In more awesome news for Republicans who want to see the Schumer shutdown used to great effect, not just as an opportunity to reveal the ludicrous nature of what Democrats are demanding in terms of government spending but also as a way of slashing wasteful spending and firing employees the administration wants to get rid of, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) revealed $2 trillion in spending that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought could cut during the shutdown.
As background, Speaker Johnson recently explained to Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo that the shutdown has given OMB and Trump much more leeway to cut, saying, “While a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve all always wanted to do.”
Continuing, he explained that Trump can now do what he otherwise likely wouldn’t have been able to, saying, “So, in a way, Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom to the executive branch under President Trump to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we would never get Democrat votes for them.”
Sen. Ernst has now started pushing for OMB and Vought to use that power in an explosive way. Announcing as much on X in a post where she included screenshots of a letter she sent him and explained the massive amount of fraud and waste that could be cut, she said, “I heard @russvought
was looking for waste to cut during the Schumer Shutdown. Here is a list of non-essential government expenditures that would save taxpayers more than $2 trillion.”
Beginning the letter, she noted that slashing federal waste remains a major priority, saying, “Dear Director Vought, As Chair and founder of the Senate DOGE Caucus, I think you’ll agree it’s critical Washington become more transparent, accountable, and efficient. Eliminating wasteful federal spending remains my top priority.”
Continuing, she noted that $400 million in daily spending could be cut by Director Vought, saying, “While Senator Schumer, House Minority Leader Jeffries and Congressional Democrats have decided shutting down the federal government over pipe-dream political priorities is productive, in practice, they are providing the Trump administration an amazing opportunity to save taxpayers from footing a $400 million daily bill by eliminating “non-essential” federal workers, trimming wasteful federal programs, and taking critical steps in curtailing Washington’s out-of-control spending that put our nation $37 trillion in debt.”
Continuing, she noted, “There’s no better symbol of Washington’s wasteful spending than paying non-essential bureaucrats $400 million a day not to work. As of today, the bill to provide ‘do nothing pay’ for federal employees furloughed by Schumer’s shutdown is $1.2 billion.”
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Then, introducing the lengthy list of spending programs that could be immediately cut, Senator Ernst wrote, “As you examine our federal spending and programs during this shutdown, here are more than a trillion dollars worth of ideas ripe for a trim.”
Sen. Ernst then went on to rattle off a list of dozens of programs and forms of waste, from an allegedly $1.6 trillion slush fund to billions of dollars worth of spending on non-essential federal employees, along with various wasteful scams like EV boondoggles and nonsensical science grants. It remains to be seen if Director Vought will take action on any of the problematic forms of spending.
Watch Speaker Johnson comment on how Schumer’s shutdown enabled the OMB here:
Featured image credit: Flying Logos, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png