a dedication by that party to take the hit. 
Democrats take the hits, by the way. There&#8217;s something the Democrats are good at.
Democrats took the hit in 2010. They passed Obamacare and then they got shellacked at the polls. It was an exceptionally bad midterm for them. And they jumped ahead because they knew if they could completely restructure the health care system, in the end, these would become entitlements people relied upon. They would rather take the short-term hit for the long-term gain.
When was the last time Republicans took a short-term hit for the long-term gain? The answer is they haven’t. The reason they don&#8217;t is because they&#8217;re afraid they will be tossed out of office. So it’s up to the American people to tell Washington that we actually want the spending cuts. 
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Politicians make a living by lying to you and you have a choice: Your choice is whether you like being lied to. You decide to go along with their lies or whether you don&#8217;t like being lied to. Any politician who says he can save you, save your family, or save your society by spending money here or by restructuring a program there is lying to you. 
The vast majority of choices in your life are up to you. When people rely on politicians too much, they end up shooting themselves in the foot. 
Then they buy into the next grifter who comes along and suggests he&#8217;s going to fix whatever problems are at hand.

Congress Approves Funding To Avert US Government Shutdown

The Big Lie Americans Tell Ourselves 

Chip Roy

Government Shutdown

Obamacare

U.S. House of Representatives

The GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> voted on Thursday to pass another short-term spending bill to avert a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government shutdown</a> over the objection of a group of conservative members who were angling to get <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/14-house-democrats-vote-to-denounce-biden-admins-open-borders-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">border security</a> reforms <a href="https://twitter.com/MicaSoellnerDC/status/1748038026708582796" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attached</a> and rein in the national debt.
By a <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1748101919938130258" target="_blank" rel="noopener">314-108 tally</a>, which was bipartisan, the lower chamber approved a measure to fund the various federal agencies in two stages: some through March 1 and others through March 8. Because the Democrat-controlled Senate already passed the spending legislation by a <a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/votes_new.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">77-18 vote</a>, the bill now heads to the White House, where President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> will likely sign it.
The stop-gap spending measure will give lawmakers more time to hash out their differences on fiscal 2024 legislation that has already been pushed back multiple times. The latest deadline for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prior two-step continuing resolution</a> was set to be the end of Friday, but further votes this week are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/house-cancels-vote-snowstorm-government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">getting canceled</a> with a winter storm in the forecast for Washington, D.C.
Senators overcame the <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1748067395636183165" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60-vote threshold</a> to pass the legislation earlier on Thursday after they voted 50-44 to reject an <a href="https://www.congress.gov/amendment/118th-congress/senate-amendment/1384/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amendment</a> offered by Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/rand-paul" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rand Paul</a> (R-KY) to restrain aid to the Palestinians until all hostages abducted by Hamas in the terrorist attacks on Israel are released and other conditions.
In the House, 207 Democrats joined with 107 Republicans to <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202415" target="_blank" rel="noopener">achieve the two-thirds majority vote</a> necessary to pass the bill. Two Democrats and 106 Republicans, including House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), voted against the measure while 11 members did not vote.
Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus <a href="https://twitter.com/RajShahDC/status/1748051298618888248" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed</a> GOP leadership to <a href="https://twitter.com/emilybrooksnews/status/1748043744186618095" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tack on</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HouseInSession/status/1748052558503956838" target="_blank" rel="noopener">border security policy changes</a>, but to no avail. The group <a href="https://twitter.com/freedomcaucus/status/1748077616635007478" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> an &#8220;official position&#8221; urging Republicans to &#8220;uphold commitments to end inflationary spending and secure the border&#8221; and specifically called on conservatives to &#8220;oppose the Johnson-Schumer CR.&#8221;
The leaders referenced by the Freedom Caucus, House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chuck-schumer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck Schumer</a> (D-NY), joined other top members of Congress for a meeting with Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a national security funding request for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel as well as border security while a bipartisan group of senators try to hash out an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-biden-border-ukraine-immigration-deal-optimism-white-house-meet-rcna134284" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immigration deal</a>.
&#8220;I told President Biden: it’s on you,&#8221; Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1747781756999098651" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X. &#8220;Your policies created the border crisis. Your executive action can end it. House Republicans will continue to demand transformative policy change and hold this administration accountable until the border is secure.&#8221;

