U.S. Posts $27 Billion SURPLUS Thanks to Record Tariff Revenues

The U.S. government posted a surplus in June as tariffs drove a sharp increase in receipts, the Treasury Department said Friday.

June saw a surplus of just over $27 billion, following a $316 billion deficit in May.

Customs duties totaled about $27 billion for the month, up from $23 billion in May and a 301% gain from June 2024.

The Democrat media axis and Jerome Powell was wrong about everything.

U.S. posts surprise $27 billion budget surplus in June, boosted by tariffs

Frank DeMatteo, Investing.com, July 11, 2025:

— Just one week after President Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” into law, the administration is celebrating again. The U.S. government posted a budget surplus for June, driven in large part by Trump’s aggressive tariff policies.

The June 2025 budget recorded a surplus of over $27 billion, the first monthly surplus since 2017. Economists had expected a deficit of $41.5 billion for the month. A key factor was the surge in customs duties, which totaled roughly $27 billion for the month. That’s up from $23 billion in May and a staggering 301% increase compared to June 2024.

So far this year, tariff collections have reached $113 billion, up 86% from the same period last year. Much of the increase is tied to the across-the-board 10% import tariffs Trump implemented in April, in addition to the targeted reciprocal tariffs on individual countries.

Despite the strong June surplus numbers, the broader fiscal picture remains challenging. The federal deficit for the year stands at more than $1.34 trillion.

Interest payments on the national debt continue to be a major burden. Net interest totaled $84 billion in June alone, and $749 billion year-to-date, making it the second-largest federal expense after Social Security. Interest payments are on track to hit $1.2 trillion for the full fiscal year.

President Trump has repeatedly called on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, arguing that lower rates would reduce debt servicing costs and “save billions.”

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLES:

Surprising Budget Surplus Sparks Market Optimism

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is  republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Welcome! We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2025, 2024, & 2023  archives, plus asterisked items below.


— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

This Issue’s Best of the Best:

*** Schools turn to handwritten exams as AI cheating surges

*** Report: Putting Values back at the Center of Education Reform

*** Good News concerning Age-inappropriate Books

*** Relativism: An Attack on American Foundations

*** Hiding the K-12 “Educational Ball” from Parents

*** Teachers Union Head Gleefully Declares That Her Union Owns American Children

*** Sometimes Wrong, But Always Right

*** Mark Zuckerberg’s EVIL PLAN to Create the Most Dangerous AI Ever!

*** Why Trump‘s ‘Gold Standard’ Executive Order is Essential to Restoring Truth in Science

*** DOJ reveal 300+ charged, 96 medical professionals

*** Water expert warns Americans about ‘chemical cocktail’ in tap water

*** Landmark Peer-Reviewed Research Library on mRNA Injection Harms Just Released

*** Alex Epstein: Where the fight against energy subsidies stands

*** Renewable energy is doomed

*** ‘All Of The Above’ Is DEI For Energy

*** Feds ignore their research on windmills killing eagles

*** The Trump Administration Advocates for Nuclear Power

*** New Policy Report: Transforming the Back End of the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Cycle

*** Global Turmoil Proves Urgency of Energy Independence

*** DOE moves to rescind NEPA to fast-track energy projects

*** ICE has arrested only 6% of known immigrant murderers

*** SCOTUS rules on Trump’s birthright citizenship order, testing lower court powers

*** GE Appliances to move washing machine production from China to Kentucky in $490M investment

*** Paramount, CBS forced to pay eight figures, change editorial policy in settlement with President Trump

*** Explosive New CIA Report Details Russiagate Fraud

*** Trump calls for special prosecutor to investigate 2020 election fraud

*** Bondi DOJ Claims it Cannot Enforce Voter Fraud Crimes because it lacks Powers, Doesn’t Have a ‘Data Guy’

*** States’ need better election audits

*** Election Interference Exposed

Secondary Education Related:

*** Schools turn to handwritten exams as AI cheating surges

*** Report: Putting Values back at the Center of Education Reform

*** Good News concerning Age-inappropriate Books

*** Relativism: An Attack on American Foundations

*** Hiding the K-12 “Educational Ball” from Parents

*** Teachers Union Head Gleefully Declares That Her Union Owns American Children

Choice Tax Breaks: The GOP’s Federal Plan to Transform Education

Artificial Intelligence:

Powering Data Centers & AI

*** Mark Zuckerberg’s EVIL PLAN to Create the Most Dangerous AI Ever!

*** Sometimes Wrong, But Always Right

Greed Energy Economics:

*** Alex Epstein: Where the fight against energy subsidies stands

Alex Epstein: The Senate totally fails to terminate the Green New Scam

Alex Epstein: What I really told Thom Tillis about terminating new solar/wind subsidies using “placed in service”

How the Senate can save hundreds of billions of dollars—and our grid—by truly terminating IRA subsidiesThe Big Beautiful Bill Torpedoes Big Solar & Big Wind

Unreliables (General):

*** Renewable energy is doomed

*** ‘All Of The Above’ Is DEI For Energy

*** Shattered Green Dreams

Wind Energy — Other:

*** Feds ignore their research on windmills killing eagles

Watch Craig Rucker on wind energy

Wind turbine blade crashes into traffic on busy Northeast interstate

The ‘Wind Scam’ of Wind Turbines — There’s nothing clean about this

Nuclear Energy:

*** The Trump Administration Advocates for Nuclear Power

*** New Policy Report: Transforming the Back End of the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Gov Hochul Directs NYPA To Develop One Gigawatt of Advanced Nuclear Energy

Texas Bets Big on Nuclear

Fossil Fuel Energy:

President Trump Moves To End The War On Coal

Misc Energy:

*** Global Turmoil Proves Urgency of Energy Independence

*** DOE moves to rescind NEPA to fast-track energy projects

Despite Warnings, Biden’s Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion in its Final Hours

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:

Critique Report: Pope Francis’ Climate Crusade

It’s Hot Weather, But Not Man-Made

Manmade Global Warming — The Science:

*** 1900 Scientists Say ‘Climate Change Not Caused By CO2’ – The Real Environment Movement Was Hijacked

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

Supreme Court Delivers Blow To California Climate Zealots

The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Climate Exchange, 2003-2010

US Election:

*** Trump calls for special prosecutor to investigate 2020 election fraud

*** Bondi DOJ Claims it Cannot Enforce Voter Fraud Crimes because it lacks Powers, Doesn’t Have a ‘Data Guy’

*** States’ need better election audits

*** Election Interference Exposed

FBI blocked probe into alleged Chinese 2020 election meddling to protect Wray from fallout

