Jay Weber Show transcript 5-29-25
Hey- some doge cuts are finally being sent to Capitol hill!
This might be because of recent social media pressure: president trump and his team are in-tune with social media.
Or it might be because this was ‘always’ going to roughly be the time that they intended to start sending Doge’s findings to congress for action. Remember, Elon was only contracted to work until the end of May and had been saying all along that it would ‘then be Trump’s White House that made the final decisions on what should be changed, cut, etc.
Well-we are at that spot on the calendar.
But huzzah, huzzah- we finally have news of what -I hope- will only be the first rounds of doge cuts forwarded to congress.
The trump white house and speaker Johnson both said yesterday- the first so-called ‘recission package’ will be sent to congress next Tuesday. It will only be for about 9.4-billion dollars in savings, when doge has allegedly found and tagged at least 160 billion in cuts...
But a) it’s a start and b) there are other ways to implement these doge reforms and cuts.The recission package is just one way- but a recission package is a ‘clawing back’ of money that congress has already approved ‘to be spent’....and so...the process to pull it back...is this one: it starts with the white house.
And by the way-this is the main reason that we haven’t gotten to the doge cuts, yet.
Most people on social media were slamming and blaming our congressmen. But they have slid a few reforms into the reconciliation bill. And they will deal with other discretionary spending cuts and reforms in different budget bills...
But the pulling back of money that’s already been spent- that the executive branch wants to see canceled- starts with this process.
And the leaders of both houses have been waiting for Musk and Trump to start forwarding them reforms.
And this will be a test: Are republican congressmen going to do some of their normal ‘last minute things’ and back down after promising cuts?
We’ve seen this before. It’s the ‘swamp culture’ that pulls them back in-every time. Especially when it comes to taxpayer funding of public broadcasting-and so it’s interesting that defunding NPR and PBS is going to be one of the first things highlighted in a recession package.
It's almost as if trump’s team is ‘daring’ congressmen to prove they’re serious about cutting spending. Because squishy republicans have always...always...backed down in the past...when it came to defunding public broadcasting.
This would be a 535-million-dollar annual savings to taxpayers- moving forward. There’s absolutely no need for taxpayers in 2025 to fund media outlets-given the different platforms and options and voices out there. Any official ‘government usage’ or benefit to funding these stations dried up decades ago.
It's time. It’s time to defund NPR and PBS and let them operate as private budgets...which is how they get 98 percent of their funding, anyway.
Listen to Governor Ron DeSantis...who has been giving speeches about how ‘we still haven’t seen any doge cuts’ and ‘the swamp is still the swamp’.
He’s not happy about the lack of deeper spending cuts in the reconciliation bill...and joins Elon musk and Ron Johnson as recent critics.
So, are republicans serious about cutting spending, or not? And which GOP lawmakers will stand in the way in each house?
It’s already clear that Rino Maine senator Susan Collins intends to act as a serious ‘swamp creature’ here. She’s been doing interviews saying she’s not going to simply rubber stamp the doge cuts...and you can bet that she’s going to be one of the GOP senators standing in the way of defunding NPR and PBS if she can block it.
Folks-back in 2018- in Trump’s first term- he sent a recission package to congress that would have blocked fifteen billion dollars in spending-and most of these same senators rejected it.
And so- we’ll see if they are smarter or more committed to it this time.
But-this is-the swamp.
According to the earliest reports here-this recission package includes Cuts to USAID
That’s the secretive rogue agency that Trump and Rubio immediately moved to shut down the moment they got into office. It was something like a 40-billion dollar a year slush fund that democrats-over decades-had created to spread their leftist ideology around the globe as they mostly just filled the pockets of their own relatives and own pet causes with.
The 8-billion dollar cut to USAID- isn’t all their yearly funding, but it’s a good chunk.
And as for musk’s criticism yesterday-he’s right about there not being enough spending cuts in the ‘big, beautiful bill’ to make it a great budget document.... but he’s wrong to link it to doge cuts...most of which are discretionary spending and cannot be put in there.
They’re still all saying the right things- aside from Susan Collins. We’ll see.
The other thing that I’m going to keep saying is that: this really is a ‘very positive’ reconciliation bill, based on the many wins that are in it.
We are now at the stage in which it’s going to be trashed and pulled apart by -our own side of the aisle for what’s ‘not in it’.
And some of that criticism will be legitimate-and from people who simply wanted ‘more reform’...like senators Johnson and Rand Paul.
And some of that criticism will be from special interest groups who didn’t get what was promised to them. (we’ll talk about how this house version of the bill, suddenly, doesn’t include the provision that would have stopped taxing social security checks. That’s annoying)
And then- some of the criticism is going to be from people who don’t know what they’re really talking about- like those blasting republicans for not including the doge cuts in the reconciliation bill. In most instances, they can’t, and so those people are moaning due to their own ignorance of how the process works.
But- expect to hear a lot of whining and moaning complaining over the next several weeks about how this-isn’t- a ‘big, beautiful bill’. And it comes up short. And it’s not keeping promises.
Bologna.
A lot of criticism is going to ignore the fact that ‘so much good’ is in there, including on border security and deportations, energy and price reductions, making some tax cuts permanent and creating new ones for the first time.
Folks-it’s still a ‘great bill’ compared to the normal nonsense a congress passes, and a president signs.
President Trump was asked about Elon musk’s criticism yesterday- and had what I would say is the ‘proper take’.
Trump Fumes at Democrats When Asked About Elon Musk Criticizing His ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
Trump then went on to remind people that -due to the rancid nature of today’s America-hating democrat grass roots- we are seeing zero democrats in either chamber who are willing to vote in favor of a pro-America, low tax bill.
This is still such a good bill and there are still so many wins- that I’d ask you not to let yourself get too wrapped up in ‘what’s not in there’ or ‘why it still isn’t perfect’.
Because in all honesty? ‘whatever’ version of this bill passes at this point- is a huge win for this country and a major step toward president trump and republicans keeping numerous campaigns promises related to restoring America.
And no-
It’s not going to be perfect. And no, it’s not going to solve everything or end every fight in one fell swoop. Republicans will have to continue to pass more reforms thru the regular budget process if they can...etc.
But-let’s not let the ‘perfect’ stand in the way of the ‘very good’..
And let’s not let the whiners on their side soil what is going to be a very, very positive piece of legislation for the country.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > The first round of DOGE cuts will be sent to Congress next week