The time has come for Congress to address the unchecked expansion of the administrative state. The federal bureaucracies have created a new class of nameless, faceless elites, who have governed us for decades without ever winning an election and are accountable to no one. At the same time, the century-long growth of this “fourth branch” of government has ballooned our national debt to over $37 trillion, saddling American taxpayers with an unfathomable burden.
In November, President Donald Trump secured a sweeping electoral mandate to enact his America First agenda by reining in this shadow regime and taking back control of our government.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington continue their relentless march to entrench the ever-expanding federal bureaucracy, which is aligned with leftist NGOs and other nongovernment actors to carry out agendas the American people would never support.
There is no better example of this nefarious effort than National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, which have strayed so far from their original mission they now serve as mouthpieces for the Left’s most radical ideas.
Instead of providing fact-based reporting, entertainment, and serving all Americans, NPR and PBS have become taxpayer funded platforms for left-wing activism, attacking and undermining the values of millions of Americans on their own dime.
Adding insult to injury, NPR CEO Katherine Maher has made her bias clear with ridiculous posts on social media. She repeatedly called Trump a “fascist” and “deranged racist” while PBS has aired multiple programs, including some directed toward children, promoting the most radical forms of transgender propaganda.
While the Trump administration has made great strides to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency and executive orders, Congressional action is needed to make those cuts permanent.
This week, I will be leading the president’s rescissions package through the Senate to claw back up to $9.4 billion in wasteful spending, including over a billion dollars in taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS.
This rescissions package provides a pathway under the Impoundment Control Act to cancel federal funds that do not align with Trump’s agenda.
Reclaiming these dollars is not just good policy, it is a necessary step to deliver on our promise to the American people, end the partisan weaponization of NPR and PBS, and restore a baseline level of trust in the federal government’s handling of taxpayer dollars.
But to restore fiscal sanity, restore Americans’ trust and realign federal spending with the interests of the American people, we must go even further.
That begins with taking a hard look at the billions of dollars we send overseas every year, and ensuring these funds only serve and further core American interests.
The United States Agency for International Development spent $3 million for Sesame Street programming in Iraq, $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam, $1.6 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia, and $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala.
These aren’t serious initiatives that advance American interest overseas. They are a joke. It’s also insulting to the men and women across America who wake up every day, swing the hammer, and work long hours to make ends meet. They would never agree to bankroll radical initiatives that promote these ideological agendas overseas.
Foreign aid must be scrutinized and refocused to reflect our national interests, not the radical priorities of the previous administration or their friends in the left-wing activist class.
Passing the rescissions package is a golden opportunity for Congress to prove that it can still act with discipline and put the American people first.
No single bill will unilaterally solve our debt crisis or Washington’s addiction to spending. But Trump’s rescissions package is a necessary first step to prove to America that we can rightsize our fiscal house and safeguard hard-earned tax dollars.
The American people deserve a government that is focused and accountable, not one that bankrolls radical media outlets and a wandering foreign policy more dedicated to a leftist worldview than American interests.
The time to act is now. I urge my Senate colleagues to seize this historic opportunity to deliver on Trump’s agenda and pass my rescissions package.
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