Elon Musk, you may remember, promised to cut $2 trillion from the $7 trillion federal budget through his silly DOGE. Funny thing there: the Trump administration spent 7 percent more in February and March this year than the Biden administration did in February and March last year.
And that’s with Musk taking his chain saw to HHS, USAID, IRS enforcement staff – not to mention DEI.
That was all supposed to save us so much money.
Reality check: if federal spending under Trump 2.0 continues at the current pace, the government is going to spend $500 billion more this year than it did in the last year of the Biden administration.
What’s going on here?
Two words: political theater.
Consider these theatrical public statements from our feckless MAGA sycophant congressman, Ben Cline.
“In just 100 days, President Trump’s DOE has saved taxpayers over $700 million by cutting waste and killing radical Green New Deal contracts,” Cline wrote on social media on April 29.
Wow, $700 million from the $7 trillion federal budget.
Point-oh-one percent.
A penny on a penny on a penny on the dollar.
But those radical Green New Deal contracts are gone, so we have that going for us, which is nice.
Drill, baby, drill!
Even as the price of oil is hitting the floor, which is making it hard for the drill, baby, drill! folks to make money from drilling, baby, drilling!
Then, on May 2, praising the proposed fiscal-year 2026 budget, which cuts more from healthcare, education and housing programs, and extends Trump’s tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, Cline had this to say:
“President Trump’s FY26 Discretionary Budget restores fiscal sanity – cutting $163 billion in bloated non-defense spending while ensuring our troops, border, veterans, seniors, and students are protected.”
At least we have something here, not much, but something – $163 billion is a whole 2.6 pennies on the dollar in savings, on the backs of people who get help with health insurance, rental assistance, student loans and food stamps, and the rest of us who benefit from research into cures for cancer and other deadly diseases, and efforts to make sure we have access to clean air and clean water.
ICYMI
- ‘Attack on public health’: HHS staff cuts will hurt Americans ‘every single day’
- Virginia lawmakers push back at Trump USDA over $500M in food bank cuts
- Mental Health of America local affiliate ceasing operations: ‘No longer sustainable’
- Expert: Trump’s tariff war to be detrimental to Virginia, Shenandoah Valley farmers
I mean, I understand why the Trumpers don’t prioritize clean air and clean water – the people who write them checks make more money if they don’t have to worry about being fined for dumping industrial waste into water and emitting dangerous carcinogens into the air.
The cuts into research for cancer cures probably factor in here as well. A holistic approach to curbing cancer necessarily includes efforts at curbing industrial pollution, and those pesky scientists keep including that far-left-lunatic thinking in their research papers.
Health insurance, rental assistance, student loans, food stamps, nothing there generates return on investment, from the perspective of the Musk/Trump types, who badmouth welfare without a hint of irony.
I note the irony here because Musk is, unquestionably, the biggest welfare queen in U.S. history. Musk and his companies have received more than $38 billion in federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits – tax credits are the primary source of income for his failing Tesla EV business, which is sitting on $200 million of unsold Cybertruck inventory that he won’t be able to give away, because he can’t keep his stupid Nazi mouth shut.
Notice here that Musk didn’t propose any cuts to his federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, which would get us another penny-on-the-dollar closer to whatever he was claiming to try to achieve.
Because it’s all political theater, and unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans have been preconditioned, like a thirsty dog in the vicinity of a toilet, to lap it up.
The vast majority of them are a car accident away from having to declare bankruptcy, but they’ve allowed themselves to be sold on the idea that the real problem is immigrants and DEI, and the libs, who need to be owned at all costs – included in those costs, the loss of their own safety net, when there but for the grace of god go I hits home.
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Chris Graham