House Speaker Mike Johnson

House Passes Another Short-Term Spending Bill, Rejecting Conservative Bid For Border Attachment

Congress

House Republicans

Spending Bill

U.S. Senate

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> is expected to meet at the White House with congressional leaders on Wednesday to discuss his months-old request for roughly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/whats-bidens-106-billion-supplemental-funding-request-2023-10-20/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$106 billion</a> to spend on a variety of national security issues that has <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-republicans-block-ukraine-and-israel-aid-as-they-demand-border-policy-changes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed to make headway</a> on Capitol Hill.
The meeting will address Biden&#8217;s &#8220;top priority&#8221; <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/20/fact-sheet-white-house-calls-on-congress-to-advance-critical-national-security-priorities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supplemental funding request</a> from October, which seeks more money for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel as well as border security, White House Press Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/karine-jean-pierre" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karine Jean-Pierre</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_yQBViNeAk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told </a>reporters in a briefing on Tuesday.
Jean-Pierre also referenced bipartisan negotiations in the Senate where lawmakers are trying to hash out a deal tying border security reforms to Ukraine aid after Republicans <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-republicans-block-ukraine-and-israel-aid-as-they-demand-border-policy-changes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked an effort</a> to advance a national security package in December.
&#8220;While the president is having this really important meeting tomorrow, negotiations on a bipartisan agreement on the border that includes funding and policy are still ongoing,&#8221; Jean-Pierre said, adding that Biden&#8217;s team believes the talks are &#8220;headed in the right direction.&#8221;
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will attend the meeting with other congressional leaders, his spokesman Raj Shah <a href="https://twitter.com/RajShahDC/status/1747327091983720737" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed on X</a>. Punchbowl News reported Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and &#8220;key&#8221; committee leaders <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1747321037056778499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were also invited</a>.
The meeting is slated to happen as Congress also contends with a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-rule-in-second-attempt-johnson-ducks-gop-revolt-for-now" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate battle over fiscal 2024 spending</a> and a possible two-tiered government shutdown in the coming weeks if lawmakers are unable to resolve their differences or at least pass another stop-gap measure.
Purported details of the border agreement being negotiated in the Democrat-led Senate <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jan/13/senate-border-deal-would-allow-5000-illegal-immigr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were released in recent days by</a> a group called the Immigration Accountability Project and displayed in an <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1746254204119711923" target="_blank" rel="noopener">infographic shown by Fox News</a>.
The alleged deal included an increase in green cards, more work permits, tax-payer-funded lawyers for some unaccompanied minors and mentally incompetent illegal immigrants, allowing 5,000 migrants to enter the U.S. each day, and restricting parole for those who enter without authorization between ports of entry.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Absolutely not. <a href="https://t.co/tkXma24r8M">pic.twitter.com/tkXma24r8M</a>
&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1746254204119711923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Johnson, who is facing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republican-wont-rule-out-motion-to-vacate-against-speaker-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intense pressure</a> from conservatives to take a strong stance on border security and rein in spending, rejected the deal as reported. &#8220;Absolutely not,&#8221; he said in <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1746254204119711923" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a post to X</a> along with the Fox News infographic.
Other members of Congress <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJerryCarl/status/1746329362574483622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advocated</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1746304100520571140" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for H.R. 2</a>, border legislation passed by the GOP-led House last year that Schumer has refused to allow the Senate to consider, dismissing what he described as &#8220;<a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-the-urgent-need-to-pass-national-security-supplemental-funding-legislation-to-support-our-friends-and-allies-and-defend-democracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partisan right-wing demands</a>.&#8221;
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who has led the Senate talks on the GOP side along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) for the Democrats, urged lawmakers not to jump to any conclusions.
&#8220;I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet,&#8221; Lankford <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorLankford/status/1746295537387581694" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X last week.
CNN&#8217;s Manu Raju <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1747337614892450229" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Lankford and other Senate negotiators on Tuesday morning to discuss immigration.
&#8220;Our target is to get text out as quickly as we can,&#8221; Lankford reportedly said. &#8220;And we&#8217;re hoping to be able to do that this week. But we continue to go through little technical things that are just constantly going to come up over and over again. You gotta get them resolved.&#8221;