US Federal Agencies:

*** ICE has arrested only 6% of known immigrant murderers

*** Pitfalls and Obstacles Plague Pentagon Modernization

*** Trump admin takes action after massive fraud uncovered at USAID, which Dems tried to protect from DOGE

Trump:

*** SCOTUS rules on Trump’s birthright citizenship order, testing lower court powers

*** GE Appliances to move washing machine production from China to Kentucky in $490M investment

*** Paramount, CBS forced to pay eight figures, change editorial policy in settlement with President Trump

*** Explosive New CIA Report Details Russiagate Fraud

Who Counts? Trump Poised To Try To Remove Noncitizens From Census

Science:

*** Why Trump‘s ‘Gold Standard’ Executive Order is Essential to Restoring Truth in Science

Trump admin cuts contracts with scientific publishing giant

Health:

*** DOJ reveal 300+ charged, 96 medical professionals

*** Water expert warns Americans about ‘chemical cocktail’ in tap water

Study: Ear wax could offer clues of early Parkinson’s disease

COVID-19 — Misc:

*** Landmark Peer-Reviewed Research Library on mRNA Injection Harms Just Released

Iran Related:

How Iran Could Shake Up Global Economy in Response to US Strikes

Experts gauge success of ‘bunker buster’ bombs dropped by US on Iran nuclear sites

In the End, Everyone Hated the Iranian Theocracy

US strikes on Iran nuke facilities caused more damage than first thought

Israel/Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Israeli people

Latest Developments in Israel

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine


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Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g., PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For past Newsletter issues see the archives from 2022, 2023, 2024, & 2025. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over all fourteen plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put this together — where you can search ALL prior issues, by year. For a background about how the Newsletter is put together, etc., please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org.

Note 4: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.

Copyright © 2025; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org).

Senate Passes Trump’s ‘Beautiful’ Bill After Holdout Supplies Critical Vote

The Senate approved President Donald Trump’s landmark bill largely along party lines Tuesday morning after senators took dozens of votes on amendments and procedural motions in a marathon session that lasted more than 24 hours.

Senators voted 51 to 50 with Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine opposing the president’s sweeping domestic policy legislation. The bill’s passage is a massive victory for Senate GOP leadership who were able to keep defections to a minimum and convince one holdout, Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, to supply a critical vote to pass the president’s tax and immigration bill.

Vice President JD Vance, who arrived in the Capitol shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, cast the tie-breaking vote. The Senate-amended bill now heads to the House for consideration where lawmakers are racing to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.

Given Senate Republicans’ 53-47 majority, Thune could afford to spare just three votes. Every Senate Democrat, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted no on the Senate version of the president’s “big, beautiful” bill.

The “vote-a-rama” that preceded the vote on final passage was one of the longest voting sessions in American history. Senators cast more than 45 votes in a session that started at 9 a.m. Monday as Senate GOP leadership lobbied holdouts to support the bill.

The Senate agreed to pass just a handful of amendments to the bill during the course of voting. Senators overwhelmingly backed a measure offered by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn to eliminate a provision freezing state and local AI regulation.

The Senate also approved a “wrap-around amendment” immediately preceding to a vote on final passage that incorporated last-minute changes to the bill. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

Tillis and Collins justified their opposition to the president’s domestic policy bill, citing the proposal’s aggressive reforms to Medicaid.

Paul, a fiscal hawk who almost never supports bills that increase budget deficits, also voted against the president’s budget bill. He said he could not support the legislation given a provision that would raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.

The president notably criticized Tillis and Paul for voting against starting debate on Trump’s megabill Saturday.

“Thom Tillis has hurt the great people of North Carolina,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social Tuesday. “Even on the catastrophic flooding, nothing was done to help until I took office. Then a MIRACLE took place! Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”

Congressional Republicans are using the so-called budget reconciliation process to circumvent Democrat’s opposition and pass tax and spending legislation by a simple majority vote.

The upper chamber’s bill combines a staggering number of Trump’s policy priorities into one budget package. It would permanently extend the president’s 2017 tax cuts, temporary eliminate taxation on tipped wages and overtime pay for certain Americans and restore several business tax breaks sought by the private sector

The budget package would also boost immigration enforcement and defense spending by hundreds of billions of dollars while achieving the largest cut to mandatory spending in American history, including slowing the rate of federal Medicaid spending by roughly $1 trillion over a decade.

The final bill is the product of Republicans’ legislative ambition that was years in the making. The last time Republicans had a trifecta in Washington to pass a budget reconciliation bill was nearly a decade ago during the start of Trump’s first term in office.

“This is Republicans fulfilling our promise of growth and prosperity for the American people,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said Monday on Fox News. “It’s more money in people’s pockets for gas, groceries, for rent. All of those things, and as the president said, we need to stop this $4 trillion tax increase, which would be the biggest increase in taxes in the history of our country.”

The combined effects of these tax provisions are projected to result in $7,800 to $13,000 higher take-home pay for the average family with two children, according to a White House report analyzing the initial House-passed bill that was published in May.

The Senate bill now heads to the House where it faces uncertain prospects. A flank of House conservatives have pledged to tank the upper chamber’s proposal for violating a framework in the House to pair tax cuts with dollar-for-dollar spending reduction. A cohort of moderate GOP lawmakers have signaled they will vote “no” on the Senate bill, citing opposition to aggressive reforms to Medicaid.

Any changes the House makes to the Senate’s bill would have to pass the upper chamber for a second time before Trump can sign the measure into law.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Congressional Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Senate GOP Slashes Spending In ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill As Fiscal Hawks Push For More Cuts

Battle For Open North Carolina Senate Seat Poised To Be Hotly Contested

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Thomas Massie Reveals What Would Get Him To ‘Yes’ On Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie revealed in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller that he could vote “yes” on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” if a “skinny” version of the legislation materializes.

Massie has said he will not support the bill in its current form because it does not cut government spending substantially enough. Massie’s opposition to the bill is one reason Trump and his political allies have threatened to primary him in the 2026 midterms. Pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is also trying to primary Massie, according to a source who spoke to the Caller.

There is a version of the bill, though, Massie said he could support. In a group text with about ten other congressmen, called “Budget Hawks,” Massie said they have floated the idea of splitting the bill in two.

“I can tell you the conservatives in the house are getting antsy with every change that happens in the Senate, and there’s a concern that maybe they need to just skinny this thing down and try to do just a few things,” he asserted, adding that they may try to do “two bills instead of one.”

“The first one should be just the absolute essentials to the president’s priorities, which would be, secure the border and extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” he explained.

