Budget reform is not an option. It is a necessity. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists, or special interest groups. Barack Obama started his version of DOGE in 2014. And he still doubled the national debt.

In the last 20 years, $2.8 trillion in improper payments came from the U.S. government. Trump followed Obama and built a strong economy. COVID hit, and he left office with a $27 trillion national debt. Biden was elected and a bad budget situation became exponentially worse. While he enjoyed 577 days of vacation, unelected 92% Democrat bureaucrats spent money like throwing gold bars off a cliff. Everybody made money. The national debt is now $36.5 trillion and interest alone is $1 trillion per year. The budget for the entire United States military is $841 billion. Social security for 69 million people is $1.6 trillion. Biden added 1.8 million federal employees in four years.

USAID distributed $20 billion for greenhouse gas emissions. Of that money, Stacey Abrams’ Power Forward received $2 billion. George Soros’ Open Society received $5 billion. Along with money from the Pritzker family. They donated money to IFNOTNOW, a left-wing group that funded the pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests in the past year. A very outspoken critic of President Trump is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, of the Pritzker family.

In the old days, the mafia gave envelopes with cash in them to politicians. Corruption has grown up today. Money is moved from government to nonprofits, pet projects and Green New Deal groups. USAID has become the envelope for corrupt politicians. The agency distributes hundreds of billions of government money. Another outspoken critic of President Trump is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island). His wife got $7 million for her project Oceanic Conservation from USAID.

Does anybody believe that USAID gave $356,000 for a study to determine if Japanese quails became more promiscuous when they ingested cocaine? The question is not if a politician got the money, it is which politician got the money. The general accounting office of the government uncovered $536 billion in waste and fraud in 2023. Also in 2023 we spent $451 billion on illegal aliens, while just $3 billion went to homeless vets. These are men and women who came home broken mentally and physically from the horrors of war.

Ukraine received over $300 billion to assist with the war. The list of where the money actually went is stunning, including to models and designers traveling all over the world for shows and 5,000 businesses in Ukraine got up to $2 million each, with 25% going to the business owner. The list is hard to read. Biden was told twice by the Supreme Court that he did not have the authority to cancel student debt. Only Congress can do that. He did it anyway. That was $189 billion of our tax dollars. He spent an obscene $26 trillion in four years.

Some 77 million Americans were sick of throwing our tax dollars out the window and elected Donald Trump, who promised to end the insanity before our country drove off a cliff. He enlisted the self-made richest man in the world, for no pay, to help him identify the waste, fraud and abuse. Elon Musk is not a right-wing Republican. He actually owns the first mass-produced electric vehicle. He provided free internet access for people in North Carolina after the flood, and people in Los Angeles after the fires. One of his companies is working on a device to make paraplegics feel their extremities again. He is brilliant and cares about the country. Yet democrat politicians call him stupid and clueless. He knows that no country in the world ever survived our crushing debt.

Trump and Musk are brash and rude, but are living up to Trump’s promises. The government workforce cannot sustain four million people, but the media will call them heartless bullies. What did the media call union man Joe Biden on Day 1 of his presidency when he shut down the XL pipeline, leaving 10,000 union workers out of jobs? Did you know that Trump has brought in almost $2 trillion dollars in foreign investment in this country in one month?

Trump Derangement Syndrome now includes Musk. The spigot for the free money from USAID is shut off. Democrat judges all over the country are using frivolous claims to stop them. Democrat politicians have lost their minds, ranting and raving in the streets. They don’t care about you. The spigot is shut off. Local Democrats writing into this paper call Trump the anti-Christ, Hitler and, of course, a convicted felon.

For all of the people who think screaming in the street and calling Trump and Musk foul names will stop them, I have a suggestion for you. Maybe a psychiatrist can prescribe something for you to calm down while the Trump team fixes the mess it inherited.

Steve Dunn is a retired first responder. He can be reached at

sjdunn@zoominternet.net.