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Podcast: How the budget mess in Congress hurts all of us

Podcast: How the budget mess in Congress hurts all of us

This year the federal government is expected to collect more than $3.5 trillion in taxes— a vast amount of money by any measure. One of the key functions of Congress is to pass a budget. But often that seems close to impossible.


Lack of agreement over federal spending regularly threatens to bring about government shutdowns that have a negative impact on millions of Americans. Yet few of us can even begin to understand the byzantine budget process.
Both of our guests in this episode have worked with other policy experts to make the budget process function better, with greater efficiency and transparency.



Alison Acosta Winters is a fiscal conservative and was most recently a senior policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity. Emily Holubowich is vice president for federal advocacy at the American Heart Association, and often supports more government spending.


Brought together by Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, Alison, Emily and other stakeholders from diverse backgrounds spent months working together to come up with several major proposals for overhauling the budget process.

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Pentagon Reportedly Pauses Plan for Mass Civilian Layoffs
File:An aerial view of the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., May 15 ...

Pentagon Reportedly Pauses Plan for Mass Civilian Layoffs

According to CNN, on Friday, the Defense Department temporarily halted its plan to lay off thousands of probationary employees.

The decision to pause follows a CNN report on Wednesday indicating that the mass layoffs—potentially impacting over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon—might violate Title 10, Section 129a of the US code. After the report, Pentagon lawyers began a closer review of the terminations' legality, officials said.

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“Delinquent” and “obsolete:” Trump’s rhetoric threatens transatlantic stability of NATO

Unidentified Italian NATO soldiers patrol in a tank

Getty Images/Per-Anders Pettersson

“Delinquent” and “obsolete:” Trump’s rhetoric threatens transatlantic stability of NATO

WASHINGTON – Leaders representing the United States and Russia met this week to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine as European NATO leaders and the Ukrainians themselves were iced out of the negotiations despite their enormous stake in the issue. But it’s only one snub in a long line of affronts to NATO at the hands of President Donald Trump, dating back to his first term.

“NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair!” Trump tweeted back in 2018. He accused member countries of not pulling their weight in defense spending, calling them “delinquent” and the alliance “obsolete.”

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Border Patrol in Texas
"Our communities fear that the police and deportation agents are one and the same," the authors write.
John Moore/Getty Images

Tracking Mass Deportation by the Numbers, Not Smoke and Mirrors

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

The not-so-ethereal Wizard infamously demands this in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming and based on the 1900 novel by Frank Baum.

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Washington County’s Plan to Revive The American Dream

Cut outs of a family and a home.

Getty Images, Bernie_photo

Washington County’s Plan to Revive The American Dream

Resist the urge to publish the American Dream’s obituary. It’s alive, though unwell. It’s no secret that the hallmarks of the dream have become unreachable for many Americans. Homeownership seems impossible in communities. Marriage rates have dropped. Families have shrunk. Even lifespans are on the decline. The dream’s vital signs are cause for immense concern. There are signs of life—Washington County, Wisconsin is testing two remedies that might just revive the dream there and across the country.

Just north of Milwaukee, Washington County is—in many ways—a surprising source of hope. It faces no shortage of challenges. As County officials will tell you, they’re struggling to hold on to their community members. Too few homes, too few jobs, and too few community connections led many residents to look for another place to call home. County Executive Josh Schoemann, however, refused to let the dream die in his community. He and others joined together to brainstorm novel cures for the disease eating away at prosperity.

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