Massie said he could theoretically support that bill depending on its impact on the deficit.

“It would be a lot of speculation to say that’s where we’re going to end up. But if we did end up there, and there was a repeal of the Green New Deal subsidies, I could be for that, possibly — I’d have to see the total budget impact in the House,” he told the Caller.

There have been several changes to the Senate version of the bill that have raised red flags for Massie. They stripped the REINS Act Provision — something Massie personally lobbied for in the House version — which requires congressional approval for major federal regulations before they take effect. The Senate is also mulling over a longer phaseout of renewable energy tax credits and whether to reduce the income cap for State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions. Massie said that lowering the threshold would benefit blue states more than red states.

“If they make that tweak, let’s say they limit the SALT deduction to people who make less than $400,000 a year, that means that more of the benefit of that tax provision will go to blue states instead of red states, because to be under whatever the threshold is — let’s just say $400,000 a year annual income and have $40,000 of state and local taxes or property taxes — means that you’re probably in a blue state,” he explained.

“I think the ultimate bill that the Senate passes, if they can pass one, is going to have an even worse impact on the deficit than the House bill,” he said.

Massie speculated that the president’s July 4 deadline is unlikely to be met by Congress and that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s promise to force Congress to meet over the holiday is likely an empty threat meant to appease Trump. The real deadline, Massie alleged, is sometime in August.

“I think they’ll use the threat of canceling the August recess … they’ll take a week off the August recess and say we’re in session, and then they’ll give it back to us if this bill passes,” he said.

Another sticking point for Massie is that he is using a shorter window to score the bill’s impact on the deficit. While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) typically scores bills on a ten-year timeline, Massie is only looking at the next three or four years. Trump’s plans for no tax on tips and overtime, and tax reform for seniors, for example, are set to expire after three years in the bill.

“The deficit impact is great over the next three years in the Big Bill that passed the House, and it’s only five years out when it starts to go in the other direction because they plan on having those tax cuts expire, and they plan on having that military spending expire,” he told the Caller. “But what will happen four years from now … is they’ll say, oh my gosh, that Congress four years ago and that president set up this fiscal cliff, and the impact to our military is going to be too great [if they let] the spending expire.”

“So we’ve got to use the current policy as the baseline,” he said.

Massie alleged that the House is effectively doing nothing while they wait for the Senate to deliver its version of the Big Beautiful Bill.

“The House is just sort of over here … treading water,” he asserted. “We’re just not doing much in the House. Where the speaker has the House looking like it’s busy … it’s not really that busy.”

AUTHOR

Amber Duke

Senior Editor. Follow Amber on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Massie Warns AIPAC, Trump’s War Against Him Could Backfire

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Obama-Appointed Senate Parliamentarian Blocks Major Changes in Big Beautiful Bill

So sick of these underminers. This bill should have been passed weeks ago. Congress is useless.

We know who is telling this maidservant what to do.

“Meet the Democrat singlehandedly blocking key provisions in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Elizabeth Macdonough, a close ally to Obama serves as the Senate Parliamentarian. There is a solution to her efforts to stop the president’s agenda – JD Vance – he could overrule her as President of the Senate.”

She’s trying to require Trump to obtain 60 votes in the Senate instead of 50+1.

Senate Parliamentarian Blocks Major Medicaid Changes in Big Beautiful Bill

The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday advised the Medicaid provider tax could not be included in the Big Beautiful Bill, which could upend how the bill could offset the Trump tax cuts.

By: Sean Moran, Breitbart, 26 Jun 26, 2025:

The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday advised the Medicaid provider tax could not be included in the Big Beautiful Bill, which could upend how the bill could offset the Trump tax cuts.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled the Medicaid provider tax would require 60 votes in the Senate to be included in the Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate parliamentarian’s ruling complicates the offsets for enhancing and extending the Trump tax cuts.

The potential loss of the Medicaid provider tax would force Senate Republicans to find other potential spending cuts to pay for the Big Beautiful Bill. The parliamentarian also struck down provisions that would bar the use of Medicaid funds for transgender healthcare services and to prevent illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid or CHIP healthcare coverage.

However, it remains possible that Senate Republicans could change the language of the Medicaid provider tax to be eligible in the Big Beautiful Bill.

Senate Majority Leader Thune explained to Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle how the “Byrd Bath” process works: “We’re going through the Byrd bath, this Byrd test, which our bill has to run through that filter, and the parliamentarian is the sort of referee — determines what’s in, what’s out. But we kind of anticipated a lot of this stuff, and knew, in most cases at least what we were doing, what had a good chance of getting through, and what didn’t. And we worked closely with the House to coordinate when they were passing their bill over there, to minimize the number of things that would get knocked out under the Byrd rule. So we have been working from the very beginning on this, but that said, there are some things that are getting knocked out. What we’re intending, however, is when it’s done in the Senate, that it’ll be in a condition and a shape that can go back to the House, consistent with what the House passed, but hopefully improved upon by what we did in the Senate, and then be able to pass it on the floor there and send it to the president. So that’s the process.”

On the Wall Street Journal podcast All Things with Kim Strassel, Thune signaled that Republicans would work to find alternatives to things that may get struck down by the parliamentarian.

He said:

Well, in most of those cases, we have a plan B and a plan C… we’ve had contingency plans, we’re going back at her, and we think we’ll get a lot of that restored… And even the Democrats, when they were doing this, when they had unified control of the government, had things knocked out… But we’re still going to get a ton of what we wanted in this, and this is the president’s agenda, and so this will be the fulfillment and implementation of that. And we’re going to, we’re full speed ahead in trying to get it done.

“Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules and hurts families and workers,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement.

“Democrats are fighting back against Republicans’ plans to gut Medicaid, dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and kick kids, veterans, seniors, and folks with disabilities off of their health insurance,” the Democrat added.

Republicans are using budgetary reconciliation to pass the Big Beautiful Bill through the Senate using only a simple majority, or 51 votes. While it can avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, a reconciliation bill cannot make policy changes or things that are considered “extraneous” to spending.

AUTHOR

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President Trump Goes to Bat for “Great Hero” Bibi

Luxury Real-Estate Brokers say Wealthy New Yorkers are Already Looking to Flee after Zohran Mamdani’s Primary Win

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani wins NYC primary election — What is his economic agenda?

Mamdani pushes for $30 minimum wage, corporate tax hikes and government-owned grocery stores.

New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic Party’s primary for the New York City mayoral nomination has put his economic policies in the forefront as he aims to run the nation’s most populated city.

