Many Republican members of the House are not in favor of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), which indicates to me that they love the bloated federal government and that they are not there to serve the people who elected them. I mean, it should be easy to quit funding Planned Parenthood, which uses federal money to support Democratic candidates.
About 43% of Planned Parenthood revenues came from government reimbursements or grants in the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Out of the $1.29 billion in total revenue, $553.7 million came from the government reimbursing Planned Parenthood for providing medical services covered by programs such as Medicaid or from government grants from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The remainder of revenues mostly come from donations (27%) and patient fees (24%).
And how much did they kick back to the Democrats?:
The organization announced on Wednesday that it plans to spend at least $45 million on local, state, and federal candidates who support abortion. Its “largest-ever electoral effort” is a huge jump from 2018, when the group spent a comparatively meager $5.1 million in the midterm elections, according to Open Secrets.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELActing Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson complained in the Washington Post this summer, “Planned Parenthood isn’t political. It’s been politicized.” She argued that “some are dismissing or mischaracterizing the organization’s mission as ‘political,’ offering a false choice between advocating for women’s health and offering health care.”
But it’s not just about women’s health, is it? Former Planned Parenthood leader Leana Wen got cut from the organization this summer for being too much of a medical professional and not enough of a lobbyist.
And how about defunding NPR and PBS, an advocacy group dedicated to Democratic candidates?
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR’s and PBS’s parent, received $525 million for fiscal 2024. Of that, $367 million went to public television stations. Public radio stations got $126 million. NPR’s and PBS’s assertions that direct federal funding totals a tiny portion of their budgets amounts to rhetorical money laundering. Through program charges and other fees paid by stations, their total take from Uncle Sam is well into double digits, in NPR’s case an estimated 17 percent or more of the network’s budget.
“Presently, NPR receives funding for less than 1 percent of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state, and local governments indirectly,” according to influencewatch.org, which rates NPR as a left-of-center outlet.
So, if that’s the case, why exactly are taxpayer dollars involved at all? NPR appears to be solvent without any help from Uncle Sam.
Thomas Jefferson wasn’t around for radio. But the forward-thinking author of the country’s most important document was prescient when he wrote: “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagations of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
These three could and should lose all federal funding, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there must be cuts to make government more efficient and less costly. DOGE is headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They cannot cut any program or expenditure, so it is vitally important that the legislature get on board.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) noted in an X post that “the biggest obstacles to the success of DOGE” will be lawmakers stonewalling the spending cuts.
Still, “It did give me hope that the richest man in the world (who has said he will play in primaries in coming electoral cycles) said they would be making a ‘Naughty and Nice’ list of those who get in the way of their efforts.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) also highlighted the “naughty and nice list for members of Congress based on their spending habits with their voting card,” which will be used to publicly score lawmakers’ voting records ahead of the 2026 elections. Additionally, “they’re talking about communicating with the American people, perhaps maybe even a weekly podcast or a report,” Green explained.
Greene spoke to reporters Thursday about her DOGE subcommittee’s plans to expose “every single unelected bureaucrat, every single agency that is wasting the American people’s money, and the big government departments that need to be exposed for how they’re not serving the American people.”
#governmentreform #defundthewaste #naughtyandnicelist
