Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Doge are expected to produce no savings – live
"Almost 40% of federal contracts canceled as part of Doge’s cost-cutting efforts aren’t expected to save government any money, Trump administration’s own data shows
This report is from the Associated Press.
Some 40% of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money, the administration’s own data shows.
Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” last week published an initial list of 1,125 contracts that it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on Doge’s “wall of receipts” shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings.
That’s usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.
Dozens of them were for already-paid subscriptions to the AP, Politico and other media services that the administration said it would discontinue. Others were for research studies that have been awarded, training that has taken place, software that has been purchased and interns that have come and gone.
An administration official said it made sense to cancel contracts that are seen as potential dead weight, even if the moves do not yield any savings. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
You can read the full story here.
Moment of truth for Mike Johnson amid struggle to get GOP behind budget plan
It’s coming down to the wire for beleaguered House speaker Mike Johnson, who is trying to rally GOP holdouts behind his budget plan for enacting Donald Trump’s agenda before the showdown vote this evening.
Amid Republican opposition threatening to derail his bill, Johnson was up late last night locked in talks with holdouts from across his party who remain skeptical of his outline plan for tax and spending cuts - as well as border security, energy and defense policy - via a single reconciliation bill.
The House proposal – the “one big, beautiful bill” which Trump endorsed last week - would add $4.5tn to the deficit through tax cuts while demanding enormous cuts to federal benefits programs to pay for them. Under the plan’s strict rules, Republicans must either slash a target $2tn from mandatory programs (such as Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance) to make up for current deficit projection or scale back their proposed tax breaks by an equal amount, which would create even bigger deficits in the short-term.
Since Trump was elected on the promise of sweeping tax cuts, Republican lawmakers are feeling the pressure to deliver on that. But at the heart of Johnson’s predicament is that he’s ideologically trapped between hardline deficit hawks who want deeper spending cuts on one wing of his party and nervous moderates who don’t want significant cuts to Medicaid on the other, particularly those in swing seats where large numbers of constituents rely on the program.
While Medicaid isn’t explicitly mentioned in the House GOP budget resolution, in reality a large chunk of the suggested cuts would have to come from the program to offset Trump’s tax cuts, border security buildup and other priorities, as the president has already ruled out any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. He told Fox News Medicaid would not be “touched” bar a clampdown on “fraud”, which seems … open to interpretation. Johnson is now scrambling to win over wavering moderates by convincing them frontline cuts to the program are off the table and he’ll find the staggering $880bn in savings in his budget plan through cuts to other programs.
Assuming every Democrat turns up and votes against the bill, with a thin majority in the House Johnson can’t afford to lose more than one Republican vote. But he told reporters last night he predicted he had enough support and expected the floor vote to go ahead as planned: “I think we’re on track.” He also asked for prayers.
The vote is expected to start at 6.05pm ET tonight."
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