The Senate passed the Trump Rescissions Act of 2025 on a final vote of 51-48 early Thursday morning, Eastern Time. Vice President JD Vance was not needed to break a tie.
The act claws back some $9 billion in spending, including cutting wasteful foreign aid programs, as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Other spending included the Democracy Fund, Clean Technology Fund, and immigration aid.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was a “no” vote and Sen. Dan Sullivan voted yes. When the bill passed the House, Congressman Nick Begich was a yes.
Democrat Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota was hospitalized on Wednesday after feeling unwell at the Capitol. She was being kept overnight for observation out of caution but is expected to return to work. Her absence cost the Senate Democrats a 49th vote against the package, but did not impact the ultimate outcome of the vote.
Earlier in the day, Murkowski took to the floor to defend the spending, as she does.
Good job Nick and Dan!
Hallelujah! Public broadcasting can advocate from the left on their own and pay their 87 of 87 liberal editors from their own coffers. They should rename themselves removing the inference to government endorsement.
HAHAHA! Take that Murkowski, Nothing you say matters!
9 out of ten times. Alaska’s senatorial voice is self canceling.
We told Lisa that she can’t use the government radio and TV to teach her Democrats in the villages and in the Bush how to spell Murkowski. She’ll have to figure out another way to cheat with government money. I recommended that she try a leaflet drop from our private jet.
The CEO of public radio said they do not need the money so why is Lisa forcing them to take it. The rest is pure pork Google the the billion promise under Biden the clean technology fund, immigration aid free housing and health care for illegals while vets are speaking in the streets.
A rescission of nine billion dollars out of a multi trillion federal budget is tiny. However, congratulations for getting it through the Senate, no thanks to Lisa Murkowski. But good on Nick and Dan for being fiscally responsible and voting to cut wasteful spending.
America’s problems is not that they don’t have enough funds in their budgets, it’s that they spend entirely too much. Dan and Nick get it, Lisa is clueless. Alaska can do much better than Lisa Murkowski.
One aspect of “public” broadcasting is that it carries with it the idea that the content seen and heard is officially sanctioned. If you believe that certain people should always be in charge of the world this all fits together nicely. I have listened to NPR a couple of times and am glad that I am not even an occasional listener. It is a really strange place. Defunding PBS and NPR will have little to no impact on the content delivered; the folks ain’t gonna change. The volume will be turned down. It will be interesting to see if NPR listeners have to ability to tune in other media. Maybe we can finally get some serious hard-Left radio going. I will not be compelled to pay for it – until Gavin takes office.
If they really cared about getting rid of wasteful spending, they would do away with the bill they just passed last week. What a joke.
You are not even capable of appreciating any little step in the right direction, are you?
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Seriously, this is good news, but… nope, you have to disparage it. Not because this action is bad, but because an action in the past was not perfect. And, I am serious about not perfect, there was much more good in the OBBB than bad. But, if all you ever look at is mainstream media, you would never know it.
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Personally, I think cementing the Trump tax cuts (no, they are not just for billionaires) into a permanent part of the tax structure is a good thing. Getting rid of SALT as well. No tax on tips is going to result in a large increase in revenue.
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And the CBO estimate of the impact to the debt has been revised. It isn’t $4T over the next 10 years, it is closer to $1.8T, or an average deficit spending of $180B a year. When is the last time an administration kept it that low? Right, the last two years of the Clinton administration when the Republicans controlled both houses.
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Here’s a pro tip. People will take you a lot more seriously if you were to acknowledge when the opponent gets a win occasionally.
That $9,000,000,000.00 represents 0.2% of the 2025 Federal Budget, is there any wonder why the debt is $37,000,000,000,000.00 when it takes that amount of effort and it is still a razor thin majority to cut 0.2%?
Steve-o in the big picture I agree with you.
That being said, when was the last time congress actually clawed any money back that they had already appropriated?
According to the Wiki people this procedure was passed in 1974 to replace impoundment and supposedly used regularly until 2000 and not since. So good on President Trump and the GOP (sans Lisa) for bringing it back!
I also read that due to tariffs the US took in $27 Billion more in the month of June than they had expenditures over the same time frame. It’s a start!
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fantastic and I hope they do a lot more of it. 0.2% is nothing but it passed by an extremely slim majority, do you think an actual 2% cut would pass? Last year the Feds spent $6,750,000,000,000.00 with $1,830,000,000,000.0 being deficit spending, or 27% being borrowed/printed money. We would need 135 bills like this just to balance the budget from last year.
As Dave Ramsey says: “Baby steps” Steve-O!
I have hopes that at some point not only the democrat party, but their supporters get irritated and tired of their lefty lunatic fringe and return to focus on the country….until then, if it just passes with one vote, it still passed!
I am encouraged by the crypto bill. Hakim Jefferies railed against, yet a bunch of democrats ignored him and voted for it. That’s progress!
So CPB is funded under the Commerce Clause? When do i get a free pony under “the general welfare of the United States”? Or is it just free donkeys and elephants?
The Defense Department got a nice bump and has a $1 trillion budget, but it can’t pass an audit. Meanwhile we cut money to UNICEF, which can pass an audit. But I get it, feeding the profits of defense contractors is much more important than feeding children.
“Ohhhhh the starving children! Think of the children…”
It would be nice if the rest of the world kicked in to help cover the cost so relentlessly placed at the feet of the American taxpayer, you know since all these starving children are just as much their responsibility as ours.
Sometimes in life the best offense is a really good defense.
Also, the bump in defense spending covers everything, everything for our service members like better housing better services better mwr, not to mention better newer equipment to help keep us safe. Sure defense contractors will see monetary gains that’s what successful buisness do. Has unicef ever actually fixed a problem? I mean have there ever gone anywhere done their work and then said “ ok, these people are self sufficient.” Come on Jean.
You know your hero Joe Biden left billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment laying on the ground in Afghanistan for the taking. If costs bother you so much you might want to write him a letter and ask him why he did that.
The PBS and NPR are both hard left, they make no effort to be middle of the road. Nor do they try to be balance in their respective platforms. It’s hard lefty activism all the way. US tax dollars should not support either of them.
Yup, our parents and grandparents should have turned their TVs off, looked carefully at all…the candidates who were running for president, and VOTED for Ron Paul back in the late 1980’s.