Deep funding cuts under President Donald Trump will make it more difficult for struggling communities to get help to fix sewer systems that put health and homes at risk.

When Donald Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency on his first day back in office, the promise was loud and simple. Cut waste. Slash spending. Balance the budget. With Elon Musk tapped as the face of the effort, DOGE was sold as a chainsaw to government bloat, aimed at trimming trillions and reshaping Washington fast. DOGE officially kicked off January 20, 2025, created by executive order and tasked with modernizing government technology while eliminating what the administration called waste, fraud, and abuse. Musk initially floated cuts as high as $1 to $2 trillion before that number quickly slid down to $1 trillion and later to roughly $150 billion. By February, DOGE’s online tracker claimed more than $37 billion in savings, though no public evidence or itemized breakdown backed up that figure . What followed was a rapid-fire campaign of agency shutdowns, layoffs, and funding freezes. DOGE zeroed in on agencies long criticized by conservatives, focusing less on the largest budget drivers and more on regulatory, social, and research programs. USAID was effectively hollowed out after DOGE moved to shut it down, firing nearly all of its roughly 10,000 employees and canceling more than 80 percent of its humanitarian programs. DOGE claimed $6.5 billion in cuts there, even as critics warned those moves would disrupt global health aid and cost American organizations billions in lost economic activity . The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was dismantled next. All 1,480 employees were fired or placed on leave, wiping out an agency that had returned more than $26 billion to consumers since its creation. DOGE saved operating costs but eliminated a watchdog that historically recovered far more money than it spent, raising questions about whether efficiency or ideology was driving the decisions . Education took a major hit when Trump signed an executive order to begin closing the Department of Education. Nearly half the department’s staff was cut, hundreds of grants were canceled, and billions in school funding slowed or stopped altogether. While DOGE touted $1.6 billion in canceled grants, lawsuits quickly followed as states reported delayed funds for special education and low-income districts . Medical research also landed on the chopping block. DOGE-backed cuts froze or canceled roughly $4 billion in NIH-funded research, leading to tens of thousands of layoffs across health agencies. Experts warned that while the cuts reduced short-term spending, they risked billions in lost economic output and slowed progress on diseases like cancer and heart disease . At the IRS, DOGE’s actions had the most direct impact on revenue. More than 7,000 employees were fired, thousands more took buyouts, and enforcement capacity collapsed. Treasury officials projected that weakened tax enforcement would lead to more than $500 billion in lost revenue in a single year, far outweighing any payroll savings from the cuts . Across the federal workforce, DOGE pushed one of the largest peacetime reductions in U.S. history, cutting roughly 260,000 jobs in under a year. While payroll costs dropped, personnel expenses only make up a small fraction of total federal spending. Agencies struggled with delays, service backlogs, and in some cases rehired contractors at higher costs, undercutting the claimed savings . Despite DOGE’s growing savings claims, federal spending told a different story. Treasury data showed that government outlays actually rose throughout early 2025, with the U.S. spending roughly $250 billion more than the same period the year before. Every month of 2025 exceeded prior-year spending levels, driven largely by mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and rising interest payments on the national debt, all areas DOGE had no authority to touch . By spring, DOGE’s tracker claimed more than $160 billion saved, later revised to $175 billion. Independent analysts, however, found that publicly documented cuts accounted for less than half that amount, with the rest attributed to vague categories like fraud prevention, future interest savings, and workforce reductions. Budget experts estimated actual realized savings closer to $5 billion, warning that DOGE’s actions could ultimately cost more than they saved . The biggest takeaway became hard to ignore. DOGE cut loudly, moved fast, and reshaped dozens of agencies, but the national deficit still grew. Major spending drivers remained untouched, tax revenue fell due to weakened enforcement, and new spending priorities like defense and immigration enforcement offset many of the cuts. By late 2025, DOGE was quietly absorbed into other agencies, with officials acknowledging it no longer existed as a standalone operation . In the end, DOGE showed just how hard it is to balance the federal budget by trimming only the programs politicians already dislike. Cutting visible targets may win headlines, but without addressing entitlement spending or revenue, the deficit math never stood a chance.

(RNS) — Four days after the raid that extracted the Venezuelan leader and his wife and brought them to face federal charges in New York, nearly every mainline Protestant group has condemned the US…

The woman was identified Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident. Advocates and officials are demanding accountability