President Joe Biden

Biden To Meet With Capitol Hill Leaders Regarding ‘Top Priority’ Funding Request

Biden To Meet With Capitol Hill Leaders Regarding 'Top Priority' Funding Request

Border Crisis

Mike Johnson

National Security

Ukraine-Russia War

White House

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/environmental-protection-agency-epa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</a> failed to suitably report billions of dollars in fiscal 2022 spending, the agency&#8217;s inspector general determined, prompting condemnation from GOP lawmakers.
A report <a href="https://www.epaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2024-01/epaoig_20240109-24-p-0014_cert.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> last week by the independent watchdog said the agency&#8217;s initial reporting to USAspending.gov — the federal government’s &#8220;official public source&#8221; of spending information — was &#8220;not complete or accurate&#8221; because the EPA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) &#8220;did not follow its information technology configuration management procedures.&#8221;
&#8220;Consequently, necessary changes to the OCFO’s DATA Act Evaluation and Approval Repository, the system that facilitates the Agency’s USAspending.gov reporting, were either unimplemented or incorrectly implemented, and these issues were not identified via configuration audits,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;Additionally, the OCFO lacked procedures to detect errors and to confirm the completeness and accuracy of the data that it reported to USAspending.gov.&#8221;
The inspector general&#8217;s team found award-level obligations — or <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44027" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spending commitments</a> — were underreported by $1.2 billion and award-level outlays — or <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44027" target="_blank" rel="noopener">money actually paid</a> — were underreported by $5.8 billion, meaning that 12.9% of the EPA’s total award-level obligations and 99.9% of the EPA’s total award-level outlays were not reported in fiscal 2022.
Also noted by the watchdog was that the EPA also did not report &#8220;any&#8221; of its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act outlays and underreported its COVID pandemic-related outlays.
&#8220;The lack of complete and accurate reporting also led to taxpayers being initially misinformed about the EPA’s spending, and policy-makers who relied on the data may not have been able to effectively track federal spending,&#8221; the report said.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who is chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, criticized the EPA <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chair-rodgers-epa-s-failure-to-report-7-billion-in-spending-is-another-failure-of-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in response</a> to the inspector general&#8217;s findings.
“It’s outrageous and unacceptable that the EPA cannot keep track of its spending or inform Congress — and the American people — of how it is using taxpayer dollars. This eye-opening report only further highlights the need for more transparency at the EPA,&#8221; McMorris Rodgers said.
&#8220;It also raises questions about whether the agency is incapable of managing its record-high budget or if the agency is attempting to hide the amount of taxpayer dollars it is spending to advance the administration’s radical rush-to-green agenda,&#8221; she added. &#8220;The Energy and Commerce Committee will continue holding this administration accountable for its actions that are driving up costs across the board and hurting Americans.”
Among the other GOP lawmakers who chided the EPA were Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), who <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJohnJoyce/status/1745581015270068578" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on X</a>, &#8220;This jarring report is the clearest sign yet that the EPA is unable and unwilling to adequately serve the American people,&#8221; and Rep. Lauren Boehbert (R-CO), <a href="https://twitter.com/RepBoebert/status/1745900056425734622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who said</a>, &#8220;This is completely unacceptable.&#8221;
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As a result of the audit, the inspector general&#8217;s team made a number of recommendations to the EPA for improving its USAspending.gov reporting process. The watchdog said the EPA &#8220;agreed with&#8221; all the suggestions and provided &#8220;acceptable corrective actions&#8221; along with estimated dates for completing those tasks.
&#8220;EPA welcomes and appreciates the Office of the Inspector General’s oversight and recommendations,&#8221; an EPA spokesperson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bidens-epa-lost-track-billions-dollars-taxpayer-funds-inspector-general?intcmp=tw_pols" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Fox News</a>. &#8220;EPA properly accounted for FY 2022 funding, which is validated by [the inspector general&#8217;s fiscal] 2022 clean unmodified audit opinion of EPA’s financial statements. This was an issue transmitting data to USASpending.gov, which has been corrected.&#8221;