Mamdani, 33, is a Democratic member of the state assembly representing Queens who is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America as well as the Working Families Party.

Mamdani’s platform focused on a number of issues that have animated socialists in the Democratic Party, including raising the minimum wage, hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans, cracking down on delivery apps, as well as investing in affordable housing and creating city-owned grocery stores.

His campaign proposes a new minimum wage law that would raise the wage floor for jobs in the city to $30 an hour by 2030, which would then be automatically increased based on changes in the cost of living.

Mamdani has proposed raising the corporate tax rate in New York City to match the state of New Jersey’s tax rate of 11.5%, which his campaign believes will bring in $5 billion.

He also called for imposing an additional flat tax of 2% on New York households earning more than $1 million annually. To bring in additional funding for his plans, Mamdani’s campaign calls for hiring more tax auditors, collecting fines from landlords and reforms to procurement and contracting processes to raise $1 billion in revenue.

The assemblyman campaigned on building 200,000 new units of “permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes” over the next decade – as well as immediately freezing rents for all stabilized tenants.

His campaign also features a plan to “implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years,” while also providing “baby baskets” to new parents and guardians that include items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, and books,” at no cost to the new parents.

Mamdani has criticized delivery app platforms, with his campaign website stating that “deliveristas – 80,000 Black, brown and immigrant workers – are exploited by app companies who demand they complete deliveries at a dangerous pace.”

“Moreover, app companies have misclassified delivery workers as independent contractors, instead of employees, so that they can avoid providing them with the rights and benefits all workers deserve,” Mamdani’s website said. Delivery apps typically classify delivery workers as independent contractors, which gives them the flexibility to set their own hours and decide which deliveries they want to handle.

To address what he sees as the risks created by delivery apps, Mamdani’s platform calls for strengthening licensure requirements for such apps while also working to “expand capacity and resources to support deliveristas, and improve street infrastructure including expanding DOT e-bike programs and investing in deliverista hubs.”

His campaign platform has also called for eliminating fares on city buses while expanding priority lanes and bus queue jump signals with dedicated loading zones for passengers.

Mamdani also proposed creating city-owned grocery stores by redirecting funds from corporate grocery stores, claiming that the city stores would be focused on “lower prices, not price gouging.”

The grocery stores wouldn’t pay rent or property taxes, which would allow them to reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers, according to Mamdani’s website. They will also buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Welcome! We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2025, 2024, & 2023  archives, plus asterisked items below.


— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

This Issue’s Best of the Best:

*** US strikes 3 nuclear sites in Iran Explained: What we know so far

*** What is a ‘bunker buster’? An expert explains what the US dropped on Iran

*** With six bunker-busting bombs, Trump just rewrote history. Now Iran gets to choose the next chapter

*** Seven Options for Iran After US Attacks

*** Oil Prices Poised to Soar After U.S. Attacks Iran Facilities

*** AI May be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

*** Our Knowledge System Has Collapsed. Can We Survive Without It?

*** The ‘big, beautiful bill’ comes due for teachers unions

*** DOE Secretary Chris Wright on getting rid of renewable energy subsidies

*** The greatest oxymoron statement of all time – “Renewable Energy”

*** US Federal Judge to Allow Multi-State Lawsuit Against Offshore Wind to Proceed

*** EPA: Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units

*** The Great Climate Science Swindle Goes On

*** FBI gives Congress intel on alleged Chinese plot to create fake 2020 mail-in ballots

*** Report: The US presidential election, 2020 vs 2016/2024 vote count, by states

*** What Romania can teach America about election integrity

*** Low-quality medical papers are surging by exploiting public data sets and AI

*** Impacts of Negativity

*** Cancer could be detected three years before diagnosis with experimental blood test

*** The Catch in Catching Cancer Early

*** Kennedy CDC appointee Retsef Levi follows science, not politics

*** Video: Riley Gaines discusses the Simone Biles matter

*** What “Quiet Quitting” Says About Modern American Work Culture

*** 16 Billion Apple, Facebook, Google And Other Passwords Leaked

Iran — What Happened:

*** US strikes 3 nuclear sites in Iran Explained: What we know so far

*** What is a ‘bunker buster’? An expert explains what the US dropped on Iran

Video and summary of what transpired

Iran — What May Be Next:

*** With six bunker-busting bombs, Trump just rewrote history. Now Iran gets to choose the next chapter

*** Seven Options for Iran After US Attacks

Here’s how Iran could retaliate after US strikes on its nuclear program

*** Oil Prices Poised to Soar After U.S. Attacks Iran Facilities

Military Defeat Not Enough, Regime Change Must Follow

Iran — Political Fallout:

*** Turley: Critics calling for impeachment remained silent when Obama and Clinton launched similar military operations without congressional approval

AOC, furious Dems call for Trump to be impeached over Iran strikes

Secondary Education Related:

*** Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System

*** Our Knowledge System Has Collapsed. Can We Survive Without It?

*** AI May be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

*** The ‘big, beautiful bill’ comes due for teachers unions

McMahon’s MAGA Mandate: Close the Education Dept —but Wield Its Power

New York’s K-12 Problem

Massachusetts Schools May Risk Top Ranking to Lift Struggling Students

Higher Education Related:

Why Does American Higher Education Work So Poorly?

Greed Energy Economics:

*** DOE Secretary Chris Wright on getting rid of renewable energy subsidies

Unreliables (General):

*** The greatest oxymoron statement of all time – “Renewable Energy”

Wind Energy — Offshore:

*** US Federal Judge to Allow Multi-State Lawsuit Against Offshore Wind to Proceed

Wind Opponents Sue Trump Administration to Block New York Wind Project

DOT asked to terminate illegal floating wind grant

Wind Energy — Other:

Industrial Wind Scam Returns – Is Your NY Town in the Sacrifice Zone?

