<h3>Slashing Federal Spending: The Numbers So Far</h3>
In a sweeping effort to cut waste, the Elon Musk-led DOGE initiative has identified $105 billion in potential savings, largely from lease terminations, contract cancellations, and workforce reductions. The government has already terminated 748 leases, saving $468 million annually, and is set to shed a quarter of its 360 million square feet of federal real estate.
In a recent episode of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morning Wire</a>, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley sat down with the Government Accountability Institute’s Eric Eggers, co-host of “<a href="https://thedrilldown.com/?utm_source=googlegrant&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwp8--BhBREiwAj7og1_0xdgsI4S9MyrRTJXF7PySBtYxy570busOI9NnJksvoQ_ia0RJBBhoCeGIQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer</a>,” to discuss the accomplishments of DOGE and the headwinds it faces in the coming months. 
<h3>1. How much has DOGE actually accomplished so far?</h3>
Eric Eggers: “If we’re talking dollars and cents, DOGE has identified $105 billion in savings — cutting federal leases, canceling contracts, and eliminating wasteful spending. The federal government is targeting a 63% reduction in the Public Building Services division, and one agency alone — USAID — has seen 83% of its programs cut. That’s tens of billions of dollars in savings.”
<h3>2. How has X and social media changed the conversation on government waste?</h3>
Eggers: “The Trump administration has become the most radically transparent administration in recent memory. Before, legacy media controlled the narrative. The American people are now seeing a lot of things exposed that the gatekeepers in the legacy media would have never exposed. Now, X puts out receipts in real time — like the General Services Administration buying 37,000 WinZip licenses for 13,000 employees. DOGE is making cutting spending ‘cool’ again.”
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doge-data-musk-slashes-billions-in-government/id1576594336?i=1000699268646" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h3>3. What are the biggest pushbacks DOGE is facing?</h3>
Eggers: “Critics say these cuts are just a ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to the national deficit. The Supreme Court even blocked some USAID funding freezes. And now, Democrats are claiming DOGE is harming veterans, since 30% of federal workers are vets. We all saw Democrats protesting during his most recent congressional address, saying he&#8217;s a “dictator.” But at the end of the day, everything that&#8217;s being done in the name of cutting spending is being identified and posted on the DOGE website.&#8221;
<h3>4. What’s happening with federal job cuts, particularly at the IRS?</h3>
Eggers: “The IRS started this administration with about 100,000 employees. Reports say that number could be cut in half. And there was some talk about giving them weapons. The American public, however, seems to support the cuts — after all, downsizing for efficiency is standard in the private sector. Why should government be any different?”
<h3>5. What role is Elon Musk playing in all this?</h3>
Eggers: “Musk isn’t just backing DOGE financially—he’s essentially acting as its Chief Marketing Officer. By using X to put pressure on vulnerable politicians, making it harder for weak members of Congress and Trump’s coalition to resist these cuts. Musk and his team at X can take the specific examples and give them directly to the American people. That’s why this initiative has had so much success so quickly.”
<h3> * * * 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: Catch the full interview with Eric Eggers on Morning Wire</a>.</h3>

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

5 Questions With Eric Eggers On DOGE’s Cost-Cutting Push

Budget

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE

Elon Musk

Federal Government

Morning Wire

President Trump

President Trump has chalked up another win.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made noises earlier this week about the possibility of holding up a continuing resolution that would fund the government all the way until September.
It was unclear why he was doing that. Strategically, he had no ground on which to stand because, after all, if the Democratic minority in the United States Senate decided to filibuster the continuing resolution, there would be a government shutdown. Then, the Republicans would correctly name the Democrats as having actually created the government shutdown, at which point Schumer and the Democrats would be blamed for everything.
It was a gigantic unforced error by Schumer. Then, on Thursday, he reversed. Democrats, of course, are very upset at Schumer because they believe that it is their duty to obstruct literally everything the Republicans do.
To be fair to Schumer, this was a no-win situation.
On the one hand, if the continuing resolution goes forward, then President Trump can continue to unleash the executive branch, using DOGE to cut, slash, and burn. He has the capacity to do that because the continuing resolution says the government is going to continue to run at the same funding levels as it has previously. It did not include specific designations where funding ought to go within each department, allowing for enormous discretion inside the executive branch for President Trump to continue to allow DOGE to do its work, which Democrats hate.
On the other hand, if they&#8217;d gone into a government shutdown, then President Trump would have had the capacity to determine who is and is not an essential worker because he&#8217;s the president. And that would mean more firings.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2158-democrats-cave-trump-chalks-up-another-win-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
So Schumer’s radical Left-wing base was very upset with him for not standing up to President Trump by filibustering the continuing resolution.
The victory was a really amazing play by Speaker Mike Johnson, who was somehow able to cobble together the entire Republican majority. There&#8217;s been a lot of talk about Speaker Johnson and the unworkable Republican majority because it&#8217;s so small. In some ways, he&#8217;s actually benefited by that, because any single vote could be the vote that sinks a Trump agenda item. And no one wants to be the House vote saying no and thereby sinking a Trump agenda item — except for Thomas Massie.
The Democrats have to show performatively that they oppose Trump even if they can&#8217;t actually obstruct his agenda in any sort of effective ways. For instance, every single Democrat has begun cursing at a higher level. That&#8217;s performative.
In an article published earlier today, Punchbowl News <a href="https://punchbowl.news/article/senate/schumer-backs-funding-measure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>What a mess this has become.
A government-funding fight that began with Democrats demanding restrictions on Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE has ended with Democrats folding, and now sniping bitterly at each other.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team distanced themselves from Schumer’s decision — but didn’t name him — in a statement Thursday night. Other House Democrats took direct aim at Schumer, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Even Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Schumer ally, thinks it’s a big mistake.
Let’s be blunt here: Democrats picked a fight they couldn’t win and caved without getting anything in return. … Schumer had been making those same arguments against a shutdown for days in private. Yet he let this drag out, giving Democrats a false sense of hope that the caucus was actually going to fight.</blockquote>
And Trump wins again.

