Press Releases

Yesterday, Rep. Ron Estes published an op-ed in the Washington Reporter unpacking and affirming recent efforts to examine and root out wasteful federal spending.
 
"For too long, the government has been unaccountable, and there are plenty of instances where bureaucracies have interpreted loosely written legislative language in their own way to push your taxpayer dollars into places and programs that aren’t aligned with the legislative intent. It has to stop," wrote Rep. Estes.
 
You can read the op-ed here or below.
 
Why President Donald Trump is right to rein in reckless spending
 
When President Trump, my colleagues, and myself have said that we need to rein in reckless spending, we meant it. For years, politicians and D.C. elites have pretended to care about runaway spending, but frankly, nothing has changed.

I introduced legislation to cut spending, cosponsored legislation to balance the budget, supported common sense budgets that would balance in 10 years, and helped start a bipartisan group of lawmakers to tackle our debt crisis. However, there simply haven’t been enough of my colleagues to join me in these efforts.
 
With President Trump now in office, he’s making good on his promises to curb D.C.’s reckless spending. If we want to make sure that we can afford the programs and services that are important to our country, we must remove the waste, fraud, and abuse that is prevalent in agencies throughout our government. While that’s exactly why many Americans voted for him, the media has pushed hysterical narratives that are misleading at best and downright false at worst.
 
But here are the inconvenient facts. Our nation is $36.2 trillion in debt, and we are borrowing around $70,000 per second (although that number was around $100,000 per second a year ago). That’s nearly $6,000,000,000 borrowed each day.
 
It’s hard to even fathom that we are borrowing $6 billion per day. Carefully reviewing our spending is reasonable and what taxpayers should expect.
 
Let’s put all of this in perspective by moving the decimal on these massive numbers. Imagine a Kansas family made $49,000 last year but spent $68,000, and today has a credit card balance of $362,000 after years of spending more than they make. Despite the massive debt, the family is still spending $149 a day, borrowing $57 each day to cover those expenses. While this example seems absurd, that’s what our federal government is doing, except the numbers are 100 million times larger. It would be prudent for the family to temporarily pause all unnecessary spending and assess everything, making sure resources are going to the most important priorities.
 
For too long, the government has been unaccountable, and there are plenty of instances where bureaucracies have interpreted loosely written legislative language in their own way to push your taxpayer dollars into places and programs that aren’t aligned with the legislative intent. It has to stop.
 
It shouldn’t be controversial to demand that federal bureaucracies be good stewards of your money. In fact, it should be outraging that some of the agencies have gotten away with this ludicrous spending for so long. $20 million dollars for the Iraqi version of Sesame Street, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam, and $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt are just some of the wasteful projects in just one federal agency – the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. If we eliminate this sort of spending in USAID, it will help make sure the programs that actually align with our national interests, and which Kansans and Americans benefit by participating in, will continue. 
 
What’s also disturbing is how my colleagues on the left have been so quick to try and defend this absurdity. Before last week, USAID was an obscure agency that most Americans had never heard of, which spent $40 billion each year. No doubt this and other agencies were formed with good intentions and have had some successes, but Democrats chose to stand outside these agencies to protect D.C. bureaucrats, not your hard-earned tax dollars.
 
Much of the work to weed out waste, fraud and abuse is being done through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was legally established as a temporary organization within the federal government and with liaisons working in partnership with confirmed government officials. Read-only access to U.S. Treasury payment systems has been provided to a limited number of individuals who are working with government departments to eliminate the unnecessary spending that is burdening our nation – a more secure process than when under Biden's watch more than 5,000 contractors had access to sensitive IRS systems, as reported in a 2024 inspector general report.
 
There’s no risk to Americans’ Social Security or Medicare payments or personal data, despite the scare tactics peddled by the media and extremists. In fact, by ridding our government of unnecessary projects and grifters abusing the system, we will be better able to ensure stability for the things that really matter to Americans.
 
It should also be noted that our country has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. In Fiscal Year 2017, before we passed the Trump Tax Cuts, annual revenues were $3.31 trillion and annual spending was $3.98 trillion. In Fiscal Year 2024, annual revenues increased by 48% to $4.92 trillion. While that healthy revenue growth is impressive, it’s dwarfed by the 70% increase in spending to $6.75 trillion. Are you receiving 70% additional and better benefits or services from the government? Not likely – so then where is all of that extra spending going?
 
The only way to reduce our deficits and tackle our national debt is to do the hard work of opening our books and examining where trillions of your dollars are being spent. And in order to make sure that we can continue funding the things that are important to us as Americans, we need to stop spending on the things that simply don’t align with the values and priorities of the United States of America.