Every year, the White House releases the President’s Budget, outlining the priorities the President would like to see in the upcoming government spending bills. This year, the President’s Budget is full of much-needed spending cuts. If his requests are enacted, most agencies would see a decrease in funds compared to last year to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. The budget is a great start, but one Department in particular should borrow Elon Musk’s chainsaw instead of a scalpel.
The agency that would win the top spot for most budget cuts is the Small Business Administration (SBA). Under the Biden administration, the department grew significantly, increasing employment in the small agency by 34%. They used some of those positions to push entrepreneurial programs that catered to LGBT business owners. Sadly, the SBA provided little oversight and accountability while also offering business advice that too often led to failures. The suggested $671 million cut would be a good step to right-size the SBA.
Another agency that deserves deep cuts is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Left’s climate change agenda has been used to wield power and force harmful mandates on industries and homeowners. The President’s recommended 52% decrease is a good start. The Trump Administration has already rolled back regulations on showerheads, light bulbs, dishwashers, washers and dryers, car emissions, and more. Defunding regulatory overreach is necessary to bolster consumer choice and free market principles. The budget also includes cutting projects that promote “environmental justice,” such as tiny homes for immigrants, Latinx workshops, and developing school curricula that promote climate change initiatives.
The Department of State’s budget is proposed to decrease by 29%. Not only is Secretary of State Marco Rubio doing an excellent job of juggling the many agencies his department absorbed, but he has identified the fat that can be cut. The 2003 President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has increasingly become more corrupt over the years. PEPFAR was initially a program to prevent and treat HIV around the world but has become an abortion slush fund in recent years. Under the Biden administration, 21 abortions were performed by PEPFAR-funded healthcare workers in Mozambique. The President’s Budget would cut $4.3 billion of funding toward PEPFAR and similar global health programs. The House Appropriations Committee has also vowed to defund the program in all upcoming spending bills.
Concerningly, the Department of Education’s budget is reduced by only 2.9%, which pales in comparison to some of the other agencies. Despite the Administration’s promise to “close the Department of Education and return authority to the states,” there is still so much work to do. The cuts mainly affect curricula and training on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender, and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Our tax dollars would still give the Department $76.5 billion if the President’s request is enacted.
In the end, it is Congress that has the power to ultimately defund and eliminate the Department of Education. Unfortunately, this issue divides Republicans. Some still want the Department to remain, only with less power, so that Republicans can affect what is being taught in schools. However, we know that federal bureaucrats bow to the whims of whoever is in power at the time. If the structure remains, the next Democrat President will bloat the agency once more with unnecessary staffing and “woke” mandates.
Another trendy idea has been to merge the Department of Education with the Department of Labor. Listed in the President’s Budget under the Department of Labor is $1.45 billion for career and technical education, a program previously under the Department of Education. Some of these types of grants were already moved over to Labor last year. While these grants are largely geared toward fostering trade schools and adult education, we must be careful not to permit major industries to turn “workforce development” into socialist centralized planning of the economy and K-12 education.
In 1992, the president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, Marc Tucker, wrote a letter to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton detailing plans to federalize the education system. His purpose in what was called the “Dear Hillary” letter was “to remold the entire American system” into “a seamless web that literally extends from cradle to grave and is the same system for everyone,” coordinated by “a system of labor market boards at the local, state and federal levels” where curriculum and “job matching” will be handled by counselors “accessing the integrated computer-based program.” This would shift young minds away from academic basics and critical thinking skills to job training. He was successful at the time in orchestrating policies that implemented national standards, created curricula focused on workforce outcomes, and built databases that track student behaviors. We have been clawing back these policies ever since.
An example of the problem with this approach is the push for computer coders. During a December 2019 campaign rally in Derry, New Hampshire, then-candidate Joe Biden told coal miners to “learn to code” as part of a transition to new, greener energy jobs. Biden stated, “Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet in a mine, . . .can learn to program as well”. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seriously affecting the coding profession. The market for junior developers has fallen by 30%-70% in the last three years. Now, AI agents handle the “grunt work” traditionally done by new hires. Any coal miners who took Biden’s advice might once again find themselves in an outdated profession.
In addition, the tech industry’s influence is having a negative impact on students through the push to have tablets and computers in the classroom. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers have been at the forefront of education with a focus on coding and robotics. Tech mogul Bill Gates has been instrumental in providing hundreds of millions of grants each year to ensure technology is used in the classroom at a very young age. The results on our children’s minds have been devastating. Children are being exposed to inappropriate materials earlier than ever and are being stripped of in-person learning opportunities that teach them how to adequately use their minds. Now, Congress is moving legislation to rein in this havoc.
There are other notable cuts in Trump’s budget recommendations, including $2.7 billion reduction to international organizations such as the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO), the elimination of the Job Corps which has been riddled with violent crimes and deaths, and the Biden administration’s unaccompanied migrant children (UAC) program that lost track of 300,000 UACs while placing tens of thousands of children with unvetted sponsors or in homes without safety checks.
At the same time, the Department of War is seeing the largest increase in spending. The 44% increase in federal funding would invest in Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system, the Space Force, shipbuilding, a pay raise for the troops, and more. This increase is accompanied by several important spending cuts, including funding for “cultural awareness” programs like Pride Month, eliminating leftist climate change research and new electric-vehicle infrastructure, and divesting from DEI advisory boards.
Overall, the President’s Budget is a great tool for our appropriators in both the House and Senate to use in drafting the next spending bill. We urge Congress to enact deep cuts to federal spending to show the American people they are serious about reducing the federal debt, improving affordability, and building a sustainable economy. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are already drafting their bills to avoid yet another government shutdown in September. To stay up-to-date on those bills, as well as the status of reopening the Department of Homeland Security and reconciliation efforts, sign up for our emails and alerts on our website here.