Trump Wins Again

Chuck Schumer

Congress

Democrats

Mike Johnson

Republicans

U.S. Senate

If you thought Democrats couldn&#8217;t possibly get any dumber, think again.
Somehow they have managed to achieve this signal feat. When it comes to the economy, President Trump is currently having some trouble, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down significantly since he took office.
Plus, there&#8217;s a lot of concern about the possibility of a recession in the near future in the United States, despite some pretty strong economic fundamentals. Even in the polling data, President Trump is moving the wrong way in regard to the economy.
If the economy picks up or continues to truck along, it does not mean President Trump can’t heal all of that. It just means that, because of all the volatility that has been injected into the economy and all the talk about tariffs, the news about the economy is not favorable to the president right now.
Thus, there’s a clear and obvious opening for Democrats.
And yet… 
Democrats are not only not going to take advantage of the opening, but they are also, figuratively speaking, going to shoot themselves in the foot.
As a Republican, I approve.
Through the leadership of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — no thanks to Thomas Massie — the GOP passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government until roughly September, which gives Republicans plenty of time to negotiate a budget deal amongst themselves — to come up with the one big, beautiful bill that they need to pass — and get that done without the government simply falling apart.
That&#8217;s why the government shutdown was averted by the Republicans in the House. Now, it gets passed onto the Senate, where the GOP has a majority. Rand Paul has said he&#8217;s going to vote against the continuing resolution (CR), but there&#8217;s still 52 votes in favor. Even if it got down to 50 votes, JD Vance would then break the tie in favor of the CR.
So, if you&#8217;re a Democrat at this point, you&#8217;re looking at the state of the economy, which is somewhat dicey and volatile, because you can&#8217;t predict the future there. That is their only tool to attack President Trump. What the Democrats don&#8217;t want to do is get into the business of owning the economy. Why would you want to own that if Republicans had fallen down on the job and been unable to pass a continuing resolution? They could have blamed Republicans for the shutdown.
This was the Democratic plan in the House. It&#8217;s the reason why Hakeem Jeffries instructed Democrats not to vote in favor of the so-called clean continuing resolution, which is just a maintenance of funding at current levels all the way through September. All Democrats, except for one, did not participate in the CR.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2157-democrats-to-shut-down-the-government-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
But now the Democrats seem to want to actively kill the continuing resolution and push America into a government shutdown that they clearly will own.
That move makes no sense, politically speaking. Yesterday, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/government-shutdown-democrats-funding-deadline-bcb67826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported, “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw a wrench into a Republican plan to avert a government shutdown this weekend, saying there wasn’t enough Democratic support to advance the measure funding federal agencies through Sept. 30.”
You may be wondering, don&#8217;t Republicans actually have a majority in the Senate?
Yes, they do. But in order to overcome a filibuster, in order to invoke cloture, they need 60 votes.
Democrats could simply eschew filibustering. They could just say, “Fine, listen, you want to vote for the CR? Then vote for the CR.” Instead, Democrats are now actively considering filibustering a clean continuing resolution, which makes no political sense. Most Americans are just saying, “Leave us alone,” which is effectively what the CR does.
If Democrats want to throw a wrench into that for no apparent reason, then they will own any government shutdown. And if the economy turns south, then they own it. They own a big chunk of that because a government shutdown is going to throw all sorts of scares into the market.
The Journal continued:
<blockquote>Republicans “do not have the votes in the Senate,” to move the resolution forward, Schumer said on the Senate floor, indicating that his party was prepared to block it. He blamed Republicans, saying they “chose a partisan path” in their bill without any input from congressional Democrats.</blockquote>
It sure seems partisan to use your 47 votes in the United States Senate to hold up 53 votes in the Senate, simply because your base is mad at you for not standing up enough to President Trump&#8217;s agenda.
The Journal continued, writing, “As an alternative, Schumer floated a shorter-term plan that would fund the government for a month. ‘I hope my Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,’ he said.”
Schumer is hoping the Republican coalition will fall apart in the meantime and that the economy will fall apart during that month. He&#8217;s hoping the stock market crashes in that interim month, and then he won&#8217;t be blamed no matter what happens.
But, again, what he&#8217;s doing right now makes no political sense. He is injecting Democrats into the middle of the most dicey proposition for the Trump administration.
I don&#8217;t understand any of the logic here. The first rule of politics is do not — do not — get in the way of your opponent making a mistake. Do not interrupt your enemy when your enemy is making a mistake. If the Democrats’ idea is that the Republicans own every aspect of the economy, then they have to let the Republicans own the economy. If they inject themselves into that process in order to shut down the government, they then own what comes next.
Republicans know this, which is why House Speaker Mike Johnson said the ball is in Schumer&#8217;s court.
<h3><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h3>
The Democrats hope that funding the CR for a short term will force the Republicans to basically negotiate with Democrats. But that is not what&#8217;s going to happen. The GOP is fully willing to allow Democrats to own a government shutdown; Schumer is going to have to own it.
If you invoke a filibuster in order to own a government shutdown, you are a moron.
And what Schumer is doing here is really stupid.
It&#8217;s virtually the best-case scenario for President Trump. Let&#8217;s say Schumer does the filibuster, and the government shutdown occurs because he did the filibuster. President Trump then has the unique capacity to determine who exactly is an essential worker under federal law. At that point, he can let Elon Musk in there with the chainsaw.
They&#8217;re playing right into Trump&#8217;s hands.

Senate Takes Up Budget Bill Passed By House As Funding Deadline Looms

Democrats Threaten To Shut Down The Government. How Dumb Are They?

