Yes, Cutting Government Waste Is Important
Entitlements are a much bigger expense, but that doesn't mean the waste doesn't matter.
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.
Maybe DOGE will succeed where the U.S. Digital Service (mostly) failed.
Even if the Department of Government Efficiency eliminates all improper payments and fraud, we'll still be facing a debt explosion—which requires structural reform.
The DOGE director wildly exaggerates what can be accomplished by tackling "waste, fraud, and abuse" in government spending without new legislation.
The pretend department’s downgraded mission reflects the gap between Trump’s promise of "smaller government" and the reality of what can be achieved without new legislation.
While Trump can't dissolve the department by executive action, getting rid of it through legislation is still a good idea.
The president's planned National Garden of American Heroes might be a nice idea, but it would be extremely costly—and unnecessary.
We could decentralize education, improve outcomes, and help reduce the size of the federal Leviathan.
As with some other recent executive branch actions, the Trump Administration appears to have overreached.
In the early 1990s, Bill Clinton's administration set out to "reinvent" government. What can the mercurial Tesla CEO learn from their efforts?
Much cutting. Very waste. But the Department of Government Efficiency might not have the legal and budgetary chops to actually reduce spending.
Republicans are betting trillions on the hope that the economy will grow fast enough to cover their deficit spree.
One grant for $1.1 billion was supported by one sheet of paper and didn’t include itemized costs for the project.
Plus: NYC trans medicine protest, airplane collision (again), and more...
Eliminating the deficit requires cutting the biggest spending—defense, Medicare, Social Security. So far, Trump says he won't touch those.
Plus: USAID and Education Department cuts, tariff deal reached, and more...
Almost exactly one year after Congress swore off self-inflicted fiscal crises, we're back to the same tired theatrics.
As tensions rise on campus and in board chambers, districts dish out more for security, lawyers, and staff turnover.
Howard Lutnick told senators that CHIPS Act subsidies were "an excellent down payment."
Inflation and rent prices are down, and the country has a budget surplus.
Plus: RFK Jr.'s plan to squash Big Pharma, J.D. Vance vs. the bishops, and more...
But at least he restored respect for a tariff-loving predecessor by renaming a mountain.
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