‘NO EXCUSE’: Republicans Must Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is and Pass DOGE Cuts

There has never been a more appropriate application of the phrase “put your money where your mouth is” than the vote House Republicans are preparing to take this afternoon on the $9.4 billion rescissions package.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., joined politics editor Bradley Devlin for an emergency episode of The Signal Sitdown before today’s critical vote. ”This is the most important vote for this year, and probably since I’ve been up here,” Norman told The Daily Signal. “If there’s ever a time for all Republicans to vote for this, it’s now.”

The package would claw back $9.4 billion previously appropriated by Congress in response to the waste, fraud, and abuse uncovered by DOGE. The $9.4 billion can be separated into two major buckets: $8.3 billion of foreign aid programs and $1.1 billion of funding for NPR and PBS. 

”The 9.4 billion that’s part of this package is just a test run to see if we can do what we campaigned on,” Norman said. “You have all kinds of Republicans campaigning on conservatism. That’s the bedrock of our core beliefs for a Republican party, supposedly. Now we’re gonna put it to the test.”

“This is a pivotal vote,” Norman said. “This shows if we are serious about curbing the appetite for spending,” Norman continued. “[Congress] can easily spend your money. But now when we have the opportunity to cut it.”

The $8.3 billion cut of funding for foreign programs includes cuts to the U.S. Institute of Peace, foreign aid programs with a chequered past, and for continuing to dismantle USAID. 

Previously, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 19 that sought to “minimize Government waste and abuse” by starting the process of dismantling “unnecessary” government entities like the U.S. Institute of Peace—a nonprofit which was created by Congress and receives federal funding. When Elon Musk and DOGE sought to act on the president’s directive on March 17, U.S. Institute of Peace staff attempted to barricade themselves in the building. The lock-in, which involved U.S. Institute of Peace President George Moose, ended when law enforcement worked with Trump administration employees to enter the building and expel the holed-up staff. In May, however, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled the actions taken by the Trump administration were “null and void,” putting U.S. Institute of Peace leadership and staff back in place. The Trump administration continues to challenge that ruling.

USAID was another early target of the Trump administration and DOGE because of its refusal to follow executive orders issued in the early days of Trump’s second term. Trump included USAID as one of the “unnecessary” government entities in his Feb. 19 executive order. The Trump administration exposed that USAID was forking over millions of taxpayer dollars to foreign countries and NGOs for progressive causes, such as $45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion in Burma, $520 million for environmental, social, and governance investing in Africa, $20 million on creating an Iraqi version of “Sesame Street,” and $1.2 billion for “undisclosed” purposes.

“The Biden administration and the Obama administration used [foreign funding] as a political arm to use their left-wing ideology and spread it in other countries,” Norman said. “This is so simple to me.”

Norman’s question for those defending the foreign aid: ?”What about Americans?” 

“This is money we don’t have. We’re borrowing money. When is it gonna sink in that this is money we don’t have,” Norman said. “We put America first, not foreign countries.”

Democrats and their allies in the corporate media have attacked the rescissions package because it claws money back from the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Though estimates claim the program has saved 26 million people through HIV/AIDs prevention at the cost of $110 billion, the Biden administration used PEPFAR funding to export a pro-abortion agenda. 

The other $1.1 billion in the recissions package would cut government funding for NPR and PBS. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., recently told reporters the recissions package was “assaulting Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Elmo and all of the people connected to ‘Sesame Street’” for its public broadcasting provisions.

“PBS is not doing a service for the country,” Norman told The Daily Signal. “They’re a closed system that only allows the wokeness and the left-wing ideology that’s sinking this country.”

Previously, NPR CEO Katherine Maher was hauled before the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency to explain her and the outlet’s liberal bias, as Maher has previously called Trump a “deranged, racist sociopath” and suggested the First Amendment is “the No. 1 challenge” in combatting disinformation. 

”If we can’t do this on the most egregious spending, then there’s really no hope,” Norman told The Daily Signal. “But I think there is hope. And as Americans view this vote, I think, I hope, they will hold those accountable who, if they do, vote ‘no’ because there is absolutely no excuse.”

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