Defending the destructive spending plaguing the federal government appears to be what The New York Times does best, which explains its nervous breakdown over President Donald Trump taking scissors to Washington D.C.’s credit cards.
The Upshot staff over at The Times were up in arms over the Office of Budget and Management’s January 28 memo ordering a temporary freeze on funding for federal programs across the government. The Times railed that the order “caused widespread confusion among agency officials and organizations that rely on federal support, including states, schools, hospitals and other nonprofits.”
They listed 2,600 programs that were under review, but chose to highlight programs like Medicare and Head Start, which the Trump administration already insisted wouldn’t be affected.
As Fox 5 summarized in an explainer: “Any payment required by law to be paid will be paid without interruption or delay.” In turn, “any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process.”
What The Times buried in its data, however, was much of the billions in federal tax dollars are wasted on batty initiatives such as environmental justice and endangered species conservation. Instead, the newspaper in typical form cast Trump like a villain out to just cut off the spigot for Americans who are reliant on critical subsidies:
In sweeping up so many federal initiatives — even interest payments on the federal debt — it was unclear if the spreadsheet reflected oversights and accidental contradictions, or something closer to the administration’s full ambitions. The programs listed below, alongside dollar estimates for their annual spending in 2024, encompass much of how the federal government touches American life.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of some of the nutty leftist federal spending programs that were set to be under review that The Times chose to bury in its report. No worries, MRC Business has no problem doing the job the derelict Times should have done (NOTE: A federal judge briefly blocked the OMB memo from taking effect. The Trump administration later rescinded the memo, but stated that the executive order on the federal freeze was still in effect):
This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 29, 2025
It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.
Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction.
The President's EO's on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.
- $182 million for the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program (EJ TCGM)
Purpose: “The goals of this program are to make awards for the design and management of a new Environmental Justice (EJ) competitive pass-through program where EPA will competitively select pass-through entities to provide grant funds via subawards to community-based nonprofit organizations, underserved and disadvantaged communities, and other EJ community stakeholders.”
- $6 million for the Civil Rights Training and Advisory Services (also known as Equity Assistance Centers)
Purpose: “To provide technical assistance and training services to school districts and other responsible governmental agencies to cope with educational problems occasioned by race, sex, religion, and national origin desegregation.”
- $8 million for Endangered Species on Indian Lands
Purpose: “To comply with the Endangered Species Act, the Northern Spotted Owl Recovery plan, and to implement the Endangered Species Recovery on Indian lands.”
- (No reported amount) — Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program
Purpose: “The Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program (Indigenous Animals Grants) is designed to support the priorities Tribal nations have articulated to USDA throughout consultations in 2021 and 2022, including but not limited to support for traditional harvesting methods, indigenous species, and community protein processing operations.”
- (No reported amount) — Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program
Purpose: “The purpose of the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is to support efforts to achieve digital equity, promote digital inclusion activities, and spur greater adoption of broadband among certain covered populations defined by the Digital Equity Act."
- $521,000 for the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council
Purpose: “To facilitate and administer regional programs to involve subsistence hunters of migratory birds in the management and regulation of migratory birds.”
- $16 million for the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures
Purpose: “The objectives of this program are to support projects that protect, restore, and enhance wetland and upland ecosystems for the conservation of Migratory Birds. Funds support the work of the 23 Migratory Bird Joint Ventures which are independent regional partnerships formed under the auspices of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan that guides the conservation of waterfowl and other migratory birds in North America.”
- $8 million for the African Elephant Conservation Fund
Purpose: “To provide financial assistance to support projects that will enhance sustainable conservation programs to ensure effective, long-term conservation of African elephants.”
- $3 million for the Research Partnership on Climate Change and Transportation
Purpose: “The climate and transportation research center shall advance the following research and technology goals: (1) support decarbonization of the transportation sector; (2) build resilience of transportation infrastructure, networks, and operations; (3) address climate and environmental injustices related to transportation; and (4) otherwise advance understanding of solutions to the nation’s climate change and transportation challenges.”
- $5 million for the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program
Purpose: “The objective of this program is to provide financial assistance to eligible entities to support environmental and climate justice efforts under Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 138 which was added to the CAA by the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.”
And this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the federal waste your tax dollars are financing. But don’t expect the DEI fanatics over at The Times to be truly forthcoming about it.
