The Usual Suspects (and Some New) in the Senate Are Threatening to Kill Trump's Rescission Package

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet

Nothing will ever be easy with congressional Republicans. The reconciliation package aged all of us 35 years, as Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to whip votes, hold the line, and make some phone calls. President Trump was also working the phones heavily when final passage was at stake in the House. Republican leadership held the line, but with Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) retiring after the reconciliation vote, delivering what’s left of the Trump agenda before the 2026 midterms is about to get even tougher. 

The House did their job and passed the rescission package, but currently, it's in jeopardy because the same group of troublemakers in the Senate; Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are holding up the measure over concerns about cutting programs that are a complete waste of taxpayer money. What’s worse is that they’ve found new allies in Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

So, let’s clear the air on some of the cuts that some of these senators find problematic. First, defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($1.1 billion) has been a conservative goal for a generation. It’s biased, its CEO is aloof (and biased), and PBS has been overtly projecting Democrat propaganda for years. They don’t need our money to stay afloat; they can sink or swim like the rest of us. 

The Democracy Fund—$83 million—bankrolled programs for “Yemen community resilience” and spent millions on LGBT nonsense in the Balkan States. The Economic Support Fund—$1.65 billion—produced Iraqi Sesame Street, pride parades in Lesotho, and millions to subsidize Palestinian media companies. 

Development Assistance was a $2.5 billion boondoggle that tried to get electric buses off the ground in Rwanda, a vegan food consumer base in Zambia, and civic engagement operations in authoritarian Zimbabwe. Folks, this is first-world, urban, liberal nonsense. For starters, eating ‘vegan’ is an elite privilege. Most people would die of starvation on that diet, and that goes double for the people of Africa. You need to eat meat to survive. Period. There’s a reason why the late Anthony Bourdain compared vegans to Hezbollah, at least in the culinary arts.   

The Bush-era President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) isn’t going to be crushed, which you know is going to be a liberal talking point. The package preserves the $10 billion program that’s saved countless lives, but funding for programs about transgender sex in Nepal, LGBT advocacy in Uganda, and free training in pastry making for male prostitutes are in the trash bin.  

International peacekeeping, which has been rife with fraud, is taking a $1 billion haircut. 

We’re talking about $9.4 billion in cuts from wasteful USAID, State Department, and U.S. Institute of Peace spending. It’s a start, and if people don’t get that, I don’t know what else to say.  

Is this RINO band upset that gay prostitutes won’t be able to make sfogliatelle?  

Wake up and get with the program. The voters, who elected President Trump in a landslide want these cuts. Get them done.