Solar Energy:

Public Health Watch: Solar Panel Pollution

Sunnova Bankruptcy Signals Tough Times for Solar

Nuclear Energy:

*** Natural Resources: Advanced Nuclear Development

Fossil Fuel Energy:

*** Blockbuster: Mark Carney, Mr Net-Zero-Banker himself, now uses oil, gas to make Canada an Energy SuperPower

*** EPA: Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units

EPA Proposes Repeal of Biden-Harris EPA Regulations for Power Plants

The Rise and Rise of King Coal

Banks Boost Fossil Fuel Financing for The First Time since 2021

130 New Gas-Fired Power Projects Proposed in Texas

Misc Energy:

*** Report: Power Vision 2030

*** Video: Their Agenda, Your Future

Growing the Grid…in the face of uncertainty

State Net Zero Electricity Dreams Are Collapsing

Next Generation Batteries Are Imminent

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:

How NASA got climate change wrong

OPEC Secretary-General attacks Net Zero

Manmade Global Warming — The Science:

*** The Great Climate Science Swindle Goes On

Report: A Few Notes about Climate (Cork Hayden)

Meet Téa Johansson, Teenage Climate Realist:

US Election:

*** FBI gives Congress intel on alleged Chinese plot to create fake 2020 mail-in ballots

*** Report: The US presidential election, 2020 vs 2016/2024 vote count, by states

*** What Romania can teach America about election integrity

US Federal Agencies:

Watch the Pentagon’s new anti-woke ad

The Rule of Law: A Visit to Immigration Court

Trump:

*** Here’s a Rundown of the Court Fights The Trump Administration Has Won So Far

Tipping the Scales: Why So Many Cases Against Trump Are Heard by Democrat-Appointed Judges

Misc US Politics:

*** How Well-Funded, Organized Leftists Helped Jumpstart LA Riots

*** SCOTUS rules on state ban on gender transition ‘treatments’ for minors

*** Majority of Dem Voters Disapprove of Congressional Democrats

Stage Four, Page Four: Why the Press Buried Biden’s Deadliest Secret

A new form of Serfdom is closer than you think

UK capital gains tax hike triggers millionaire exodus, revenue drops 10 percent

Societally US:

*** Video: Riley Gaines discusses the Simone Biles matter

*** What “Quiet Quitting” Says About Modern American Work Culture

*** 16 Billion Apple, Facebook, Google And Other Passwords Leaked

Oshkosh Genius

A Florida Sheriff speaks about Peaceful Protests

Religion Related:

African Bishop’s village attacked, 20 slain after recent testimony to Congress on Christian persecution

Science:

*** Kennedy CDC appointee Retsef Levi follows science, not politics

*** Low-quality medical papers are surging by exploiting public data sets and AI

Health:

*** Impacts of Negativity

*** Cancer could be detected three years before diagnosis with experimental blood test

*** The Catch in Catching Cancer Early

Public Health Watch: Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Covid Fraud Was “Readily Preventable”

Israel/Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Israeli people

Latest Developments in Israel

*** Taking Sides: Wikipedia Advances Anti-Israel Narratives

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine


 Please use social media, etc. to pass on this Newsletter to other open-minded citizens…If you’d like to be added to (or unsubscribe from) the distribution of our popular, free, worldwide Media Balance Newsletter, simply send me an email saying that.


Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g., PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For past Newsletter issues see the archives from 2022, 2023, 2024, & 2025. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over all fourteen plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put this together — where you can search ALL prior issues, by year. For a background about how the Newsletter is put together, etc., please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org.

Note 4: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.

Copyright © 2025; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org).

Universities Sit On Billion-Dollar Endowments While Jacking Up Tuition

Several universities are hiking tuition prices and cutting jobs despite sitting on massive endowments.

Universities are largely blaming the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts for the price increases, but many schools have seen steady rises in tuition for decades and overall increased revenue all while nursing their ever-growing endowments. 

Cornell University is raising its tuition rate by over 4%, bringing the cost to $71,266 for out-of-state students and $48,010 for in-state students, while Duke University’s tuition will jump by nearly 5% to $92,042.

Duke’s price hike marks a 123% increase over the past two decades, despite its endowment steadily increasing over time to about $5 billion. The university’s 2023-2024 fiscal year financial report admitted that the school’s “growth in revenue outpaced expenses.”

At the time, Duke was charging students $83,263 in tuition and other fees and collecting a total of approximately $1 billion in gross tuition and fees even after accounting for financial aid deductions, making up 15% of its total revenue.

Duke is also working to reduce its workforce, offering voluntary buyout agreements to employees. The packages include financial incentives and healthcare in exchange for a three-year separation from the university, in which they can reapply after that period.

Duke did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Weighing similar staffing cuts, Cornell blamed the Trump administration’s federal research grant terminations, saying the university now faces “profound financial challenges.” Cornell announced it was pausing hiring as it reviewed its “programs and headcount.”

As of 2024, Cornell brings in over $900 million from tuition costs and student fees every year, according to its financial records. Cornell’s endowment is valued at approximately $10.7 billion as of 2024, returning about 10% every year.

Cornell did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Several public universities like the University of Michigan (UM) and the University of Minnesota (UMN) are also raising costs by as much as 7.5% for some students while cutting programs and student services.

UMN is raising its rates by 6.5% for in-state and 7.5% for out-of-state students, also pointing to federal cuts. The school operates on a budget of over $5 billion, with a total systemwide endowment of $6 billion.

UMN did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Tuition costs at the University of Michigan (UM) will rise by over 3% for in-state students and just under 5% for out-of-state students while sitting on a nearly $18 billion endowment. The university is blaming ” budgetary impacts of federal actions” and “economic and legislative uncertainty,” according to a June announcement.

A UM spokesman directed the DCNF to the university’s public statement.

College tuition costs have been on the rise for decades, with price increases mostly outpacing inflation. Increased federal financial aid to students has been attributed by some studies to the inflated costs.

The Trump administration has cut billions in grants and contracts to universities, targeting programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics or universities that allegedly fail to comply with federal civil rights laws.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Education Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Harvard, MIT Use Law To Limit Legal Payouts While Sitting On Endowments Worth Billions

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty $550 Million in Fraud, Bribery Using DEI

USAID official and three company executives plead guilty in fraud and bribery scheme involving at least 14 contracts worth over $550 million

USAID Official Roderick Watson took bribes, was showered with lavish gifts— including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, down payments on two residential mortgages, cell phones, and jobs for relatives.

In exchange for the bribe payments, Watson influenced the award of contracts by manipulating the procurement process at USAID.

Watson faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Imagine how much more fraud there is…

USAID Official, Three Contractors Plead Guilty To Half-Billion Dollar Bribery Scheme

By  Luke Rosiak

Three government contractors and a USAID official have pleaded guilty to a scheme involving paying bribes in order to steer more than half a billion dollars in foreign aid contracts, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Roderick Watson, a USAID contracting officer, admitted to steering money to multiple companies in exchange for more than $1 million in bribes.

“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts,” Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation said in a statement. “While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts.”

The scheme was possible because of the federal government’s racial “set-aside” laws known as 8(a) contracting, which allow contracting officers to give contracts to companies owned by minorities, women, or veterans without the usual competitive process.

