Federal Energy Tax Credits Will Cost More Than $4 Trillion. Lawmakers Might Not Cut Them.
Republican members of Congress are lobbying to keep the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits alive.
Republican members of Congress are lobbying to keep the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits alive.
The past three administrations have tried and failed to implement binding regulations on risky research that likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
Farmers will bear the brunt of Trump's trade war. That's a good reason to avoid tariffs in the first place, not an excuse for another bailout.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation requires the right for the government to terminate any federal contract "for convenience."
The Senate minority leader mocked anti-tax, anti-government views held by most Americans.
More education dollars are funding more bureaucrats, who, by and large, are not improving student outcomes.
The U.S., in turn, should cancel the F-35 program altogether.
Dissidents resisting authoritarian regimes should be independent of the United States—and so should their media sources.
Musk's fans and critics will keep debating whether DOGE is revolutionizing government or wrecking important institutions.
Plus: Rate reductions, Apple encryption, the Mahmoud Khalil case, and more...
North Carolina and Virginia have managed to keep quality up and costs down.
The cost-cutting initiative's calculation of "estimated savings" is mostly mysterious, and the parts we know about are riddled with errors.
Since Congress began requiring annual audits in 2018, the Department of Defense has never passed.
The outgoing administration shoveled out loans for projects that private lenders wouldn't fund.
Every cut helps, but that's not where the money is.
The U.S. can defend itself at a lot less expense.
Threats to impeach federal judges who rule against the government are a naked attack on their constitutionally crucial function.
Reform could replace an unsustainable boondoggle with lower costs, more freedom, and better care.
Entitlements are a much bigger expense, but that doesn't mean the waste doesn't matter.
The president's assertion is divorced from reality, and so are the "estimated savings" touted by Elon Musk.
It's great to have presidents talking about the need for a balanced budget, but Republicans are backing a plan that will increase borrowing.
Handouts to corporations distort the market, breed corruption, and politicize the economy.
If only they were as big as the list of new spending.
A smaller government with a more powerful set of unaccountable executive officials is unlikely to be much of a win for liberty.
The federal government has no business being a bank.
Means-test Social Security, raise the retirement age, and let us invest our own money.
If the Department of Government Efficiency goes about this the wrong way, we could be left with both a presidency on steroids and no meaningful reduction in government.
At the current rate of inflation, the dollar will lose 33 cents of purchasing power within a decade.
Cuts to government spending mean fewer bonds, lower borrowing costs, and potentially a break for borrowers.
The presidential adviser's lack of formal authority complicates his cost-cutting mission.
"If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better," says Rep. Thomas Massie. He's right.
DOGE may not just save money; it may encourage honesty.
The president is positioning himself to have much greater control over a smaller, enfeebled federal bureaucracy.
The penny is expensive to produce and has long outlived its usefulness.
Democrats seem willing to tolerate a lot to get a larger government, but Republicans aren’t much better.
If Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is serious about reducing military spending, he will need to embrace a narrower understanding of national security.
It tries to offset as much as $4.8 trillion—mostly for tax cut extensions—with only $1.5 trillion in supposed spending reductions.
"The only way you get less waste is to give them less money to spend," says the libertarian-adjacent senator from Kentucky.
Elon Musk claims to have uncovered massive fraud within Social Security, but those data are already well known and not a major problem.
Plus: A listener asks the editors to guess if the real reason Donald Trump is so passionate about tariffs is because he sees them as a deal-making tool rather than a purely economic instrument.
Nearly a dozen lawsuits allege that DOGE's access to government payment and personnel systems violates a litany of federal privacy and record-handling laws.
Cutting government spending and calling off the trade war would be steps in the right direction.
Elon Musk, the president's cost-cutting czar, has a habit of overpromising and underdelivering.
After Elon Musk promised "maximum transparency," the DOGE's website posted organizational charts of federal agencies and statistics on the federal work force.
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