1) Get Ready for the Schumer Shutdown

A new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows government spending UP nearly 6% this year (even with the DOGE savings) and yet Chucky Schumer is demanding MORE spending or he and his Senate colleagues will shutdown the government.

Democrats are insisting on more protections for federal workers, the restoration of money for NPR and PBS, and over $1 trillion(!) in new Medicaid spending.

Huh?

If you look at the just-releases spending trends from CBO, almost half of the increase comes from welfare benefits, Medicaid, and Medicare. Yet those are the areas that the Left is demanding further increases.

Trump can't allow another Biden-esque budget blowout here. OMB director Russ Vought is prepared to shutter nonessential agencies, if he must. He will also order "reduction in force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities." Once the shutdown ends, agencies are also directed to retain only the "minimal number" of employees needed to function.  

Both sides must share the blame for our bloated government. But this budget showdown is more depressing evidence that the Left has come a long way from when Bill Clinton famously declared 30 years ago in his State of the Union that "the era of big government is over."

2) DOJ Is Trying to Break Up Google AGAIN

Speaking of big government, the Feds just won't leave Google alone. The latest harassment comes from the DOJ which lost in court its last clash with the world's search engine leader (which, as a reminder, is FREE) but is now back in court pushing for a judge to order Google to divest its advertising platform.  

The Justice Department has asked [Judge] Brinkema to order Google to divest the advertising exchange, known as AdX, that connects buyers and sellers of ads. The legal bar for ordering a company to sell off a business, even to address anticompetitive conduct, is exceptionally high.

"Nothing short of structural change--an AdX divestiture--is sufficient to enable meaningful change," Justice Department lawyer Julia Tarver Wood said...

Karen Dunn, a lawyer for Google, said divestiture would be an overreach that would remove Google from the advertising-exchange business completely.

Google already faces intense competition in advertising from Amazon, and new AI entrants could leave them both in the dust.

We understand why left-wing radicals in the Biden administration wanted to break up Google - they hate all large, successful companies.

But Trump has declared many times that the government should be protecting our "great and dominant Tech companies," yet his own Justice Department is doing exactly the opposite - much to the delight of China.

3) Uh Oh! Our Fed Chairman Can't Even Count

We noted that last week in his dismal analysis of the economy, Jerome Powell said the economy is growing at 1.6%.  But the latest number for second quarter GDP growth was a bullish 3.8%.

So the man in charge of our money supply was off by only about 130%.  

It's time for Jerome to go.

4) Ken Griffin Vs. the Corporate Welfare State

Speaking of government intervention in the private marketplace, Ken Griffin, the CEO of the $69 billion Citadel hedge fund, is fed up with the Trump administration's dangerous penchant for picking winners and losers.

He commented on the "line outside the White House" of businesses wanting special favors when it comes to tariffs and handouts:

"When the state becomes involved in picking winners and losers, there's only one way this game ends: All of us lose. That's not the American story."

And he added that this is a dangerous trend because Washington is "where the crocodiles live."

5) American Education Is a Failure Compared to Other Countries

When we were in school, if your grade was well below average, you got a grade of a D. That's the grade our schools should get based on an OECD study of the educational aptitude in 2023 of more than 20 developed countries - our competitors.

The international study of 25-64 year olds found that the U.S. ranks worse than most nations on literacy.

That's not all: the U.S. ranks well below average in science, math, and technology.  

6) How Are Those Budget Negotiations Going?

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