Walter Barnes III, the founder of a Baltimore-area company predicated on taking advantage of those laws, admitted to paying bribes, including a country-club wedding, cash, and a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

Barnes’s company is called Vistant, previously known as PM Consulting Group. It was awarded contracts on the pretense that it was “disadvantaged” because Barnes is black, even as it took in tens of millions of dollars. Barnes used a public defender in his court case, drawing a rebuke from the judge that he presumably had ample resources to pay for his own lawyer.

Also pleading guilty was Darryl Britt, the founder of 8(a) contracting firm Apprio Inc., which is received $271 million in federal contracts since 2004. Both companies also admitted criminal liability.

Beginning in 2013, Britt — a member of Carnegie Mellon University’s Business Board of Advisers — bribed Watson to award contracts to Apprio. When an 8(a) firm becomes too large, it “graduates” from its “disadvantaged” status. But minority contracting laws are notoriously exploited, with minority-owned firms existing simply to win contracts, then subcontracting out the work to other firms. That is often done openly, and above board, with “joint ventures.”

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

President Trump: China Trade, Tariff Deal ‘DONE’

President Trump confirmed early Wednesday that the US reached a “deal” with China following intense, marathon trade negotiations in London.

“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump announced on Truth Social Wednesday in full capitalization. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.”

“Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. The relationship is excellent! Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

How are we vetting these students?

Trump says China trade, tariff deal ‘done,’ awaits his and Xi Jinping’s approval

“FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS, WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA,” President Trump said.

By Natalia Mittelstadt, Just The News, June 11, 2025:

President Trump on Wednesday announced that the deal with China “is done,” and is awaiting his and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s approval.

“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS, WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA. LIKEWISE, WE WILL PROVIDE TO CHINA WHAT WAS AGREED TO, INCLUDING CHINESE STUDENTS USING OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!). WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”

The U.S. and China reached a framework for a looming trade deal on Tuesday, which came on the second day of negotiations in London.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLES:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Welcome! We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2025, 2024, & 2023  archives, plus asterisked items below.

Note: today’s Newsletter is a day later due to Memorial Day being on Monday.


— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

This Issue’s Best of the Best:

*** Suspected Chinese bioterrorists smuggled dangerous agent into US

*** Chinese bioterror suspects’ arrests signal communist country plotting ‘something worse’ than COVID: expert

*** Stanford is a case study in how Beijing infiltrates U.S. universities

*** Common daily vitamin could slow biological aging, major study suggests

*** New York to throw a summer-long party as the Erie Canal turns 200

*** Confirmation Bias is the Enemy of Truth

*** Video: Dumbing Down of Schools with Charlotte Iserbyt

*** Cellphone Ban Adopters Share How They Did It—and How It’s Changed Students

*** Report: Affordable, Reliable, and Clean — An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources

*** Short good video: America in the Dark

*** How the House cut off new solar and wind subsidies in the “Big Beautiful Bill”

*** New Study: “The presented research rejects the typically held view that wind power is a sustainable energy source.”

*** Trump’s Four Nuclear Executive Orders — A Seismic Shift for the Industry and Regulation

*** The Nuclear Green Atom: Our Most Misunderstood Power Source

*** The Dark Side of AI: Inducing Suicide, Spiritual Mania, and Divorce

*** AI Is Learning to Escape Human Control

Secondary Education Related:

*** Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System

*** Confirmation Bias is the Enemy of Truth

*** Video: Dumbing Down of Schools with Charlotte Iserbyt

*** Cellphone Ban Adopters Share How They Did It—and How It’s Changed Students

What Schools Look Like Without the Cellphone Distraction

Artificial Intelligence:

*** The Dark Side of AI: Inducing Suicide, Spiritual Mania, and Divorce

*** AI Is Learning to Escape Human Control

Artificial intelligence is coming to get you

Government officials are letting AI do their jobs. Badly

Trust Me, AI Friends Are Not Your Friends

Greed Energy Economics:

*** How the House cut off new solar and wind subsidies in the “Big Beautiful Bill”

Leading Florida power provider blasts solar/wind subsidies

Unreliables (General):

*** Short good video: America in the Dark

*** The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

Reliance on ‘Renewables’ Makes Widespread Blackout Nightmare More Likely

Global Tally of Alternative-Energy Rejections Passes 1,000

15 Hidden Hazards of Green Energy that Get Ignored

Wind Energy — Offshore:

Showdown looms for Empire Wind (NY Offshore)

Ruling that could doom its Irish Sea wind projects

Wind Energy — Other:

*** New Study: “The presented research rejects the typically held view that wind power is a sustainable energy source.”

*** More Proof Wind Energy Isn’t “Clean” Or “Green”

New Film ‘Blown Away’ Wrecks the Myth of Wind Power

Solar Energy:

*** In China Solar Panels Blanket Farmland

Nuclear Energy:

*** Trump’s Four Nuclear Executive Orders — A Seismic Shift for the Industry and Regulation

*** The Nuclear Green Atom: Our Most Misunderstood Power Source

Fossil Fuel Energy:

*** The Faux Science of Outlawing Fossil Fuels

India Spurns Carbon Tax Threat, Promotes Fossil Fuels

Electric Vehicles (EVs):

Canada’s EV house of cards is close to collapsing

Misc Energy:

*** Report: Affordable, Reliable, and Clean — An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources

Energy and the environment: Having it both ways

Report: NYISO 2025 Power Trends

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

Michael Mann’s lawsuit award drastically reduced, has to pay opponents’ legal fees

Net Zero cripples Government defense plans

Global Greening From Higher CO2 Hits “Striking” New Heights – but the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About It

Hawaii Becomes First State to Charge Tourists for Carbon Footprint

US Election:

*** DOJ Finally Swoops In To NC re Elections Law Violations (also here)

*** Senate must advance SAVE Act

Correct NC Election Flaws

DOJ moves to pull federal election funding from Wisconsin for failing to comply with integrity laws

Lefties Losing It: Kamala bombs with bizarre speech in Australia

Georgia mayor and 2 others are jailed on felony charges for trying to halt a local election

Supreme Court to Hear Congressman’s Challenge to State Ballot-Counting Law

US Federal Agencies:

*** Suspected Chinese bioterrorists smuggled dangerous agent into US

*** Chinese bioterror suspects’ arrests signal communist country plotting ‘something worse’ than COVID: expert

*** Stanford is a case study in how Beijing infiltrates U.S. universities

Trump:

*** For First Time in Rasmussen’s Polling History, 50 Percent of the Country Says America is on Right Track

Musk and Trump Burn Down Their Bromance

Societally US:

*** New York to throw a summer-long party as the Erie Canal turns 200

*** Life is a Thinking Game

Part 1:Regulation Making Homes Unaffordable Around the World

Part 2: Building the Future: Fixing the Global Housing Crisis

Bill Atkinson, Desktop Computer Pioneer and Inventor, Dies at 74

Religion Related:

*** The Emergence of Religious Ecology

Video: Jordan Peterson vs 20 Atheists

Science:

*** Report: Restoring the Gold Standard to Science

Health:

*** Common daily vitamin could slow biological aging, major study suggests

*** Fifth part of a timeline of ivermectin-related events in the COVID-19 pandemic

PFAS in Wilmington, NC

Pharma and CDC Blow Off RFK, Jr.