Ben Shapiro

Hakeem Jeffries

Opinion

Senate Democrats

While President Trump&#8217;s winning streak continues, it doesn&#8217;t just continue because of President Trump.
It is also continuing because Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is doing an extraordinary job in the House, where he has an unbelievably slim margin. His margin is somewhere between one and three votes, depending on who actually shows up for the vote.
Yet, somehow, he was capable of pushing through a gigantic House budget bill on Tuesday night.
Now, there are all sorts of problems with these gigantic bills. The biggest problem, of course, is that no one in power ever has any interest in serious cuts to what matters in American government. Instead, they sort of shovel those cuts off down the road.
They make commitments to commit.
All of that has just been a regular feature of American government from Republicans and Democrats for as long as I&#8217;ve been alive, which is why the line in terms of national debt keeps going up and to the right.
However, this budget bill enshrines the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and provides additional funding to defense, which is absolutely necessary. It provides additional funding to the border, which is necessary, and it pledges to actually take a look at cuts that will offset some of the loss of tax revenue theoretically to be achieved by the Trump tax cuts.
Last night, there was all sorts of consternation about whether House Republicans would be able to get it together. Originally, it seemed as though there were some House Republicans who were going to object to the House budget bill and not get on board with it because they believed that it didn&#8217;t cut enough.
A lot of these people were fiscal conservatives. I agree with them on principle, but I also understand that the only way a bill gets done, with Republicans in purple districts and an incredibly slim margin, is with more spending than is wanted.
This was Mike Johnson&#8217;s entire proposal as speaker of the House. The reason he pursued one “big, beautiful bill” is because he figured that if all of these issues were separated, they would become separate bills that would never pass because of the many purists and many issues who would be able to sink the boats.
Instead, he wrapped it up in one big ballot to make people vote up or vote down. That was the strategy.
If you don&#8217;t like it, then you need to elect more Republicans to Congress. The GOP has a very slim majority. Thus, any bill that comes out is likely to be more “moderate” in its approach than if you had a much larger majority where you could lose a few moderates in the vote and still maintain a majority.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2146-more-winning-house-gop-passes-big-beautiful-budget-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Republicans were very split on this. Democrats were already celebrating the prospective loss of this bill. But somehow Johnson cobbled everyone together.
For all the talk about how Johnson is “inexperienced” at this position and simply a “stand-in” for Trump, Johnson is actually quite good at this. He&#8217;s very good at this.
The reality is that Johnson is also significantly more conservative on pretty much every policy issue that any Speaker of the House has been since Newt Gingrich.
Originally on Tuesday night, it appeared that the vote was going to go down to defeat, and Democrats were preemptively celebrating.
But Johnson made it happen. He put out a statement after the passage of the budget. His statement, along with Steve Scalise and the House GOP chairwoman, Lisa McClain, <a href="https://scalise.house.gov/press-releases/House-Republican-Leadership-Statement-on-Passage-of-House-Budget-Resolution">said</a>:
<blockquote>Today House Republicans move Congress closer, delivering on President Trump&#8217;s America first agenda, not just parts of it. This momentum will grow as we work with our committee chairs and Senate Republicans to determine the best policies within their respective jurisdictions to meet budgetary targets. We have full confidence in their ability to chart the best path forward. While there is still much more to do, we are determined to send a bill to President Trump&#8217;s desk that secures our border, keeps taxes low for families and job creators, restores American energy dominance, strengthens America&#8217;s standing on the world stage, and makes government work more effectively for all Americans.</blockquote>
Speaker Johnson&#8217;s job is exceptionally difficult. There is no American consensus on restructuring the entitlement programs that are the systemic drivers of our national debt.
I wish reality were not what it is, but that is the case. It is a fundamental reality that Trump understands, which is why he and JD Vance ran on the prospect of never touching Social Security and Medicare, among other gigantic entitlement programs.
Those are systemic drivers of the national debt. They&#8217;re not touching them because they understand the American people don&#8217;t want them touched.
Let&#8217;s be clear about what&#8217;s going to happen to America fiscally over the course of the next 10 years. America is going to lurch toward precisely the same sorts of austerity measures that Europe had to put in place because the United States is heading toward national bankruptcy.
We are. That&#8217;s just where we are at.
Here’s what you can do about that. You can push outsized growth. You can try to outgrow the debt. You can essentially grow the economy so fast that as a percentage of GDP, the national debt shrinks.
Or you can radically increase taxes, which is going to sink the American economy and probably won&#8217;t solve the national debt. You can&#8217;t really tax your way out of a $37 trillion national debt right now. And it&#8217;s going to get much larger over the coming years.
Or you could restructure the entitlements. The American people and their elected congresspeople always forever prefer to kick that can down the road.
This budget is probably the best thing that can be done with what people are willing to do.
Now it goes to the Senate. The Senate has already voted for a couple of different bills that cover much of this area. There&#8217;s going to be a plan to reconcile the Senate with the House bills, try and come up with some sort of workable compromise, and then go back to the Houses, the respective Houses, for a revote.
For all the talk about how there was going to be an ineffective Republican majority in the House, Speaker Johnson has proved that wrong. He&#8217;s played this about as well as you can possibly play an incredibly difficult hand.
And in the Senate, I believe that the majority leader, Senator John Thune, is going to do a good job of working with Speaker Johnson to come up with a bill that Trump will sign and that is going to provide some quiescence to the markets.
It is going to make people feel as though the tax regime is not going to change any time in the near future, which is a good way of getting people to feel comfortable in their investments.
It is a triumph for Johnson and for Trump to get this budget passed through such a narrowly divided Congress.
Give credit where credit is due: Against heavy odds, Johnson pulled it off.

