“The United States Postal Service said it has signed a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut costs at the agency.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told congressional leaders in a letter that he had signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s DOGE to cut jobs and spending at the agency that has long lost money.”
…
“The postmaster general said his agency plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000 workers within the next month through a voluntary early retirement program.”
Social Security keeps 2/3s of our elderly out of poverty.
Illegal immigrants are a net positive to Social Security because they sometimes pay into it and rarely get anything out of it.
Taxation to fund welfare for our society is not punishment.
Too many people don’t make enough to save enough for retirement without Social Security. We can’t realistically expect people to save enough to retire without Social Security.
““The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” Noem said. “If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.””
“Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sought to break Democrats out of their unenviable political box on Wednesday, warning that the 60 votes needed to pass the funding bill do not yet exist. He called for a separate one-month extension with identical spending allocations as those currently in force to allow for bipartisan negotiations. “We should vote on that. I hope, I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,” Schumer said on Wednesday.”
…
“Democrats would also be hoping to put pressure on Johnson and to make him face a backlash for sending his members home.”
“the freeze is just one of a series of unprecedented moves the Trump administration has made that are worrying the officials charged with keeping taps running and irrigation water flowing across a region that spans a broad swath of the West, including the cities of Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego.
That includes the president’s day-one executive order to boost California water deliveries that led to an abrupt release of billions of gallons that nearly flooded downstream farms.
And Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has made dramatic staffing cuts at the Bureau of Reclamation that are threatening its ability to operate the complex and aging system of reservoirs, canals and pumps that actually move water across the West in some regions.
The ongoing funding interruption is throwing a wrench into the works at a precarious moment. The states that share the perennially oversubscribed waterway are trying to write new rules to govern it — and negotiators see the next few months as the window to stave off paralyzing litigation.
The federal drought dollars were a crucial component of those negotiations.
“This is now a major, major problem,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who has sent multiple letters to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on the freeze of payments from a $4 billion pot in the Inflation Reduction Act that has been going to pay cities, farms and tribes to forgo water deliveries and funding major infrastructure projects that conserve water over the long term.”
“A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is wielding so much power that its records will likely have to be opened to the public under federal law.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the vast and “unprecedented” authority of DOGE, formally known as the U.S. Digital Service, combined with its “unusual secrecy” warrant the urgent release of its internal documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
“The authority exercised by USDS across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented,” Cooper wrote in a 37-page opinion.”
“The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending.
Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association.”