House Republicans pushed a $95 billion package funding the Iran war, farm aid, and new voter ID requirements through the Budget Committee on Thursday — another massive spending bill advancing through Congress while Americans grapple with inflation and an open southern border.
The 20-14 party-line vote puts Republicans on record for shoveling billions into yet another foreign conflict. Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington framed the proposal as a pre-midterm delivery to voters. "We are rallying to finish what we started when the American people sent us here," the Texas Republican said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The AJC framed the entire package as an "Iran war" measure. Tucked inside are farm subsidies and voter ID provisions — making it harder for any fiscal hawk to oppose the foreign spending without voting against popular domestic items. That bundling is not an accident.
Meanwhile, the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced a 10-bill package to dismantle the 46-year-old Department of Education, shifting its functions across the federal government — to Labor, Treasury, HHS, Interior, and State. Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a "major step" to "right-size the federal role in education," Raw Story reported. Panel chair Rep. Tim Walberg declared it "the first step toward ending the Department of Education's reign over our nation's education system."
Returning education to the states is a cause worth pursuing. But follow the money: Treasury absorbs the federal student loan portfolio — roughly $1.7 trillion in debt. HHS picks up accreditation and child care programs. Interior takes tribal education. The bureaucracy doesn't shrink; it scatters across agencies. And every dollar remains on the taxpayer's ledger.
Notably, the package omits any transfer of special education and civil rights enforcement. Raw Story reported that the Trump administration separately moved those functions to HHS in June — what the outlet called the administration's "most far-reaching attempts yet to dismantle the Education Department."
Both packages face steep odds in the Senate, where Republicans hold just 53 seats and need 60 to break a filibuster. But the pattern is clear enough: the permanent Washington class always finds money for foreign wars and always finds a way to reorganize the deck chairs at home. What no one in either party ever answers is who profits from a $95 billion commitment to the Iran war — which defense contractors cash in, which foreign governments get their cut, and when the blank check finally expires.