Speaker Johnson Addresses The Media After Budget Resolution Vote

More Winning: House GOP Passes Big, Beautiful Budget

Donald Trump

National Debt

U.S. House of Representatives

On Tuesday, the GOP-led House narrowly passed a budget plan that embodies President Donald Trump&#8217;s hopes for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-big-beautiful-bill-speaker-johnson-draws-out-budget-reconciliation-plan-for-trump-2-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;one big, beautiful bill&#8221;</a> that contains part of his domestic agenda that the Republican-controlled Senate version left out.
House lawmakers voted 217-215 for a budget <a href="https://budget.house.gov/press-release/what-they-are-saying-president-trump-endorses-house-budget-resolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> addressing spending in key areas such as national security and border security in addition to calling for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and raising the debt limit by $4 trillion. It also sets the goal of reducing mandatory federal spending by $2 trillion over time.
GOP leadership managed to win over enough party holdouts in talks that played out right up until the vote, which took place shortly after it appeared to have been pulled for the evening. In the end, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) —who has raised concern about the plan adding to the U.S. deficit — was the sole Republican to join the Democrats in opposing the budget resolution.
&#8220;We got it done,&#8221; Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) <a href="https://x.com/cspan/status/1894562651625103613" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters, adding that there is &#8220;a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the &#8216;America First&#8217; agenda. We are going to deliver all of it — not just parts of it.&#8221;
The budget reconciliation process allows lawmakers to expedite consideration of legislation pertaining to fiscal matters. Once a resolution is adopted by both chambers of Congress, members can move on to putting together a bill. The Senate requires only a simple majority — or 51 votes — to pass a budget reconciliation bill, bypassing the three-fifths majority threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. Currently, the Senate GOP has a 53-47 majority.
However, there has been disagreement between Republicans in the House and Senate on how to proceed, as Democrats generally opposed whatever they put forward. Last week, the Senate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-passes-late-night-budget-bill-focused-on-border-defense-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> its own $340 billion budget resolution that mainly focuses on border security, defense, and energy while leaving other issues, such as tax relief, to be taken up at some point in the future.
There will need to be a compromise. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has <a href="https://x.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1892673961768435886" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he does not want to simply extend the 2017 tax cuts, set to expire at year&#8217;s end, but make them permanent — a stance aligned with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent&#8217;s <a href="https://x.com/DerrickEvans4WV/status/1888365346073219219" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statements</a> on behalf of the Trump administration.
Trump previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-big-beautiful-bill-trump-endorses-house-budget-plan-over-the-lindsey-graham-version" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicated</a> a preference for the House plan, calling for &#8220;one big, beautiful bill,&#8221; but he seemed open to either approach earlier on Tuesday.
&#8220;The House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I&#8217;m looking at them both, and I&#8217;ll make decisions,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://x.com/reesejgorman/status/1894511777825919433" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;But I don&#8217;t know where they are in the vote. I know the Senate&#8217;s doing very well, and the House is doing very well, but each one of them has things that I like, so we&#8217;ll see if we can come together.&#8221;

Speaker Mike Johnson

Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful’ Budget Vision Clears House In Massive Victory For Mike Johnson

Politics

Republicans in the Senate <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-border-budget-triumphs-after-all-night-session-while-trump-backed-house-bill-lags">passed a $340 billion budget resolution</a> in the early hours of Friday morning, a narrower resolution than the broad-based bill House Republicans are preparing, but still one that pleased President Donald Trump after an all-night session.
The bill, which passed 52-48, focuses on three issues: immigration and border security, defense, and shoring up development of fossil fuels. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the only Republican to vote against the measure, joining all of the Senate Democrats in opposition. Other issues that the House wants to include, such as tax cuts, the Senate plans to add later, figuring that if the House — where the GOP holds a slim 218-215 majority — cannot agree on extending Trump’s tax cuts the three issues will be addressed immediately.
“This particular budget resolution… addresses the president’s priority, top priority, which is securing the border and implementing and putting in place his immigration policies, rebuilding our military, and creating energy dominance for this country,&#8221; Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said before the vote was taken.
Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/21/senate-passes-republican-border-security-bill/79409346007/">stated</a> after the bill passed, &#8220;As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, I’m incredibly pleased by the discipline shown by my Senate Republican colleagues to ensure that the most transformational border security bill in history can soon become a reality. I hope we can get one big, beautiful bill in the House, but we need to act on border security and national security now. We&#8217;re running out of time.”
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“Nothing would please me more than Speaker Johnson being able to put together the bill that President Trump wants,” Graham <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/senate-democrats-use-budget-vote-to-make-republicans-squirm-8937a656">added</a>. “But I cannot sit on the sidelines and not have a Plan B. This nation is under threat—the illegal immigrants who have come here by the millions need to be sent back by the millions.”
Trump had approved the House bill earlier this week, but he praised the Senate GOP, saying on Truth Social, “Thank you to Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, for working so hard on funding the Trump Border Agenda. We are setting records, the likes of which have never been seen before, on stopping criminal illegal aliens from entering our Country. Put simply, we are delivering for the American People, far faster and, more successfully, than anyone thought possible. Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated!”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-big-beautiful-bill-trump-endorses-house-budget-plan-over-the-lindsey-graham-version">&#8216;One Big Beautiful Bill&#8217;: Trump Endorses House Budget Plan Over &#8216;The Lindsey Graham Version&#8217;</a>

Senators Hold Weekly Policy Luncheons At The Capitol

Senate Passes Late-Night Budget Bill Focused On Border, Defense Spending

border security

Department of Defense

John Thune

Lindsey Graham

Senate GOP

The Biden administration made multiple last-minute moves that could make the Department of Homeland Security more expensive to operate, and cause the funds allocated to the department to secure the border to be less effective.
On January 17, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote to all employees that he was giving them three days of additional vacation time to be used in 2025, in memory of him.
“It has been the honor of my life to support you and to work alongside you. In recognition of your extraordinary talent, dedication, and sacrifice, I am proud — this one last time — to grant all personnel 24 hours of administrative leave, to be used this calendar year,” he wrote in a memo to staff obtained by The Daily Wire. “Please take care of one another.”
The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, meanwhile, sent employees a message saying that two career employees will lead the agency until a Trump appointee is confirmed. She signed the message “Ur M. Jaddou (she/her) Director.”
DHS employees were also given an extra day off for Christmas Eve and for former President Jimmy Carter’s death. Because simply not having law enforcement operate is not an option, this often means that the agency must pay for expensive and unbudgeted overtime just to have the coverage they were expected to have.
The change that could have significant impacts on the agency’s budget had to do with allowing employees to attain significant pay raises through tenure, rather than merit. The agency has historically had one Immigration Service Officer job, called ISO-1, that handled simpler cases and was lower-paid, starting at the GS-5 pay rank and allowing employees to climb to a GS-9. A second group of employees, ISO-2s, had to pass a test to get the job, handled complex cases, and were paid between GS-9 and GS-12.
In recent weeks, USCIS said it would combine them into one job, meaning all of its lower-paid agents could climb all the way to GS-12 pay simply by staying in their jobs. That gives the agency less of an ability to control its budget, and also means that the agents handling complex immigration cases could be less qualified.
The move could be an attempt to sandbag or budget-bust Trump’s DHS, or it could simply be a giveaway to public-sector unions, a primary Democrat constituency.
It means “everyone would eventually be GS-12… as long as you do your job at the basic level you will get promoted without any competition or proof of your ability to do or know your job,” a USCIS employee told The Daily Wire. “Someone straight from college with a degree in lesbian dance theory will get a GS-12 spot as long as they do the minimum.” 
A message dated January 6 and obtained by The Daily Wire said that “We have decided to combine these two positions into a single career ladder, eliminating the overlap of the GS-9. This new structure will feature one ISO position with a career progression spanning the 5/7/9/11/12 grade levels. However, there are several regulatory steps that we need to adhere to in order to make this transition. The new career ladder was tailored to meet growing operational effectiveness. This development also reflects our commitment to valuing and supporting the professional growth for ISOs.”
On January 17, the last weekday of the Biden administration, the merged jobs <a href="https://www.usajobs.gov/job/828825400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> on USAJobs.gov, the government’s hiring site. 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republicans-target-federal-unions-after-11th-hour-deals-tie-trumps-hands-on-remote-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans Target Federal Unions After 11th-Hour Deals Tie Trump’s Hands On Remote Work</a>

Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Holds Media Availability In Eagle Pass, Texas

Biden Administration Makes 11th-Hour Moves To Sabotage Trump Department Of Homeland Security

Alejandro Mayorkas

Department of Homeland Security

Joe Biden

Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) said on Sunday that he wants the House to pass one hefty budget reconciliation bill to realize President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s policy agenda during the early months of his second term, dealing with a broad range of issues such as border security, tax cut extensions, the U.S. economy, and energy.
In an interview on &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures,&#8221; Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo noted that new Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been pushing for splitting the legislation into two reconciliation bills and asked Johnson what Trump prefers.
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&#8220;Yes, he and I have talked about this quite a bit, as you might imagine, over the last few months, determining the pros and cons of the two different strategies,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;I respect Lindsey Graham and all my friends who kind of preferred a two-step strategy. The idea would be: get something done on the border and maybe defense spending right out of the blocks very quickly in what we would call a skinny reconciliation bill, and then do the rest of it in a larger chunk later.&#8221;
Johnson, who huddled with colleagues over the weekend at Fort McNair to discuss the plan, said he thought &#8220;at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, &#8216;one big, beautiful bill.&#8217; And there&#8217;s a lot of merit to that, because we can put it all together, one big up-or-down vote, which can save the country, quite literally, because there are so many elements to it. And it&#8217;ll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-snow-blast-imminent-speaker-johnson-says-we-cannot-delay-certification-of-trumps-victory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: With Snow Blast Imminent, Speaker Johnson Says ‘We Cannot Delay’ Certification Of Trump’s Victory</a>
The speaker insisted the plan for reconciliation does not mean &#8220;we won&#8217;t come right out of the gates full-fledged right out of the beginning of the Congress.&#8221; The House will be &#8220;addressing the border&#8221; over the next couple weeks with fixes that are &#8220;so commonsense&#8221; that some Democrats may support them, Johnsons noted, adding that those bills could be ready for Trump to sign when he takes office on January 20.
As for the reconciliation bill itself, the legislation will &#8220;have a lot of pieces,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;We made a lot of campaign promises. President Trump did as well, and reconciliation is the way to get it done. Why? Because you avoid a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.&#8221;
Johnson then alluded to <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30458" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a two-step process</a> in which putting together a budget resolution would precede the House and Senate actually considering the reconciliation legislation.
&#8220;Reconciling the budget, which we will pass in early February, is how we will get all of our committees involved, committees of jurisdiction all these big issues. What are they? Well, obviously, we have to secure the border. We have got to make sure that our Border Patrol agents and our immigration enforcement agencies have the right directives from the White House, but also the right resources to do their job and secure that border once and for all,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We have got to take care of the dangerous illegal criminals who have come over, and all that&#8217;s part of it as well. And we have got to shift immediately to the economy. Maria, you know, you talk about every day, we have got to revive the U.S. economy, and we can. We know how to do it,&#8221; Johnson continued. &#8220;Part of that is preventing the largest tax increase in U.S. history, which would happen automatically at the end of next year if we don&#8217;t get our ducks in a row. So we&#8217;re going to make sure that happens. We&#8217;re going to incentivize American companies to manufacture in the U.S. again. And we&#8217;re going to make sure that the regulatory burden and the red tape that has smothered our free market is reduced and eliminated.&#8221;
Johnson said &#8220;we&#8217;re going to be dismantling the deep state all along the way. We&#8217;re going to restore American energy dominance, so many different pieces to this, Maria. They all have to work together. And, of course, the president has asked us and really needs us to address the debt limit crisis before that hits in June. So, a lot of moving pieces, a lot of things to negotiate, a lot of opinions on all that, so we will be working long, long hours with whiteboards, making sure every Republican is on board, because, remember, I will be dealing with the smallest margin in U.S. history for much of the first 100 days. But we&#8217;re going to get it done.&#8221;
Bartiromo asked Johnson if he is expecting to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling as part of the reconciliation legislation.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to have to do it in that bill. And the reason for that, Maria, is that we won&#8217;t have to negotiate with [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats on that,&#8221; the speaker replied. &#8220;If you do it in reconciliation, you can do it just with the Republican Party. So we will have very thoughtful discussion and debate about where that limit should go. But here&#8217;s the important thing everybody needs to remember. We&#8217;re the team that wants to cut spending, and we will. And we will do it dramatically, all the wasteful spending in government. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOGE</a> will be doing its effort in coordination with all this. But you have to raise the debt limit on paper, so that we don&#8217;t frighten the bond markets and the world&#8217;s economy. You know how that works. It&#8217;s about the stability of our economy. But we don&#8217;t intend to spend to that limit, as President Trump will clarify all the time. We&#8217;re going to raise the ceiling, but we are going to be cutting all along the way, so we can do both of those things simultaneously.&#8221;
Bartiromo also pressed Johnson on &#8220;what&#8217;s a realistic timeline&#8221; for getting the legislative package advanced through Congress and on Trump&#8217;s desk. &#8220;Would you have that on the president&#8217;s desk by May?&#8221; she asked.
&#8220;Certainly by May, yes,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;In fact, we&#8217;re targeting a vote in the House maybe in the first week of April. Now, everything&#8217;s got to move in the right sequence. And along the way, I think we&#8217;re going to keep those trains moving in the right direction and on time. And if that happens, we will get it out of the House in early April, maybe as soon as April 3, and then move it over to the Senate. That would put that bill on the president&#8217;s desk for signature by the end of April. That would be fantastic. And, in a worst-case scenario: Memorial Day.&#8221;

