Show Notes
Here's the number to hang on to: 57 percent. That's the share of local emergency management offices in America that run on one full-time employee or less, according to a new census by Argonne National Laboratory. Twenty-two percent have nobody full-time at all. In October, FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton told the nation's state emergency managers to build up their reserves and plan to handle most disasters without federal help, with changes that could start within six months. Days earlier...
More from Budget Watchdog All Federal
Fiscal year 2026 is over, and the books are closed. The Congressional Budget Office puts the deficit just shy of $2 trillion: $218 billion more than the year before, in a year with no pandemic and no recession. Spending grew twice as fast as revenue. Outlays rose $386 billion to $7.4 trillion. Revenue rose $169 billion to $5.4 trillion. Corporate tax receipts fell 16 percent even as corporate income went up. And net interest on the debt hit $1.14 trillion, now the second-biggest line in the f...
It's the last week of fiscal year 2026, and for once there's no shutdown drama. A continuing resolution runs through December 11. But late Friday, the White House sent Congress $810 million in "pocket rescissions." That's money Congress appropriated and the president signed into law, which the administration now plans to hold until it expires at midnight Wednesday. Congress won't vote on it. The calendar will decide instead. TCS President Steve Ellis and Director of Research and Policy Josh S...
This week, three numbers, one fiscal year. The Congressional Budget Office projects $1.1 trillion in net interest on the national debt in fiscal year 2027. The Pentagon is asking for $1.5 trillion. And in Dallas on September 9th, the president promised every adult citizen $5,000 if Republicans hold Congress. Multiply it out and that is roughly $1.2 trillion, about the size of the interest bill. Host Steve Ellis is joined by TCS Director of Research and Policy Josh Sewell and policy analyst Ga...
Ground beef hit a record $6.90 a pound in spring 2026 and has stayed there — $6.89 in July. And in August, the Trump administration responded three times in eight days: a 300,000 metric-ton import quota, a signed proclamation, and a social media post promising ranchers could process and sell their own cattle. Objections came from inside the president's own party, with more than a dozen Republican senators and 21 House Republicans raising concerns. So TCS went to the paperwork. Steve Ellis and...
There is an iron law of building complicated things, and it applies to your kitchen renovation exactly the same way it applies to a nuclear-powered warship: the most expensive moment in any project is the moment somebody changes their mind after the work has started. A new presidential memorandum directs the Navy to plan for ripping electromagnetic catapults out of carriers already under construction and putting steam-powered ones back in. The Washington Post reports the Navy is also quietly ...