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) logo on flag

Inspector General Finds EPA Failed To Properly Report Billions Of Dollars

Biden Administration

Environment

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Executive

Inspector general

The GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> approved a rule on Thursday that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-defectors-blow-up-house-vote-amid-spending-protest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed to pass less</a> than 24 hours earlier amid a revolt against Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) by small group of Republicans over spending and border security that appears to have abated for the moment.
A resolution to allow consideration of a <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1745170014607425862" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trio of unrelated measures</a> secured <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/20245" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a simple majority</a> largely along party lines with only one Republican, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), voting against it and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) voting &#8220;present.&#8221; Six other GOP members did not vote.
In a <a href="https://twitter.com/RepLuna/status/1745513193944781305" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to X, Luna blasted the roughly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-and-senate-leaders-reach-spending-deal-johnson-touts-concessions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.6 trillion &#8220;topline&#8221; spending deal</a> Johnson struck with Democrat leaders in Congress for fiscal 2024 appropriations legislation. &#8220;FACT: [President Joe] Biden&#8217;s $1.6 trillion proposal is a debt bomb for future Americans. Senate Republicans, it&#8217;s time to defend our children&#8217;s financial freedom,&#8221; she said.
Luna also demanded the passage of legislation that solely focuses on border security, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepLuna/status/1745527718865768745" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posting to X</a>, &#8220;Congress. Needs. A. Stand. Alone. Border. Bill.&#8221; At the moment, bipartisan Senate negotiators are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/10/senate-border-ukraine-negotiations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hashing out deal</a> that ties border reforms to aid for U.S. allies such as Ukraine.
After 13 Republican lawmakers — including Luna and Roy — joined with all voting Democrats to defeat the same resolution on Wednesday, Johnson met with the holdouts earlier on Thursday. Following the meeting, some members told <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1745499525312139408" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reporters</a> that Johnson would back out of his spending deal with Democrats and a new plan would be drawn up.
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But the speaker said otherwise. &#8220;I’ve made no commitments,&#8221; Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/haleytalbotcnn/status/1745506516541546624" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insisted</a>, noting that conversations were ongoing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Speaker Johnson quells the rumors that he is considering renegotiating the deal reached with Schumer “I’ve made no commitments” <a href="https://t.co/vOWWdXWHs4">pic.twitter.com/vOWWdXWHs4</a>
&mdash; haleytalbotcnn (@haleytalbotcnn) <a href="https://twitter.com/haleytalbotcnn/status/1745506516541546624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Time is of the essence as lawmakers race to come up with a dozen appropriations bills with — at least for now — the $1.6 trillion topline figure in mind. A government shutdown looms <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as a two-step continuing resolution (CR) passed in November</a> funds certain federal agencies through January 19 while others would get money through February 2. The Democrat-led Senate has begun the process of passing <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1745539461788598778" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another stop-gap measure</a>, just in case.
The House GOP uprising against leadership seen on Wednesday was reminiscent of the revolt a small group of Republicans waged against then-Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kevin-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin McCarthy</a> (R-CA) last year, which ended in him losing the gavel.
Roy has said he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republican-wont-rule-out-motion-to-vacate-against-speaker-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won&#8217;t rule out</a> using the &#8220;motion to vacate&#8221; mechanism against Johnson — the same one that led to the no-confidence vote <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-ousted-from-speakership-after-democrats-side-with-matt-gaetz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resulting in McCarthy&#8217;s ouster</a> — as he voiced objections to the topline spending deal and pushed for border security reforms in line with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/us/politics/house-republicans-immigration-bill.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a sweeping bill the House passed last year</a> that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcconnell-rips-dems-for-refusal-to-link-real-border-security-to-other-challenges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refuses to consider</a>.
Johnson, who is working with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-announces-dates-for-special-election-to-replace-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a razor-thin GOP majority</a>, indicated that he is not concerned about facing a similar fate as McCarthy. &#8220;I don’t think I’m in any jeopardy of being vacated. It&#8217;s not something I walk around and think about,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1745180463784710384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the speaker</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jordainc/status/1745181667411562915" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Fox News</a>.