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’: Speaker Johnson Draws Out Budget Reconciliation Plan For Trump 2.0

U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday morning that funding the government &#8220;is a Biden problem to solve,&#8221; adding that a shutdown should &#8220;begin now&#8221; if it is unavoidable.
Trump made the comment in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113685244784643200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on Truth Social after the House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-fails-to-pass-trump-backed-spending-deal-in-first-go?topStoryPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed to pass</a> a continuing resolution (CR) that he backed on Thursday. The revamped bill was put forward after Trump — with the help of his ally, Elon Musk — pushed back against a 1,547-page stopgap bill that had been negotiated between the GOP-led House and Democrat-controlled Senate on Tuesday night.
&#8220;If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under &#8216;TRUMP,'&#8221; the president-elect posted on Friday morning. &#8220;This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!&#8221;
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that the House is set to vote on another plan to avoid a government shutdown on Friday, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5050249-mike-johnson-house-republicans-plan-c-shutdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Congress has until midnight on Friday to strike up a deal before government funding runs out.
“Yeah, yeah, we have a plan,” Johnson said. “We’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned. We’ve got a plan.”
Nearly 40 Republicans opposed Johnson&#8217;s revised bill on Thursday. Most of the criticism focused on how the bill would extend the debt ceiling suspension for another two years beyond January of next year, when the current suspension is slated to expire. Trump addressed the controversy over the debt ceiling in a late-night Truth Social post, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113683687655180611" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a>, &#8220;Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.&#8221;
Speaker Johnson said a debt ceiling suspension &#8220;in no way reflects any lack of enthusiasm on our part to get about those serious cuts for the American people.&#8221;
Democrats, including the White House, are upset over Musk&#8217;s perceived influence on Congress and accused the party of &#8220;doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans.&#8221; One Democratic congressman, Maxwell Frost of Florida, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/12/19/democrats-rage-at-unelected-co-president-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that Musk is &#8220;the unelected co-president of this country.&#8221; Rep. Jaimie Raskin (D-MD) said that the Tesla and SpaceX founder is &#8220;basically the fourth branch of the government.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
Some Republicans are hopeful that a spending bill will be passed on Friday. Sen. Markwayne Mulling (R-OK) told CNBC on Friday morning, “There’s a chance today [for] a clean CR, short-term clean CR — it may be for two, three weeks.&#8221;
&#8220;That was something that was discussed, you know, late last night, you know, even some discussions this morning,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I’m not going to say that’s going to happen, but you know, that’s really the option that’s on the table.&#8221;
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

