Government Spending & Fiscal Policy News

The Daily Signal examines federal and state spending, efforts to cut waste and deficits, and the role of the DOGE initiative, with in-depth reporting, analysis, and conservative commentary on taxpayer dollars and government efficiency.
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  • opinion

    Social Security’s Countdown Clock Just Got Louder
    Somewhere inside the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget this week, an analyst hit “publish” on a paper that should have led the evening news. The finding: no single change to how Washington taxes Social Security benefits will save the program. Reforming benefit taxation could help, the group said, in its July 30 paper on the subject, but only as…
    Jay Rogers
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  • opinion

    The Case for Capitalism
    I’ve failed! I make the case for free markets … young people elect socialists! What are they thinking? Do they even think? Do they pay any attention to history? Or economics? Socialism always fails. Only markets create environments that let people prosper. “Getting the right environment—this country’s done it better than anyone else,” says Steve…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    $50M in REAL ID Grants Could Provide Path for Passing SAVE Act
    A $50 million federal grant program to help states implement REAL ID could be a way to pass parts of the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election integrity proposal. “We are using every tool to get the SAVE America Act passed,” Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., told the Daily Signal, a co-sponsor of the proposal. “This…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Watchdog: Maryland’s Weak Controls Put Millions of Federal Tax Dollars at Risk
    FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—Maryland officials struggled to keep track of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, according to an analysis of state financial data. An audit found the state’s transportation department misreported $417 million, the Department of Human Services poorly tracked more than $200 million in funding, and other agencies committed similar accounting…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    SNAP’s Updated Work Requirements: A Needed Makeover for Upward Mobility
    The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s new work requirements are now on display across all states as of June 1. California, the country’s last holdout, began implementing the updated work requirements set forth in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last July. The work requirements were rolled out in waves across the country.   Some politicians on the left and several media outlets claim the work requirements are harmful. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is among those sounding the alarm, with a recent X post stating: “Food stamp work requirements don’t create jobs, they create…
    Camilla Cort
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  • news

    DHS Secretary Blasts Senator for Calling ICE Unconstitutional: ‘If You Don’t Like the Laws, YOU Can Change Them’
    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin fired back at Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing over claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is lawless, dangerous, and unconstitutional. “We’re doing the job that Congress gave us the authority to do,” Mullin said. “If you don’t like the laws, you can change…
    Joseph Buff
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  • news

    A New Congressional Plan to Save $1.5 Trillion and End Abortion Funding
    The Heritage Foundation released its version of Reconciliation 3.0, a new plan to end federal funding for abortion, combat fraud, and save America $1.5 trillion. The leading conservative policy institute on Wednesday unveiled “Setting the American Opportunity Agenda,” a special budget and spending report for Congress, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is ready…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • opinion

    Reconciliation 3.0 Is the Best 250th Birthday Present Congress Can Give America
    Leave it to the legacy media to turn a commemorative currency proposal into a five-alarm constitutional crisis. By now, you’ve probably heard about the scene at last week’s White House press briefing when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins confronted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about a proposed $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump. “Do you think politically it’s…
    Robert B. Bluey
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  • opinion

    Making Government Lean Again: The DOGE Effect
    As of Jan. 1, 2026, the Department of Government Efficiency reports $215 billion in savings, or roughly $1,335 per taxpayer. Established in the early months of the second Trump administration and initially led by Elon Musk, DOGE set out to eliminate waste, fraud, and inefficiency in federal spending. Early results suggest those efforts are not…
    Nicole Huyer | Christopher Lynch
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  • analysis

    How Can Ohio Pull Itself Up for Family Status Ranking?
    Ohio is below average in family rankings, according to a recent report that measures family strength and stability across all 50 states. But two top elected officials in the Buckeye State say promoting fatherhood and lowering the tax burden could help improve the situation. Last month, the Center for Christian Virtue released its 2026 Family…
    Rebecca Downs
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  • news

    $1.3 Billion Frozen in Sweeping California Hospice Fraud Crackdown
    More than $1.3 billion in federal health care reimbursements have been halted, and 800 hospices have been suspended amid a sweeping crackdown on California hospice fraud. These efforts have been led by Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, who President Donald Trump selected to lead the…
    Angelina Delfin
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  • opinion

    1 in 3 Dollars Earned Goes to Taxes. Why?
    Most Americans were glad to get another Tax Day behind them this month. It’s galling to hand over a third of everything you earned last year to government to waste, fraud, and abuse. Consider the raw numbers. Last year, the federal government took just over $5 trillion. States and localities took another $2.5 trillion. Out…
    Peter St. Onge | EJ Antoni
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  • opinion

    House Set to Rescind Woke and Wasteful Spending
    This week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Rescissions Act of 2025 in response to a formal request submitted to Congress by President Donald Trump. From 1974 to 2000, it was commonplace for the president to request rescissions of funding under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. In…
    Rep. Kevin Hern
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  • news

    House Budget Hawks Cheer DOGE Package
    The White House’s delivery to the House of Representatives of a package that would codify some of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts into law was greeted with enthusiasm by the fiscally hawkish House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday. The rescissions package, delivered by the White House Office of Management and Budget to Republican House leadership,…
    George Caldwell
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  • news

    Ron Johnson on ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Spending: ‘It’s Immoral’
    As a Republican holdout on the “big, beautiful” budget bill, as President Donald Trump calls it, Sen. Ron Johnson thinks he has a fairly simple request for the 10-year budget plan: Go back to the drawing board and cut spending down to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. “That pretty well sums it up in one chart,” said…
    George Caldwell
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  • opinion

    Musk’s Worthy DOGE Spotlight and the Fiscal Path Forward
    On Wednesday evening, the world’s wealthiest man announced that his sojourn in the nation’s capital is almost over. “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President [Donald Trump] for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Elon Musk posted to X, the social media platform…
    Josh Hammer
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  • news

    Elon Musk ‘Disappointed’ in ‘Big, Beautiful’ Spending Bill
    Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk told CBS News Tuesday he is “disappointed” in the spending codified in Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill.” “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” the Tesla CEO…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    How a ‘Nonpartisan’ Government Budget Office May Be Misleading Lawmakers on Spending as GOP Megabill Looms Large
    DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The agency providing Congress with cost estimates—including projections for the GOP’s major reconciliation bill—has a long history of inaccuracy and bias, according to some policy experts and lawmakers. Established in 1975, the Congressional Budget Office was created to “provide objective, nonpartisan information to support the Congressional budget process and to help the Congress make…
    Melissa O’Rourke
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  • opinion

    Romania, Bulgaria Must Increase Defense Spending to Strengthen NATO’s Critical Southeastern Flank
    Although last year provided evidence of great improvement, Romania and Bulgaria still need to continue increasing their defense spending to strengthen NATO’s southeastern flank. Both nations spent over 2% of their gross domestic product—the measure of the total value of goods and services their countries’ produced—on their defense in 2024. Two percent is currently the…
    Cameryn Jones | Wilson Beaver
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  • news

    House-Passed Budget Bill Defunds Planned Parenthood
    House Republicans delivered on their promise to defund Big Abortion on Thursday by passing the budget reconciliation bill that has consumed Washington’s attention for the past three months. In the bill, the House GOP removed Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country. The effort had been supported by dozens of…
    Jacob Adams
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