Latest news with #BigBeautiful
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vought says Trump may not need Congress's approval to cut federal workforce
Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump's massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk. Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on 'executive tools' for all but a 'necessary' fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval. The White House budget director, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, also defended the widespread future cost-cutting proposed by the US president's One Big Beautiful Bill act that was passed by the House last week, which covers budget proposals for the next fiscal year starting in October. Related: US budget chief calls fears that cuts to benefits will lead to deaths 'totally ridiculous' But, as Dana Bash, CNN's State of the Union host, pointed out, Doge cut 'funding and programs that Congress already passed'. And while those cuts, cited by the departing Musk as being worth $175bn, are tiny compared with the trillion or more he forecast, Vought said OMB was only going to submit about $9.4bn to Congress this week for sign-off. That amount is understood to mostly cover the crushing of the USAID agency and cuts to public broadcasting, which have prompted outrage and lawsuits. Leaders of Congress from both parties have pressed for the Trump administration to send details of all the cuts for its approval. 'Will you?' Bash asked Vought. 'We might,' Vought said, adding that the rest of the Doge cuts may not need official congressional approval. As one of the architects of Project 2025, the rightwing initiative created to guide the second Trump administration, Vought is on a quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the US president, and to continue the Doge cuts. Vought said that one of the executive tools the administration has is the use of 'impoundment', which involves the White House withholding specific funds allocated by Congress. Since the 1970s, a law has limited the presidency from engaging in impoundment – typically requiring the executive branch to implement what Congress signed into law. Bash said: 'I know you don't believe that that is constitutional, so are you just doing this in order to get the supreme court to rule that unconstitutional?' Related: Stakes are high for US democracy as conservative supreme court hears raft of cases Vought said: 'We are not in love with the law.' But he also said, in response to criticism from some on Capitol Hill: 'We're not breaking the law.' Meanwhile, on the Big Beautiful bill, the Congressional budget office (CBO) and many experts say it could swell the US deficit by $3.8tn, and business tycoon Musk said it 'undermines the work the Doge team is doing'. Vought disagreed. 'I love Elon, [but] this bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt,' he said. Vought – and later on Sunday, the House speaker Mike Johnson on NBC – argued that critics' calculations don't fully account for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and slashing regulation. Vought also chipped in that Trump is 'the architect, the visionary, the originator of his own agenda', rather than the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for the administration, Project 2025, although he did not deny that the two have dovetailed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
X Goes Down: Musk's Social Network Malfunctions for Thousands of Users
X, formerly known as Twitter, briefly experienced serious malfunctions for thousands of users Friday. Many users accessing X suddenly saw their entire feeds disappear, and the ability to post messages stopped working. On the home screen, this message appeared for logged-in users, as if they had just signed up: 'Welcome to X! This is the best place to see what's happening in your world. Find some people and topics to follow now.' In addition, users' own posts were also inaccessible. More from Variety Elon Musk Exits Trump Administration a Day After Criticizing 'Big Beautiful' Spending Bill Neil Young Slams Elon Musk and 'Fascist' Tesla Drivers in New Single, Announces First Album With Chrome Hearts 'The Office' Star Rainn Wilson Says 'Left-Leaning News' Has a 'Passion' Against Trump That It Lacked During the Biden Administration: They Act Like 'Cleopatra, Queen of Denial' As of 4:21 p.m. ET, more than 34,000 users had logged error complaints about accessing the social network with Downdetector, an uptime-monitoring site. Reports of problems with X began spiking at around 4 p.m. ET. On the X Developer Platform status page, a message update said there was a 'Site-wide outage' as of Friday at 4:20 p.m. ET. 'Some X API endpoints are currently experiencing degraded performance,' the site said. 'You may experience 503 errors for the following endpoints: Get User Timeline / Get Tweets / Get DM / Create Tweet.' X's technical problems appeared to be resolved in less than an hour, with services seemingly restored to normal and error complaints on Downdetector dropping to about 4,500 as of 4:37 p.m. ET. The outage occurred as Elon Musk, the tech mogul who owns X, visited the White House on Friday, where President Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office thanking Musk for his service to the administration in leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk on Thursday announced that he is stepping away from the administration, although he will continue to informally advise Trump, he said. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