Speaker Mike Johnson

House Passes Rule In Second Attempt, Johnson Ducks GOP Revolt — For Now

House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) could be on the verge of facing a no-confidence vote through the same process that removed his predecessor, Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kevin-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin McCarthy</a> (R-CA), as speaker last year.
Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/rep-chip-roy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chip Roy</a> (R-TX), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said on Tuesday that he would not rule out using the &#8220;motion to vacate&#8221; mechanism against Johnson amid objections to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-and-senate-leaders-reach-spending-deal-johnson-touts-concessions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government spending framework</a> released by congressional leaders over the weekend and a warning about an impending border security deal.
&#8220;I&#8217;m leaving it on the table. I&#8217;m not gonna say I&#8217;m gonna go file it tomorrow night. I&#8217;m not saying I&#8217;m not gonna file it tomorrow. I think the speaker needs to know that we&#8217;re angry about it,&#8221; Roy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDjY0NY5VUQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told BlazeTV host Steve Deace</a>.
Concessions made during McCarthy&#8217;s rise to the speakership early last year restored the ability of a single member to trigger the “motion to vacate” process that would lead to a no-confidence vote. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fallout-and-triumphs-from-the-matt-gaetz-coup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did just that</a> in early October after the House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-stopgap-spending-measure-with-no-additional-support-for-ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed a stop-gap spending measure</a> to prevent a government shutdown. He and seven other Republicans joined with Democrats to remove McCarthy from the speakership. Since then, Johnson got elected speaker and McCathy has left Congress.
Roy said he publicly voiced opposition to the effort to rip the speaker&#8217;s gavel from McCarthy. He noted some frustrations with what transpired under the California Republican&#8217;s leadership, but also acknowledged progress with spending caps getting implemented and conservatives achieving &#8220;some success&#8221; as lawmakers began advancing <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4224579-house-gop-advances-four-spending-bills-after-failed-attempts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">individual spending bills</a> as opposed to omnibus legislation that would combine them.
While Johnson touted a &#8220;topline&#8221; $1.59 trillion figure for the fiscal 2024 appropriations process along with &#8220;concessions&#8221; as part of an agreement with congressional Democrats, Roy suggested it ignores options devised under McCarthy that offered more financial restraints and contains <a href="https://twitter.com/RepChipRoy/status/1744778877845610530" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;budget gimmicks&#8221;</a> that increase spending above the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-166-trillion-funding-bill-shutdown-deadline-nears-2022-12-23/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.66 trillion fiscal 2023 omnibus spending bill</a> negotiated under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/HouseGOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HouseGOP</a> FAILED to use its leverage to force cuts to inflationary spending
We must reject this &quot;deal&quot; w/ Dems that will INCREASE spending by ~$30 BILLION &amp; fund agencies at war with our liberty &amp; security &#8211; like Mayorkas&#39; DHS<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoGimmicks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoGimmicks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoSideDeals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoSideDeals</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoSecurityNoFunding?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoSecurityNoFunding</a> <a href="https://t.co/XRBmzUshyz">pic.twitter.com/XRBmzUshyz</a>
&mdash; Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepChipRoy/status/1744778877845610530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Roy told Deace he will reserve judgment until he sees what &#8220;policy riders&#8221; might come out of negotiations. But he isn&#8217;t getting his hopes up after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-passes-886-billion-defense-policy-bill-with-military-pay-raise-spy-tool-extension-and-ukraine-aid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defense policy bill</a> that included a FISA section 702 surveillance extension and &#8220;basically got rid of all of our DEI and CRT stuff,&#8221; as well as another stopgap spending measure.
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Democrats warned House Republicans not to include &#8220;poison pill policy changes&#8221; in any of the fiscal 2024 spending bills or risk losing their support. President Joe Biden also released a statement that said &#8220;congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities.&#8221;
The prospect of another government shutdown looms <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as a two-step continuing resolution (CR) passed in November</a> funds certain federal agencies through January 19 while others would get money through February 2. Separately, lawmakers in the Senate are holding bipartisan talks on a deal to tie border security reforms to supplemental national funds for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel.
&#8220;If they totally botch it — we get no policy reforms and we&#8217;re spending $1.66 trillion, I don&#8217;t know why we would keep him as speaker,&#8221; Roy said, adding later that he would fight &#8220;$60 billion on Ukraine and bull crap border security&#8221; reforms after the GOP-led House passed its own border security bill last year that the Democrat-led Senate refuses to consider.