Israel/Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Israeli people

Latest Developments in Israel

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine


Please use social media, etc. to pass on this Newsletter to other open-minded citizens…If you’d like to be added to (or unsubscribe from) the distribution of our popular, free, worldwide Media Balance Newsletter, simply send me an email saying that.


Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g., PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For past Newsletter issues see the archives from 2022, 2023, 2024, & 2025. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over all fourteen plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put this together — where you can search ALL prior issues, by year. For a background about how the Newsletter is put together, etc., please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org.

Note 4: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.

Copyright © 2025; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org).

Supreme Court Approves DOGE Access To Social Security Data

The Supreme Court gave the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) the greenlight to access Social Security Administration (SSA) data on Friday.

The Trump administration asked the justices in May to pause a district court judge’s preliminary injunction preventing the SSA DOGE team from accessing certain records.

“We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the court’s order states.

Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor would have denied the request.

Jackson, in a dissent joined by Sotomayor, wrote that the majority is “jettisoning careful judicial decisionmaking and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.”

“I would proceed without fear or favor to require DOGE and the Government to do what all other litigants must do to secure a stay from this Court: comply with lower court orders constraining their behavior unless and until they establish that irreparable harm will result such that equity requires a different course,” Jackson wrote.

In a separate order, the Supreme Court also halted a lower court’s discovery order that would have required DOGE to turn over some material to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sued to force DOGE to comply with its Freedom of Information Act request.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

AUTHOR

Katelynn Richardson

Investigative Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Vance Finally Weighs in on Trump-Musk Feud

JD Vance Cracks Perfect Joke in Midst of Trump-Musk Feud

‘Not Just For The Jetsons’: Trump Lifts Regs On Drones, Supersonic Flight, Opens Door For Flying Cars

EXCLUSIVE: White House Insiders Vent On Big Beautiful Breakup, Reveal Elon’s Final Straw

Some Dems Now Want To Play Nice With Musk After Endlessly Smearing Him As Nazi

Kayleigh McEnany Confronts Dem To Her Face For Claiming Biden ‘Was Mentally Capable’ Of Being President

EXCLUSIVE: White House Sources Say Elon’s NASA Pick Was Doomed From The Start

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing @dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

VIDEO: AEI Housing Market Indicators, May 2025

AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

You don’t want to miss this update! This month, we highlighted the following hot housing topics:

  • Recent movements in rates, demand, and supply: Mortgage rates remained elevated at 6.75%, while purchase rate lock volume dropped to a multi-year low—down 24% from the same week in 2019 and 5% year-over-year.
  • Home price appreciation (HPA) and months’ supply trends through March 2025: HPA slowed to 3.0%—its second lowest April rate in the series—while months’ supply declined to 3.2 months, just below pre-pandemic levels as inventory grows faster than seasonal trends
  • FHA appears not to be properly tracking its partial claims, costing taxpayers: FHA is not and collecting partial claims in about a quarter of cases, and taxpayers will be providing free money to certain FHA borrowers. Assuming an average partial claim amount of $23,000-$27,000 and 1.3 million unique claims since 2020, the taxpayer could lose $6.75 billion—not including partial claims completed before 2020.
  • An update on Bureau of Land Management sales to build starter homes: Making just 250 sq. miles of developable BLM land available for sale in 12 Western states would enable the private sector to add 1.75 million homes, a much of which would be family-sized starter homes for the working class. The 2025 Budget Reconciliation process provides an opportunity to address the Western region’s housing and development needs by expediting the disposal of target Federal lands for competitive sale at market prices.
  • Preview: The AEI Housing Success Playbook: The AEI Housing Center’s Housing Success Playbook provides five straightforward, proven policies to build an additional 1.6 million homes annually, and without subsidies. These include allowing smaller lots in new subdivisions, legalizing conversions of single-family homes, permitting backyard cottages and ADUs, enabling residential overlays in commercial zones, and developing starter homes on BLM land.
  • The surprising role of large developers in solving the housing crunch: The nation’s largest home builders have engineered a dramatic shift toward serving first-time homebuyers, with 51.2% of their new construction sales going to FTBs in 2024, up from 38.6% in 2014. This transformation has been driven by building smaller homes and offering financial tools like rate buydowns, while median lot sizes declined by 1,050 sq. ft., enabling greater affordability and access to starter homes.

The AEI Housing Market Indicators (HMI) provide accurate and timely metrics for the housing market. These include mortgage risk/leverage (with a particular focus on agency first-time buyer volume and risk), house prices and appreciation trends, housing sales (new and existing sales whether institutionally financed, cash, or other-financed), and inventory levels. Since the housing market is influenced by many different factors, all need to be considered together to better understand market trends.

WATCH: AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

Monthly Update of the AEI Housing Market Indicators: Download this month’s slides

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Critics of the Big Beautiful Bill ‘Are Going to Be Wrong,’ Johnson Warns

For months, the bright lights have been on the House, capturing the made-for-TV drama of the Republicans’ Houdini-like wins. And while people have come to appreciate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a sort of consensus whisperer, no one is quite sure what to make of his Senate counterpart. But now that Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is in the reconciliation hot seat, America is about to see what Mitch McConnell’s replacement is made of. And as far as first tests go, this is a biggie.

Thune, who’s had a front-row seat for the House debate, knows that the job that awaits is no picnic. Like the speaker, he understands a thing or two about small margins. With just three votes to spare and 53 different opinions on next steps, corralling his caucus will require a mix of patience and thick skin. After listening to his caucus pick apart the draft passed by Johnson’s chamber, Thune’s early message is one of caution. “It’ll have to track very closely to the House bill,” he warned Monday, “because they’ve got a fragile majority and struck a very delicate balance.”

That in itself is a shift from earlier weeks, when Thune seemed to agree with the Republicans eager to make sweeping changes. Now, the South Dakotan says more reservedly, “[T]here are some things that senators want to add to the bill or things we’d do slightly differently.” Based on the soundbites coming out of his caucus, that’s putting it mildly. Goldilocks herself would go mad trying to find the sweet spot between the five factions of senators with competing goals.