France 24
3 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Gaza, 'Taco Trump', Musk ‘overboarded', Macron's ‘le slap'
It's been a week that's seen a French doctor, Joel Le Scouarnec, thought to be the country's most prolific paedophile, sentenced to a further 20 years in jail. He's already in prison for other crimes. The 74 year old former surgeon admitted abusing almost 300 people. Many were children under sedation in hospital who didn't know they'd been assaulted until they were told by police. Advocacy groups say that it's exposed serious failings of French health authorities, accusing them of not caring to act when first made aware of his conviction for downloading images of child rape, two decades previously. It's been the week that Elon Musk said goodbye to the Trump Administration and left his role at the White House. The world's richest man said his time has come to an end at the department of government efficiency just days after his public critique of Trump's so called Big Beautiful tax bill, calling it too expensive and undermining the point of Doge. Washington insiders say it was his time, quoting sources suggesting he'd been seen as a bit of nuisance in the Trump inner circle. White House officials tell reporters he was quote 'off boarded' on Wednesday night. And it was a week that created an inadvertent legacy moment for Emmanuel Macron, on manoeuvres in south east Asia. A moment likely to be included in every future look back at the President's career. A push in the face from the First Lady. Pay no attention to the couple behind the plane's curtain. 'Play fighting' said the President.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stocks Muted; Trump's Tariffs Win Reprieve; US-China Talks Stalled
US equity futures hover as President Trump's tariff regime wins a reprieve from a court order which blocked country-specific levies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says trade talks between the US and China have stalled. An obscure item in the "Big Beautiful" tax bill is alarming Wall Street. Wei Li of BlackRock suggests not to predict the next stop of policymaking but rely on immutable laws for certainty instead. Cayla Seder of State Street says the consumer still looks okay in aggregate. 'Bloomberg Brief' delivers the market news, data and analysis you need to set your agenda. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We are getting cut off at the knees': Trump's cuts hit US archaeologists
Here's one hazard the would-be Indiana Joneses of U.S. archaeology probably didn't see coming: Plummeting federal support that's canceled field work, shelved ongoing projects and gutted the agencies that support such efforts. One place it's been the most visible? Last month's annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, a 7,000-member group, whose conclave usually boasts more than 1,000 presentations, according to The New York Times. But a 'considerable number' of government archaeologists skipped the meeting, the newspaper reported, with some putting it down to the fact that the presentations touched on matters concerning diversity, equity and inclusion. The Republican Trump administration has spent its first months trying to purge DEI, as it's known, from the federal bureaucracy. 'It is ironic that on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the United States, we are choosing to sacrifice our history and the nonrenewable archaeological sites that provide that history,' Christopher Dore, the society's president, said of the lost opportunities. Dore told The Times that he fears rollbacks in staffing will hurt efforts to supervise and control public use of federal areas. Looting, visitor damage, and even cattle grazing pose threats to such sensitive sites as tribal lands, he said. 'Archaeological resources are not renewable,' Dore told the Times. 'Unlike some natural resources, they don't grow back. Once destroyed, sites and the information they hold are gone forever.' While the exact total of the cuts has yet to be worked out, experts told The Times they will hurt at a time when "fresh investment and support" are badly needed. "We are getting cut off at the knees,' William Taylor, the curator of archaeology at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, told the newspaper. One such example: In January, under the former Biden administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $350,000 grant to Archeaeology Southwest, a nonprofit group in Tuscon, Arizona. Six weeks later, the new Trump administration clawed back the cash earmarked for an effort to document plant and animal species in the Sonoran Desert — especially those that are important to local tribes. The now Trump controlled agency justified the action, arguing that it ''no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities.' It marked the first time in the nonprofit's 35-year history that such an action had taken place, according to The Times. 'The real termination is of trust in the federal government to follow its own laws and regulations,' Steve Nash, the organization's president and chief executive, told The Times. Veterans cemetery in Agawam draws families honoring Memorial Day tradition Attendee bashes 'Walmart steak' served at Trump's dinner for $Trump crypto holders World Affairs Council hosts expert on global trade Betting trends suggest grim political changes for Trump and MAGA in 2028 Mass. Rep. Trahan's 'Les Miz' moment on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' | Bay State Briefing Read the original article on MassLive.