Rep. Chip Roy

House Republican Won’t Rule Out ‘Motion To Vacate’ Against Speaker Johnson

House Republican Won't Rule Out 'Motion To Vacate' Against Speaker Johnson

Kevin McCarthy

Matt Gaetz

Leaders in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Congress</a> announced on Sunday a spending deal that could help avert the start of another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government shutdown</a> in less than two weeks.
In a <a href="https://punchbowl.news/smj-dear-colleague-1-7-24/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter to colleagues</a>, House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) revealed a fiscal 2024 agreement of $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense. The &#8220;topline&#8221; $1.59 trillion figure matches the &#8220;statutory levels&#8221; agreed upon in last year&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-mccarthy-biden-debt-ceiling-compromise-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt ceiling bill</a> called the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), he added.
Johnson touted &#8220;concessions,&#8221; including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/12-house-dems-ignore-biden-veto-threat-help-pass-israel-aid-with-irs-cuts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">further slashing funds</a> directed to the Internal Revenue Service and cutting the Biden administration&#8217;s billions more dollars in &#8220;slush funds&#8221; from the COVID era, and the rejection of &#8220;accounting gimmicks&#8221; from the FRA framework. “The agreement today achieves key modifications to the June framework that will secure more than $16 billion in additional spending cuts to offset the discretionary spending levels,” he wrote.
&#8220;The result is real savings to American taxpayers and real reductions in 
the federal bureaucracy,&#8221; Johnson said. The speaker also conceded that the &#8220;final spending levels will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like,&#8221; but he stressed the deal showed progress in championing conservative priorities.
Lawmakers in the Senate and House Appropriations Committees are now expected to pick up on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorCollins/status/1744097619880579402" target="_blank" rel="noopener">negotiating and completing</a> the 12 annual appropriations bills with the framework in mind. Time is of the essence, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as the two-step continuing resolution (CR) passed in November</a> funds certain federal agencies through January 19 while others would get money through February 2.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus voiced dismay with the spending agreement, which is separate from the debate over tying <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senate-negotiator-hopes-for-border-deal-this-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">border security reforms</a> to supplemental national funds for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel.
&#8220;Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is $1.658 trillion — not $1.59 trillion. This is total failure,&#8221; the group <a href="https://twitter.com/freedomcaucus/status/1744121136697237904" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a post to X</a>.
The &#8220;topline in spending is terrible &amp; gives away the leverage accomplished in the (already not great) caps deal,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/chiproytx/status/1744103287601729734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a member of the Freedom Caucus. &#8220;We’ll wait to see if we get meaningful policy riders… but 1) the [<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-passes-defense-bill-with-no-block-on-funding-for-abortion-travel-setting-up-battle-with-house" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Defense Authorization Act</a>] was not a good preview, &amp; 2) as usual, we keep spending more money we don’t have.&#8221;
Leaders for the Democrats in Congress <a href="https://punchbowl.news/jeffries_schumer-statement-on-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released a statement</a> on the spending agreement.
&#8220;By securing the $772.7 billion for non-defense discretionary funding, we can protect key domestic priorities like veterans benefits, health care and nutrition assistance from the draconian cuts sought by right-wing extremists,&#8221; said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Schumer and Jeffries also emphasized that they &#8220;made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress.&#8221;
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1744105843518235022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he is &#8220;encouraged that the Speaker and Democratic Leaders have identified a path toward completing FY 2024 appropriations.&#8221; He added, &#8220;America faces serious national security challenges, and Congress must act quickly to deliver the full-year resources this moment requires.&#8221;
President Joe Biden also reacted to the deal in a statement released by the White House.
&#8220;The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities,&#8221; Biden said.
&#8220;It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring. It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies,&#8221; Biden added.
&#8220;I want to thank Leaders Schumer and Jeffries for their leadership in reaching this framework,&#8221; the president continued. &#8220;Now, congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities, including my supplemental request. It’s time for them to act.&#8221;

