“Bipartisan congressional appropriators on Monday released a three-bill spending package, marking the first major movement on government funding since last year’s record-breaking shutdown,” Axios reports.

“The government will shut down Jan. 30 if Congress doesn’t pass full-year spending bills or a short-term extension.”

“President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats don’t agree on much. But as Washington barrels toward another government funding deadline on Jan. 30, they are in rare alignment: Neither is eager for another shutdown,” Politico reports.

“Democrats haven’t finalized their strategy but are signaling they will not demand a health care deal in exchange for funding the government, a shift from their October approach that led to the longest shutdown in history. Meanwhile, the White House is privately encouraging congressional Republicans to advance appropriations bills and giving them space to negotiate with Democrats, notably different from the administration’s pre-October shutdown threats.”

“When Republican state Rep. Jim DeSana voted earlier this month to cut $645 million in work project funding, he unknowingly axed about $2 million in state funding meant to repair the roof of a building named after his father,” the Detroit News reports.

“Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency said it made more than 29,000 cuts to the federal government — slashing billion-dollar contracts, canceling thousands of grants and pushing out civil servants,” the New York Times reports.

“But the group did not do what Mr. Musk said it would: reduce federal spending by $1 trillion before October. On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up.”

“How is that possible?”

“One big reason, according to a New York Times analysis: Many of the largest savings that DOGE claimed turned out to be wrong.”

“Congress has adjourned for the holidays having made no tangible progress toward funding the government ahead of a shutdown looming less than six weeks away,” Politico reports.

“The most conspicuous sign that Congress faces real obstacles before the Jan. 30 funding deadline came late Thursday, when Senate leaders gave up on passing a spending package and sent members home for two weeks, despite working for more than a month to appease senators who had objections.”

Politico: “The impediments to reaching a deal that can pass both chambers are more extensive, starting with the fact that Republicans and Democrats on both ends of the Capitol have yet to start negotiating the details of the nine pending funding bills.”

“The lack of bipartisan offer-trading is raising the likelihood of another short-term punt — or another shutdown.”

President Trump’s $1,776 checks for more than a million troops, announced last night, come from Congressionally-allocated reconciliation funds intended to subsidize housing allowances for service members, Defense One reports.

Punchbowl News: “Congress has just 45 days to avert a partial government shutdown against the backdrop of a looming health care crisis and congressional paralysis when it comes to passing another FY2026 funding package.”

“It’s the perfect storm for another high-profile funding fight that comes on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.”

“The United States has collected more than $200 billion in tariffs this year as a result of new duties imposed by President Donald Trump since the beginning of 2025,” CNBC reports.

“The tally comes as the Supreme Court considers arguments that the new tariffs are illegal.”

ProPublica: “For four weeks, they had been working overtime to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, freezing thousands of programs, including ones that provided food, water and medicine around the world. They’d culled USAID’s staff and abandoned its former headquarters in the stately Ronald Reagan Building, shunting the remnants of the agency to what was once an overflow space in a glass-walled commercial office above Nordstrom Rack and a bank.” 

“There, the crew of newly minted political figures told the office manager to create a moat of 90 empty desks around them so no one could hear them talk. They ignored questions and advice from career staff with decades of experience in the field…”

“In a corner conference room, it was time to party. They traded congratulatory speeches and cut into a sheet cake.”

“For most people, the tax cuts that President Trump signed into law this summer have yet to materialize. Only after Americans file their taxes next year will the savings become apparent, launching what Republicans hope will be a ‘refund boom’ that lifts the public’s view of the economy,” the New York Times reports.

“Many of America’s largest companies have not had to wait. In the months since the law’s passage in July, corporations like Walmart, Amazon, Verizon and Eli Lilly have all disclosed in securities filings that the law would reduce their cash tax payments in the near term. AT&T Inc. projected that it would save as much as $2 billion in taxes just this year.”

“Those corporate tax savings have already started to have an effect on the federal budget.”

President Trump said the U.S. may “almost completely” eliminate income tax in the next couple of years due to tariff revenue, Axios reports.

“Politics and debt don’t mix well. Americans would be wise to look across the Atlantic to see how tough things can get,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The U.K. government demonstrated the problem with its annual budget, where it is stuck in a trilemma, unable to please lenders and voters while also doing the right thing for the economy. Something had to give, so on Wednesday the government ignored its promises to go for growth, and focused on the bond market and its political base.”

“France has the same trilemma, only worse. Government debt is higher than in the U.K., the fiscal deficit is higher, and not only are tax rises politically impossible but taxes are already so high that raising them further might be self-defeating.”

“For decades, people have fretted about the financial sustainability of America’s bedrock retirement income program. Now, Social Security’s precarious fiscal state is an issue for the here and now,” Axios reports.

“How to fix it is set to be a defining political fight of the next several years, with millions of Americans’ benefits and the fiscal future of the United States at stake.”

“President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump’s pledge to slash the government’s size but which critics say delivered few measurable savings,” Reuters reports.

“Republican lawmakers are resisting President Donald Trump’s proposal to send $2,000 checks to working-class households next year ahead of a midterm election cycle dominated by voters’ concerns about the cost of living and the US economy,” Bloomberg reports.

“The GOP pushback on the proposed checks, which the White House says would be funded by tariff revenue, is the latest sign of division between the president and the GOP-controlled Congress and a weakening of Trump’s firm control of Washington.”