As repeatedly noticed on This Is Common Sense, politicians tend to treat Congress’s failures to come to agreements on federal government spending as a sort of game, where the most intransigent Player at the Game of Chicken wins. If you hold out for massive spending, refusing to fund government at lesser levels, you eventually get what you want: increased spending.
But early on Donald Trump suggested that he might treat this failure to reach a Continuing Resolution differently. Now, in The Daily Caller, the new plan is explained:
Trump depicted him as the Grim Reaper. His neighbors think he wants to cause “maximum trauma.” Senate Leader John Thune told Democrats to brace for impact.
And those who know Russ Vought best say, good. Democrats should be scared. Because if unleashed, Trump’s two-time Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has a swift and thorough plan to downsize the government that he has been preparing for years.
Reagan Reese, “Democrats Are Terrified Of Trump’s Shutdown Slasher — And They Should Be,” The Daily Caller (October 6, 2025).
It was the president himself who first mentioned Mr. Vought, in a Truth Social post on October 2nd:
I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.
President Donald Trump, Truth Social (October 2, 2025).
I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.
Russ Vought is an old Tea Party figure, serious about cutting government, says The Daily Caller.
Ned Ryun, the CEO of American Majority and a long-time friend of Vought’s, told the Caller that Vought has been preparing for this moment for years. He’s an official Americans should be thankful for, Ryun added, explaining that he believes if Vought is allowed to fulfill his plan it will be a pivotal moment in American history.
“Not sure how many other moments we will get like this, and I truly believe if Trump fully empowers Russ, this could potentially be the beginning of the end of the administrative state,” Ryun told the Caller.
Those close to Vought all emphasized one thing above all when talking about the OMB Director: his humility. When this term is up and Vought’s work is over, Bovard told the Caller he won’t be bragging to the press, cashing in or looking for work on K Street.
And for now, he is focused on finishing the job and winning the game.
op cit.
On October 10, the White House notified over 4,100 federal workers of imminent layoffs via Reductions in Force (RIFs), the largest single-day action yet. The reductions affect
| Treasury | 1,446 | Broad operational slowdowns in tax processing and financial oversight. |
| Homeland Security (incl. CISA) | ~800 | Reduced cybersecurity monitoring and border operations support. |
| Commerce | ~450 | Delays in trade enforcement and economic data collection. |
| Education | ~350 | Paused student loan processing and grant reviews. |
| Energy | ~300 | Canceled emissions-reduction projects and carbon capture tech funding. |
| Housing & Urban Development (HUD) | ~250 | Halted community planning, property inspections, and FHA loan approvals. |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | ~200 | Suspended environmental monitoring and permitting. |
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | ~150 (across 9 departments) | Disruptions in disease tracking; some terminations blamed on “coding errors” in RIF lists. |
Is it worth noting that OMB Director Russ Vought is widely recognized as one of the principal architects and a key author of Project 2025, much demonized by Democrats at their 2024 presidential “nominating” convention.
Democrats can thus hardly complain that they did not see big cuts coming. So why did they risk it all by not going along with the latest CR?
One reply on “Ought Implies Can, Vought Implies Will”
Be careful what you suggest. We are being destroyed by these d_mn’dable Continuing Resolutions, and the majority of Republicans would be all too happy to pass yet another.
The Democrats may, after all, yield in the face of Republican unwillingness to support a CR+, and vote for a string of “clean” Continuing Resolutions in the face of what they and their stooges will call “blackmail” and “extortion”, all the while promising to resume supposèd sanity and balance just as soon as the voters return the Democrats to power. And so the can would continued to be kicked down the road until we reached an impassable wall of economic impossibility.
With or without the acquiescence of the Democratic Party, and with or without the acquiescence of the knaves and fools who are the majority of Republicans, we need elected officials who will offer budget plans that have the best chance of avoid economic catastrophe, even knowing that voters will be panicked and vote against them in the next election.