Remembering
James Robison

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The Brew: Does Money Grow on Trees?

By Gayle McQueary Published on May 29, 2025

This week is shaping up to be a time of fiscal reckoning for the United States, with the national deficit and taxpayer-funded public news services making headlines.

No More Trees

During an interview with CBS’s Sunday Morning, host David Pogue criticized President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which the House of Representatives passed on a narrow 215-214 vote last week. DOGE chief Elon Musk said the bill undermines his efforts to curb wasteful government spending as it is projected to increase the federal budget deficit by $3.8 trillion over a decade, per the Congressional Budget Office.

DOGE reports it has saved taxpayers $170 billion by targeting government waste, including controversial cuts like gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development and laying off 275,000 federal workers. Republicans claim the bill reduces spending and will offset tax cuts with economic growth, but it faces Senate resistance even from within the GOP. Florida Senator Rick Scott told Charlie Kirk yesterday that he would vote against the bill unless it includes more spending cuts to balance the budget.

Another person raising concerns over the bill is Hoover Institute Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson, who said yesterday that it could significantly increase the national debt. Hanson told cohost Jack Fowler, “It has questionable arithmetic on lowering the $2.1 trillion deficit. Scott Bessent said he wanted to keep the deficits at no more than 3% of GDP. And if this thing gets up, it could be $3 trillion. It could actually increase it. It could be 6% or 7% of GDP.”

The bill includes key issues such as renewed and expanded tax cuts, but it also increases the state and local tax deduction, farmer subsidies, and the Pentagon’s annual budget, which all will cause a loss in revenue. Hanson noted the Trump administration’s goal of $10 trillion in federal investment to boost the economy, but something still doesn’t add up for him.

“Remember the golden days of January, February of 2025 when Elon, they hadn’t gone after him yet? He was confident. [Musk] said, ‘I think we can get a trillion dollars in cuts.’ Then he would smile and say, ‘Who knows, maybe $2 trillion.’ And that was out of $7 trillion.”

It’s time to tell Congress that money doesn’t grow on trees. We need more to come in than  to come in faster than it goes out — and this starts by paying down our debt. In a perfect world we would pay it off so we can leave a better economy to future generations.

No More Risk

On Tuesday, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary joined Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a special video to announce they are removing the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for “healthy children and healthy pregnant women.”

The Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom have already pulled recommendations for the vaccine and boosters for healthy children and younger adults, as experts believe most people now have some immunity gained from past vaccination and bouts with the virus. As of yesterday afternoon, the CDC immunization schedule had not been updated to reflect the announcement, and there no news on whether the CDC’s independent panel of advisors will meet earlier than its planned June meeting to vote on implementing the changes. Of course, this news isn’t happy for everyone — as CNN lamented

Kennedy offered no scientific evidence to justify the change to the recommendations. But experts say the shift will have devastating consequences, particularly for pregnant women and their babies. Both are considered to be at higher risk of severe complications of COVID-19 infections. Studies have found that … vaccination reduces the risk of hospitalization for pregnant women and infants younger than six months.

ABC News reported:

A leader of a medical group that is typically involved in the process for changes to the immunization schedule noted he was “kind of blindsided by this announcement.”

“We were not consulted about this,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, told ABC News… “My biggest concern is about the process. This really ignores a long-established, evidence-based process that has been used to make vaccine recommendations in the U.S. It ignores the opinions of the medical experts who help make these recommendations, and it also ignores all of the liaison organizations that work with the [CDC’s advisory panel] to craft these recommendations.”

Whether you’re glad or upset to hear this news, can we at least all be grateful for having a choice about it now?

No More Public Radio?

National Public Radio (NPR) and three public radio stations in Colorado  filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration, challenging his May 1 executive order blocking congressionally appropriated funds from reaching NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The lawsuit says the order “violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, and also threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.”

According to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, its services are “core to the overall health” of public radio in the U.S. In a statement released after the filing, Maher states:

“If stations are prohibited from using public funds to acquire NPR programming, our widely respected reporting on veterans affairs, science, health, and education could disappear from local airwaves. Without public dollars, NPR’s investment in rural reporting initiatives, collaborative regional newsrooms and award-winning international coverage would all be at risk.”

The lawsuit is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss, who is also handling a related lawsuit filed last month by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) against Trump. 

What will you miss more: the “quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, and innovation” the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was meant to provide, or what public broadcasting has become?

Call to Prayer

Intercessors for America is partnering with Turning Point USA to pray for the Young Women’s Leadership Summit coming to Dallas from June 13 to 15. If you’re in the Dallas area, join IFA on June 13 at 10 a.m. to pray on-site for attendees, speakers, and over the venue itself. Intercessors can attend the conference free of charge and seek further prayer opportunities while they’re there. For details, email [email protected].

If you’re unable to attend in person, you can still intercede from wherever you are for:

  • the spiritual and physical protection of all who attend.
  • God to use the speakers powerfully.
  • God’s hand of protection and blessing over Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk, his family, leadership, and staff.
  • that families, churches, and communities will be positively affected as we pray that our Lord will show mercy in reviving His church and bringing spiritual awakening to our nation.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)

Along The Stream…

Later this morning, Pastor Shane Idleman shares “How to Keep the Fire of Prayer Lit.” 

Also later today, John Zmirak brings personal insight into what’s going on in Seattle from his time visiting the city in 2022.

 

Gayle McQueary is The Stream’s social media specialist. She has a background in production and is a scary judge of asking taxpayers to fund the indoctrination of children through public radio and TV programs.