Cuts for thee, but not for me: Republicans beg for DOGE exemptions - Rampell WaPo
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Trump and Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service are arbitrarily hacking away at critical government functions and services, including flight safety programs, cancer research, bird-flu tracking, food assistance and disaster aid. But when it comes to evaluating the wisdom of these cuts, the president’s allies appear less troubled by the merits of such decisions than by how they affect them personally.
For instance, Fox News anchor Jesse Watters recently pleaded during a segment on behalf of a friend laid off by DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency. Watters deemed the man worthy of his Pentagon post, unlike the rest of those good-for-nothing public servants working to keep Americans safe.
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For instance, as Trump works to slash biomedical funding for private research institutions, Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Alabama) has praised his efforts: “Every cent of hard-earned taxpayer money should be spent efficiently, judiciously, and accountably — without exception,” Britt told AL.com when asked about the billions of dollars in cuts to National Institutes of Health grants.
Inconveniently, though, red-state universities and hospitals receive a whole lot of money from NIH, too. The University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of the largest employers in Britt’s state, is among several Alabama institutions that would lose about $47 million combined in annual funding under Trump’s decree. So Britt promised to sidle up to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and lobby for a reprieve.
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Elsewhere, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to unfreeze funding for green school buses, which just so happen to be manufactured in West Virginia. Capito’s plea appears to be successful so far, as some of the money has been released.
Over in Kansas, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran is trying to restore an international food aid program that DOGE ended when it effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development. Just coincidentally, dissolving this program hurts Kansas farmers.
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