President-Elect Trump

Trump: If Government Is Going To Shut Down, ‘Let It Begin’ Under Biden

Trump: If Government Is Going To Shut Down, 'Let It Begin' Under Biden

Government Shutdown

This is the first in a Daily Wire series about major government programs that could be reformed under the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays farmers not to grow food, while at the same time spending most of its budget giving “food stamps” to people who can use them to buy candy, soda, and snacks — at giant retail markups — in corner stores and elsewhere.
The food stamp program has exploded, from $56 billion in redemptions in fiscal 2019 to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data-research/data-visualization/snap-retailer-management-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$124 billion</a> in 2023. Perhaps not coincidentally, many on food stamps are more likely to be obese with related health conditions, and then be treated at taxpayer expense by Medicaid.
The current program is so inefficient that by USDA’s own estimates, it pays out $1 billion a month in food stamps to people who aren’t eligible, leading the Biden administration to call for <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/news-item/fns-005.24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“urgent”</a> reforms. Twenty percent of food stamp payouts in the District of Columbia, and close to 23% in South Carolina, are <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-fy23-qc-payment-error-rate.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">erroneous</a>. That’s a separate issue from fraud, which occurs when stores agree to trade food stamps for cash. The tens of billions of dollars spent on unhealthy food counts as neither waste nor fraud: it’s fully permitted.
Dramatically overhauling the food stamp program so that only healthy food can be bought could go beyond saving money. In a country facing an <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/farm-bill-2023-obesity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obesity crisis</a>, it could help make America healthy again.
A <a href="https://www.foodpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/SNAPFoodsTypicallyPurchased_16.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016 study</a> conducted by a contractor for USDA found that soda was the top item purchased with food stamps. That study likely significantly understated junk-food rates, because USDA refuses to disclose data on which products food stamps are spent on even though it can be tracked. The contractor found a workaround by getting data from a large grocery chain.
The money saved from reforming SNAP would only be the start of the benefits to taxpayers. A 2018 <a href="https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&amp;context=jflp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Journal of Food Law &amp; Policy found that “medical costs associated with obesity (which largely fall on Medicare and Medicaid) are estimated to be at least $147 billion per year.” Some people who become obese through food stamps also end up on taxpayer-funded disability programs as a result. This month, the White House <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/white-house-proposes-big-expansion-of-medicare-medicaid-coverage-of-obesity-drugs-f151c9c1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> covering weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, which can cost $1,600 a month, for Medicaid recipients. The government would be paying both for junk food that makes people fat, and a lifetime prescription to try to take the fat off.
The food stamp program is officially called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), and letting people use the credits on almost any edible item, no matter its nutritional value, has never been consistent with that intent. Even some Democrat-run states have recognized that, with states such as New York trying to make soda ineligible for food stamps. The federal government forbade them from even conducting pilot programs to test whether it would be beneficial. USDA, the Harvard study said, fretted that beneficiaries would be “stigmatized” if they couldn’t buy soda.
Of course, the argument that billions of taxpayer dollars should be used to make vulnerable poor people obese doesn&#8217;t come from the impoverished. It likely comes from corporate lobbyists for whom SNAP is big business. Soda manufacturers, convenience stores, and candy trade associations have all lobbied to keep junk food SNAP-eligible. They say it’s only <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120628000810/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/24/top-secret-what-food-stamps-buy/?page=all#pagebreak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“anecdotal”</a> that SNAP is often spent on sweets, leaning on the fact that USDA conceals what items are purchased.
USDA fought all the way to the <a href="https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/06/in-foia-decision-supreme-court-rules-that-food-stamp-data-is-confidential/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Supreme Court</a> to block journalist requests to see how much taxpayer money is disbursed to each store for SNAP reimbursements. That data could make the biggest launderers of food stamps glaringly obvious because they would be showing far more revenue than similarly-sized corner stores. It would likely also show what a bonanza the SNAP program is for politically-connected corporations like Walmart.
Yet when USDA asked retailers for <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2385494/those-at-the-front-lines-of-junk-food-food-stamp-purchases-rail-at-usda-secrecy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feedback</a> on whether it should keep hiding data about how food stamps are spent, on the logic that it was a “trade secret,” small retailers and clerks replied that, day after day, they saw people ring up taxpayer-paid junk food, and they thought the public should know about it. One retailer said, “I have customers come in and buy candy, sodas, and energy drinks with their EBT/SNAP cards. I personally don’t believe that that should be allowed since it is not considered a necessity.” A public health dietician wrote, “I find that SNAP funds are spent on unhealthy food choices, which is compounding our nation’s health problems… I suspect the retailers are part of the problem. We need to figure this out so that all of our citizens have access to healthy food choices.”
More than a decade ago, this reporter spent weeks <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/7/violations-dont-deter-food-stamp-vendors-hunger-fo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touring stores</a> on the District of Columbia’s list of SNAP-eligible retailers. SNAP requires retailers to have a few healthy foods available, and while many of the stores had a few old vegetables lying around, the typical food stamp transaction was more likely to involve junk food like 20-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew and Kit-Kat bars.
Some of the stores openly engaged in criminal activity, selling individual “loosie” cigarettes, for cash. They plainly catered to criminals, selling glass “roses” used to smoke crack. One made room in its limited inventory for a selection of black ski masks—the types used in robberies—in the heat of summer.
SNAP inherently relies on the honesty of these stores to tell it how much business they did in food stamp dollars, then writes them a check. It is trivial for them to “launder” food stamps into cash, giving half the money to the customer and pocketing the other half, by ringing up ghost products. The SNAP bureaucracy seems to have been crafted precisely to make such fraud difficult to stop. The federal government puts the states in charge of doling out SNAP money, while retail anti-fraud enforcement is reserved for the feds, and there are only some 100 investigators to police a <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data-research/data-visualization/snap-retailer-management-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarter-million</a> SNAP retailers across the country.
Even so, about one in twenty stores was caught for fraud within a seven-year period. One in three stores that was supposedly banned from accepting food stamps, was still accepting them. Some seemed to have simply “sold” the store — on paper, at least — to an associate to evade consequences. A store called Tobaccosville was among SNAP-eligible stores, until it was busted for fraud. It rebranded as Tobacco City and kept accepting them. Others just ignored infractions because the sanctions were toothless. Last year, Democrats introduced a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1427" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> that would make it even easier for corporations to engage in food stamp laundering to keep operating, called the SNAP Second Chance Act.
Even if it made sense for taxpayers to pay for food at marked-up, retail prices instead of finding economies of scale by buying in bulk, SNAP is duplicative. Women and children can already buy healthy food at stores through the Women and Children (WIC) program, and school-aged children get free breakfast and lunch at school in many states.
Replacing food stamps with a program that buys nutritious commodities from farmers in bulk, allows impoverished people to select what they’d like off a menu, and mails it to them — not unlike high-end meal services such as Blue Apron — is one big-ticket idea that could be considered by the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The time is right for Congress to dramatically reassess how America ensures that its poor are healthy. Food stamps are authorized by the “Farm Bill,” which ordinarily comes up for renewal every five years. But Congress wasn’t able to agree on a full five-year bill in 2023. After a <a href="https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/10/02/delayed-farm-bill-punted-until-after-election-with-congress-stuck-on-how-to-pay-for-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">short-term extension</a>, the incoming Congress and administration will have an opportunity to start from scratch next year.
Part 2: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/food-stamps-accepted-at-thousands-of-liquor-and-tobacco-stores-contributing-to-healthcare-fiasco">Food Stamps Accepted At Thousands Of Liquor And Tobacco Stores, Contributing To Healthcare Fiasco</a>

