Trump administration hoping to reshape the federal government during shutdown

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00:00President Donald Trump and his head of the Office of Management and Budget

00:03may use the government shutdown to cut what they call democratic agencies.

00:10Trump said on social media he plans to meet with Russ Vogt, the director of OMB.

00:15Trump said that meeting will determine which agencies are on the chopping block.

00:20Every one of these programs was popular enough with the American people

00:25that it was voted on by majorities of the House and the Senate and signed by the president.

00:29Typically, cutting federal agencies would require an act of Congress.

00:34Well, I wouldn't say that they lost the power of the purse.

00:36I'd say that they've temporarily given it up during this shutdown.

00:41With the government shutdown, Trump can work with Vogt to determine

00:44which government activities will stop and which ones remain essential.

00:49Cutting the federal workforce has been a goal of his administration since day one,

00:53from Elon Musk's doge to now.

00:55There's an efficiency rationale that they lean pretty hard on,

00:59that basically they think the government is overstaffed to do the work that it's legally

01:05required to do.

01:06There could be other reasons to chop the workforce.

01:09I think their deeper motivation is also pretty plain,

01:12that they think a lot of the folks who work for the federal government are hostile

01:16to President Trump's agenda.

01:19It's more likely that they can realize their agenda without those people than with them.

01:24Cutting the workforce is also a part of Project 2025, which Vogt authored.

01:29Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during the campaign,

01:33but referenced it by name in his latest social media post.

01:37Russ Vogt has a long leash, and I think it's because the president believes that Vogt has

01:41tremendous skill and that he is generally supportive of what Vogt is doing in terms of budget cutting.

01:49Among concerns for Americans is how these cuts are being made.

01:53It seems like they're hoping to just continue going on continuing resolutions,

01:58with OMB making a lot of adjustments going forward.

02:03Again, that means we had Congress working out less of how we're going to spend our money.

02:10It becomes much more of an all-top-down, president-centered thing.

02:16I think we already have a system that's much too heavily weighted toward the presidency.

02:21So for Congress to give up that power to allocate spending, I see as dangerous for our politics.

02:27For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.

02:29For more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com.