There’s the group demanding more spending cuts (Ron Johnson, Wis.; Mike Lee, Utah; Rick Scott, Fla.), and another worried they go too deep (Susan Collins, Maine; Lisa Murkowski, Alaska). There are the pro-Medicaid reform Republicans and the not-so-pro-overhaul Republicans (Josh Hawley, Mo.; Murkowski; Jerry Moran, Kan.; and Jim Justice, W.Va.). While some cheer the end of Biden’s “clean energy credits,” others pan them (Murkowski; Moran; Thom Tillis, N.C.; John Curtis, Utah). While Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) rages against the debt ceiling hike, the more rural state senators are fighting the other chamber’s changes to health and supplemental nutrition programs (Chuck Grassley, Iowa). And remember the SALT caucus of the House? Well, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) admitted, “There’s not one Republican in the United States Senate” who cares about the state and local tax deduction cap.

And that’s to say nothing of the give-and-take on tax levels, ranges of defense and border spending, and a million other flashpoints tucked in the 1,100-page draft. Add that to the Byrd Bath, which will decide what belongs in reconciliation and what doesn’t, and you have the makings of four long, stress-filled weeks. “There’s always some who think it’s too hot, some [who] think it’s too cold,” observer Neil Bradley shook his head. “Where do you find the point where a majority think it’s just right?”

Great question — one that Thune will be losing his share of sleep over. In the end, he told reporters, “We’ve got to do what we can get 51 [votes] for.”

Johnson can sympathize. In his weekend sit-down with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, he spoke knowingly. “… [A]s all our friends in the Senate know, it took us over a year to reach that equilibrium point in the House,” he said on Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill.” The most important takeaway, the speaker reminds Thune’s disgruntled Republicans, is that “we’re going to achieve over $1.5 trillion in savings. … It’s the largest amount of savings of any government that would ever be achieved in the history of mankind. It’s a good start. It’s not enough, but it’s a good start. And I think the Senate’s got to recognize that.”

One of the greatest misunderstandings — even with people in Washington — is that the reconciliation package was never meant to be the vehicle for all of the president’s spending cuts. When Elon Musk and others complain that the bill doesn’t reduce the deficit, there’s a fundamental disconnect about several things, the speaker underscores. For starters, he reminded everyone, “This is just the beginning of a long process. We’re going to have another reconciliation bill, possibly two additional bills, coming up in the near future.”

Secondly — and just as importantly — “you have to remember how the process works,” the speaker stressed. When Americans (including Musk) wonder why there aren’t more Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts in the “one, big, beautiful bill,” it’s simple. “There are two categories of federal spending,” Johnson pointed out. “One is mandatory spending, one is discretionary. The reconciliation package [deals] with the first category, not the latter. So it was not possible — literally, under the rules of the Senate — for us to put DOGE cuts in large measure in the reconciliation package. That has to be a separate instrument.”

And that “separate instrument” is what the White House is working on right now: a rescissions package to roll back discretionary spending that was already approved. Thanks to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, presidents can permanently cancel funding to executive agencies if it’s within a 45-day window and if a simple majority of Congress approves. As we speak, Donald Trump is teeing up the first “of many” rescission proposals, worth about $9.4 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse.

That, Johnson reiterated, is what Congress has been waiting for. “I mean, there was no playbook for what Elon Musk and DOGE were doing. They didn’t have a set of procedures to follow. They had to create them as they went.” And now, he continued, Republicans are ready to make those recommendations a reality. Nothing that Musk’s team did will go to waste, the speaker assured Americans.

“The work will go forward and continue, because what he’s done is he’s brought a spotlight into these agencies — into these bureaucracies that we were never able to see. We got a perspective on it that Congress was never allowed because the bureaucracy was hiding so much data. I mean, we didn’t know, obviously, that Congress was funding transgender operas in Peru and all these other crazy things that were happening under USAID,” Johnson said, shaking his head. Elon found it because he cracked the code. He got inside the belly of the beast with his algorithms, and he uncovered it, and we’ve got to wipe it out.”

But the headlines that the House is adding to an already ballooning deficit are baloney, the speaker argued. “I sent a long text message to [Musk] to explain to him and make sure that he understands that he was looking at [an] analysis of the bill that was not accurate.” He pointed to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the bill and emphasized, “CBO is historically inaccurate. It’s run by Democrats. … They’re not going to give us a fair score. But the important thing to remember about this is that they do not use dynamic scoring. They use static scoring. In layman’s terms, all that means is they don’t give us any credit for the growth. The Big Beautiful Bill is going to be jet fuel to the U.S. economy. It is a pro-growth economy builder. It’s going to lower tax rates, lower regulations, [and] incentivize U.S. manufacturing again. When that happens, we know what [the effect will be].”

Let’s not forget, the speaker reminded Perkins, “We already did this in the first Trump administration, [and we] had the greatest economy in the history of the world after the first two years, because we cut taxes and cut regulations. Now we’re doing it on steroids. So the tremendous growth that will be achieved by this is being totally discounted by CBO. They’re saying it will add to the deficit. It’s not true,” he declared. “By our calculations, we are going to reduce the deficit because of all the growth that we stimulated. Just watch and see that the critics are going to be wrong.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


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White House Sends Congress $9.4 Billion Rescissions Package

The White House sent a $9.4 billion rescissions package partly aimed at codifying work done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to Congress late Tuesday.

The House Oversight Committee confirmed that Congress had received the package in a post to X.

“The White House just sent Congress a $9.4B rescissions package—including $1.1B in CUTS to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. These outlets ATTACK the America First agenda on the taxpayers’ dime. We’re ready to STOP this propaganda machine,” the post read.

The news comes after Russell Vought, Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), announced May 28 that the White House would be sending a rescissions package to Congress this week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said May 28 in an X post that he is “eager and ready to act” on the measure. “When the White House sends its rescission package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts,” he wrote.

The upcoming rescissions package is set to include $1.1 billion in funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It also proposes an $8.3 billion reduction in funding for foreign aid, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NBC News reported.

The package can be approved in both the House and Senate with a simple majority, enabling Republican lawmakers to move it forward without Democratic backing.

Lawmakers will have 45 days to act on the proposal to rescind previously appropriated funding.

Although Elon Musk has departed DOGE and turned his attention to his various business ventures, the agency is expected to remain active through July 4, 2026.

Editor’s note: A quote has been altered to better reflect the original statement.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.