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La.

House And Senate Leaders Reach Spending Deal; Johnson Touts ‘Concessions’

House And Senate Leaders Reach Spending Deal; Johnson Touts 'Concessions'

Chuck Schumer

The U.S. national debt rose to a staggering $34 trillion for the first time last week, just three months after it surpassed $33 trillion, according to data published by the Treasury Department. 
Along with the steady increase in America’s national debt, the federal government’s borrowing costs on the debt are expected to triple over the next decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Budget, Fox Business <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/us-national-debt-tops-34t-first-time-history">reported</a>. Debt payments could rise from the current $475 billion to $1.4 trillion by fiscal year 2032 and $5.4 trillion by 2053. For comparison, in fiscal year 2022, the U.S. <a href="https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/nhe-fact-sheet#:~:text=Medicare%20spending%20grew%205.9%25%20to,18%20percent%20of%20total%20NHE.">spent</a> $944 billion on Medicare, $805 billion on Medicaid, and $1.2 trillion on <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-security-much-money-ssa-131133767.html#:~:text=About%20one%2Dfifth%20(21%25),of%20any%20U.S.%20government%20program.">Social Security</a>.
“The national debt is the greatest threat to America’s national security, and the current addiction to reckless spending cannot be sustained,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1742379468004409671" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). “Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have a responsibility to reduce spending and finally put America on path towards fiscal sanity.”
The national debt is equal to $100,000 for every adult and child in the U.S., and the debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest it has been since right after World War II, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White <a href="https://twitter.com/shadwhite/status/1742564146057551974">said</a>. 
Responding to news of the national debt’s new record, the White House blamed Republicans, claiming that tax breaks for corporations have “overwhelmingly” led to the increase in debt. 
&#8220;This is the trickle-down debt — driven overwhelmingly by repeated Republican giveaways skewed to big corporations and the wealthy,&#8221; said White House Assistant Press Secretary Michael Kikukawa in a statement to Fox Business. Kikukawa added that Biden has a plan to cut the deficit by $2.5 trillion by “making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share and cutting wasteful spending on special interests.” 
The Biden administration was also on the receiving end of criticism for its fiscal policy. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) slammed Biden for “destroying our country with his reckless spending.”
“It took @JoeBiden just 105 days (Sept. 15-Dec. 29) to dig American taxpayers another TRILLION deeper into debt. When Biden took office, the national debt was $27 trillion. Today it&#8217;s $34 trillion,” Scott <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/1742559572496114172">posted</a> on X. 
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The national debt has increased under each president since Calvin Coolidge, with the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/banking/national-debt-by-president/">largest</a> percentage increases coming under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.  
Congress has just weeks to agree on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/03/economy/us-national-debt-34-trillion/index.html">new</a> department budgets after the House and Senate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support">passed</a> a stopgap spending bill in November, averting a government shutdown.

U.S. Department of the Treasury

‘Greatest Threat To America’s National Security’: National Debt Hits $34 Trillion For First Time

Treasury Department

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