The inevitable, slogging legal battles over President Trump’s war on government misspending don’t make the fight any less vital, they just delay the full payoff.
The media habit of emphasizing anti-Trump angles helps hide that key fact, as in the coverage of DC District Court Judge Amir Ali’s efforts to derail the slashing of USAID grants.
Ali last month issued a preliminary injunction against the cuts, telling the feds to immediately fork over nearly $2 billion in already-invoiced payouts; two weeks back, the Supreme Court declined to completely overrule that order but told him he needed to better specify the government’s interim obligations while the issues are fully litigated — and Ali last week again ordered the $2 billion to go out.
Yet he backed off of declaring that future invoices be paid, and even if his final ruling restores all the contracts DOGE’s looking to cancel, that will go back to the high court, which looks likely to take a different view of canceling work that hasn’t begun.
And, crucially, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, now in charge of USAID, announced Monday that he’s canceling 5,200, or about 83%, of the agency’s existing contracts — not quite the 90% that DOGE had boasted, but still tens of billions worth.
And, again, all stuff that shouldn’t have been funded in the first place, such as DEI scholarships in Burma, drag shows in Ecuador and college tuition for at least one terrorist.
Expect liberal lower-court judges to keep rushing in to save liberal programs, only to eventually be overturned by the Supremes.
The delays may burn some of the savings, as in this case, but even slowed-down progress represents much-needed reform.
And while it won’t erase the whole federal deficit, it’s not chump change, either.
And, yes, DOGE’s headlong rush has messed with a few programs to do real good, but those mistakes can be reversed, as in rehiring the federal workers who staff the Veterans Crisis Line.
Whereas not moving fast gives the “enemy” — the supporters and beneficiaries of the lunatic grants — more time to dig in.
Vetting government spending is not only still worthwhile, it’s necessary.
Nothing proves that more than the jaw-dropping waste DOGE has already turned up.
The woke federal money-flushing machine won’t get dismantled overnight, but big parts are coming off.