Overweight caucasian teenage boy with a bottle of cola

Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA

Agriculture

Food Stamps

There was a massive red wave last Tuesday night across the nation, and Texas was no exception. 
Texas Governor Greg Abbott took to <a href="https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1854328594245312722" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X last week,</a> once again making his commitment to education freedom known: “Parents know their kids better than anyone, &amp; they want to put them on the best path to success.” He <a href="https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1854328594245312722" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continued</a>, “With last night’s election results, we can provide school choice for every Texan.” 
Less than 90 minutes later, the governor <a href="https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1854350583047802994" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> a pledge, “Texas will deliver school choice.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
School choice is supported by all demographics in Texas.
Texans of all backgrounds, including Black &amp; Hispanic parents, strongly support school choice.
School choice improves educational opportunities for minority &amp; low-income students.
Texas will deliver school choice. <a href="https://t.co/NOVfwA9jOP">pic.twitter.com/NOVfwA9jOP</a>
&mdash; Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1854350583047802994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Texas, known for freedom, has been an outlier among historically conservative states when it comes to the rights of dads and moms to have education options for their children outside of the public school system. This is despite only <a href="https://edchoice.morningconsultintelligence.com/texas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">37%</a> of Texans thinking K-12 education in the local school district within Texas is headed in the right direction. 
Abbott’s commitment to empowering parents with education options is nothing new. He has advocated for school choice in the Lone Star State <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/advocates_praise_governor_abbotts_call_for_expanded_school_choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">since 2017</a>. 
During the Texas fourth legislative special session in November 2023, the school choice effort died by an amendment to House Bill 1, which removed a school choice provision from the education spending bill by a House vote of <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-primary-runoff-school-vouchers-abbott/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">84-63</a>. The 21-point defeat resulted from 21 Republican representatives from rural areas in the state voting with Democrats against school choice.
With the Texas legislative session convening only every other year, Abbott used the intervening time effectively to campaign to get those anti-school choice Republican representatives out of office and, in turn, elect pro-education freedom candidates.
The Texas primary election in March was successful to this end, as six Republican representatives who voted against school choice lost their seats. The March <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-houses-shift-to-the-right-expected-to-cause-contention-at-state-capitol/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">run-off election</a> resulted in another three Republican anti-school choice representatives getting voted out of office. 
Added to those numbers were <a href="https://www.discovery.org/education/2024/06/05/greg-abbott-went-to-war-for-school-choice-he-appears-to-have-won/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five others</a> who forwent seeking reelection, knowing a reckoning was coming. Each of those representatives was replaced by a pro-education freedom candidate. A total of 14 seats were flipped from anti-school choice Republican representatives to education freedom champions. That 14-seat pick-up translates into a 28-point positive swing for school choice — giving Abbott the numbers needed in the Texas House to pass a sweeping school choice bill for families. The Texas Senate had not been the barrier.
The November 5 general election results are still coming in, but it has been <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/05/adam-hinojosa-morgan-lamantia-texas-senate-rio-grande-valley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Republicans have flipped one Texas Senate seat, resulting in a <a href="https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2024/texas-2024-general-election-results/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">20-11</a> Republican majority. The victorious Republican candidate Adam Hinojosa, referred to by the <a href="https://x.com/SchoolChoiceNow/status/1854161544239632650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Federation of Children</a> as a “school choice champion,” is the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/05/adam-hinojosa-morgan-lamantia-texas-senate-rio-grande-valley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first Republican</a> to win the Rio Grande Valley since Reconstruction. 
In the Texas House, similar results are still being reported, but it is currently anticipated that Republicans will flip two seats, making their majority <a href="https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2024/texas-2024-general-election-results/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">88-62</a>. It’s no surprise that Abbott is confident this time around — not just that it’s possible to enact education freedom in Texas, but it is probable with the new legislators. 
As of 2023, of the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_203.20.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">52.1</a> million K-12 public school students in the United States, nearly <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_203.20.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5.7 million</a> lived in Texas. That translates to 11.88% of all students nationwide. Should Texas pass a universal school choice bill, that would increase the total number of public school students with school choice access in America from <a href="https://www.discovery.org/education/2024/10/03/historic-education-freedom-is-happening-and-it-is-worthy-of-a-celebration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">18.9 million</a> to 24.6 million — from <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/engage/educational-freedom-and-choice-hits-escape-velocity-end-of-session-wrap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">36.3%</a> to 47.21%. 
The benefits of education freedom are significant for each individual child, their family, and community. Additionally, widespread school choice programs <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/22/the-school-choice-programs-democrats-hate-have-saved-taxpayers-up-to-45-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">save a state enormous sums of money</a> because the funding provided to the family to take to an alternative education option is generally only one-third to half the amount public education spends per student. 
As Martin F. Lueken <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/school-choice-saves-taxpayer-dollars-education-policy-c4b32b6b?page=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in The Wall Street Journal, “a recent EdChoice <a href="https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/EdChoiceOct2024.pdf?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> of 48 school-choice programs across 26 states through 2022 estimates that school-choice programs generated cumulative net fiscal benefits for taxpayers worth between $19.4 billion and $45.6 billion.” That number is dramatically on the rise because, since that time, ten states have joined West Virginia and Arizona in signing universal or near-universal school choice into law. 
With the current K-12 public education spending on Texas students topping <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/state_fast_facts/texas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$70.6 billion</a> annually, massive savings will result in the years to come. Therefore, empowering parents with education freedom for their children is not only the right thing to do but also has positive fiscal benefits for the state’s bottom line. For Texas, that will be billions of dollars saved each year once Abbott’s persistent leadership in delivering school choice is across the finish line. 
The great news for Texas families is that the reality of education freedom could be merely months away.
 * * * 
<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

MixCollage-12-Nov-2024

Abbott Set To Deliver On Texas School Choice In 2025

Charter Schools

Education

Greg Abbott

Parental Rights in Education

School Choice

Students

Texas

Former President Donald Trump said during an interview over the weekend that business magnate Elon Musk will be the &#8220;Secretary of Cost-Cutting&#8221; in his administration should he win next month&#8217;s election.
Trump made the remarks during a Sunday interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; when asked what agencies he wanted to shut down.
&#8220;Well, let me ask have you ask another person that, because I&#8217;m going to have Elon Musk, he is dying to do this,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;You know he&#8217;s a great business guy, actually.&#8221;
&#8220;You think of him for science and rockets, and every time he&#8217;s telling me about a new screw that was developed, he&#8217;s developed a new screw,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Screws are difficult. And it&#8217;s made out of titanium and it&#8217;s so exciting.&#8221;
&#8220;But you know what? He&#8217;s a great business guy, and he&#8217;s a great cost-cutter, he added. &#8220;You&#8217;ve seen that. Cost cutter. And he said I could cut cost without affecting anybody.&#8221;
Trump said that it would not be a cabinet position because Musk does not want to be in the cabinet.
&#8220;He wants to be in charge of cost-cutting,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll have a new position, Secretary of Cost-Cutting, okay? Elon wants to do that. He&#8217;s running a big business. He can&#8217;t just say I think I&#8217;ll go into the cabinet. Other people can, he can&#8217;t. Elon&#8217;s a little bit different.&#8221;
Trump added that Musk promised to go to Mars before the end of Trump&#8217;s term, should Trump win again, which would be &#8220;long before&#8221; China or Russia.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Donald Trump tells Fox News that he’s made a deal with Elon Musk to have him cut all the useless parts of the US government, and he will get to Mars.
Maria Bartiromo: You&#8217;ve said there&#8217;s a lot of fat in government. So what agencies would you like to shut down?
Donald Trump:… <a href="https://t.co/fzWNSVpsp7">pic.twitter.com/fzWNSVpsp7</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1845494104668483838?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></blockquote>

Donald Trump Holds A Campaign Event In Coachella, CA

Trump: Elon Musk To Be The ‘Secretary Of Cost-Cutting’