Joe Manchin Has a Plan

“Capping the annual growth of discretionary spending at 1 percent for the next 10 years would save more than $1 trillion. We can do this without threatening essential programs such as Medicare and Social Security or cutting defense spending at a time when we are grappling with the largest-scale land war in Europe since World War II and an emboldened China that blatantly violates our airspace and dominates global supply chains.”

— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) writes in the Washington Post

Federal Deficit to Rise Over Next Decade

$10 trillion

“After seven years of fitful declines, the federal budget deficit is projected to begin swelling again, adding nearly $10 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that reveal the strain that government debt will have on the economy as President Trump embarks on plans to slash taxes and ramp up spending,” the New York Times reports. “The new deficit figures will be a major challenge to congressional Republicans, who were swept to power in 2010 on fears of a swollen deficit and who have made controlling red ink a major part of their legislating under former President Barack Obama.”

Quashed Report Showed Pentagon Wasted $125 Billion

$125 billion

Amount of administrative waste uncovered by an internal study of the Pentagon’s business operations. Senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by the Washington Post.