Transcript

6.3.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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June third, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
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To day's front page headlines from the Washington Post are strikes,
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lift spirits in Ukraine, stun Russia, drone attacks, showcase Keys
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innovations and Moscow's vulnerabilities. Our next headline suspect charged in Colorado,
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attack officials, Zionist people targeted, man faces hate crime, attempted
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murder counts. Our next headline, Polish election builds on populous
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tide in Europe nationalists narrow wind reflects rising strength of
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magastyle movements. Next, some DOGE reforms the opposite of efficient
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new requirements add red tape that delays even simple federal functions. Next,
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GOP tries a quieter approach to ACA cuts, Repeal and
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replace gives way to efforts to push people off program.
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And the final headline from today's front page were Tropolis,
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where stepping stones became a corner stone. History of gay
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rights isn't complete without DC's steady contributions to the movement.
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Now let's turn to our first item entitled Strikes lift
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Spirits in Ukraine stun Russia drone attacks showcase Kiev's innovations
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and Moscow's vulnerabilities by Shavan O'Grady, Francesca Ebel, Sery Morganov,
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and Alex Horton from Key. For eighteen months, Ukraine's Internal
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Security Service planned an audacious assault on far flong Russian airfields,
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first sneaking drones into Russia, then planting them near Key
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military runways. On Sunday, just ahead of a new round
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of peace talks, it was go time near four unsuspecting
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Russian military bases. Remotely activated roofs lifted off mobile homes
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and sheds, parked on flatbed trucks. Armed Ukrainian drones tucked inside,
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soared upward, then pounced on military aircraft lined up on
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the runways, engulfing many in flames. The brazen attack, which
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Ukrainian officials claim destroyed at least thirteen Russian aircraft and
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damaged dozens of others, shocked Russia and instantly reduced its
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capabilities to threaten a nuclear attack or launch missile strikes
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on Ukraine and other countries. It also served as a
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crucial reminder to Moscow and Ukraine's western partner that Kiev
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remains capable of exploiting Russia's weaknesses and disrupting its war
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plans despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Ukraine said the damage
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to destroyed aircraft, some of which were nuclear capable, included
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a fifty t U ninety five, t U twenty two,
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M three and t U one sixty models planes, Kiev
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said Russia had used nearly every night to bomb Ukraine.
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Many details of how the attack was planned are not public,
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and it was not immediately clear how many of the
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Russian planes were operational at the time they were targeted,
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but the swift angry reactions in Russia confirmed that Ukraine
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had exploited to devastating effect an obvious vulnerability, essential and
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expensive aircraft left out in the open but believed safe
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because they were deep inside the country. The operation also
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marked the latest example of drone technology redefining modern warfare.
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Western analysts said the strikes will hinder Russia's ability to
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launch cruise missiles into Ukraine and could force Russian commanders
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to shift significant resources to better protect aviation assets, but
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the analysts cautioned that the strikes are unlikely to significantly
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alter the course of the war, as Moscow still has
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enough aircraft to continue bombing Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Video
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footage and reactions published on social media show that in Russia,
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the drone strikes stirred panic, confusion, and then from pro
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war commentators rage. Governors from several regions, including as far
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as Siberia, reported drone attacks. Russian onlookers filmed smoke billowing
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over the airfields and narrated their shock. Soon, pro war
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military bloggers had duged the attack Russia's Pearl Harbor. In
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videos that could not be independently verified by The Washington Post,
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people who appear to be locals living around the air
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bases recorded drones zooming pass them and plumes of black
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smoke on the horizon. In one video, a woman watches
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a drone move toward a smoldering air base, as her
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neighbors suggests that it might be the eleventh to fly by.
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In another video, a man films as several drones fly
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out of the back of a truck stationed on the
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side of a highway. A volley of gunfire can be
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heard in the background as security forces try to shoot
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the drones down. In another a young soldier apparently stationed
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at another air base, records several aircraft burning. Facing the camera,
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he uses an explotive to describe the scene. Enraged Chief
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Russian propagandas Vladimir Solyev later demanded that the soldier be
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shot for making the video and called him a scumbag. Meanwhile,
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in Kiev, the SBU, the Ukrainian security agency that had
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planned the brazen strikes, publicly took credit and revealed the
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operation's code name as Spiderweb. President Volodimir Zelensky quickly posted
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photos of himself hugging the agency head, Lieutenant General Vassilia Meleuk,
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in celebration. The enemy thought that it could bomb Ukraine
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and kill Ukrainians with impunity and endlessly, Meleuk said in
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his statement Monday, but this is not so. We will
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respond to Russian terror and destroy the enemy everywhere. Ukraine
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said that all SPU operatives involved in the attack were
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evacuated safely from Russia before it began. In Ukraine, the
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successful attack injected some much needed optimism into a society
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beleaguered by more than three years of full scale war
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and worn down by what many see as undue US
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pressure to concede to Russian demands even without security guarantees.
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This operation completely changes the perception of reality, both within
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Russia and around the world. Our enemies are now forced
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to recognize that Ukrainian intelligence services are capable of penetrating
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even the most secure facilities, said Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko,
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who serves as a secretary of the Parliament's National Security Committee.
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When the enemy loses dozens of strategic bombers, it's not
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just a technical loss, it's a blow to its ability
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to blackmail the world with missile strikes. Former Ukrainian Defense
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Minister Oleski Rosnikov said Ukraine had transferred its to U
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bombers to Moscow as part of its nineteen ninety six
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agreement to give up its nuclear capabilities in exchange for
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security guarantees from so several countries, including Russia. On June first,
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twenty twenty five, Ukraine began removing those very aircraft from
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one of the memorandum's main guaranteurs. That guaranteur had shamelessly
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used them against peaceful Ukrainians, he said, describing Sunday's attack
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as a peculiar form of military legal sanctions. One former
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Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
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discuss a sensitive political moment, described the attack as providing
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an immense inspirational push for Ukrainian society and soldiers that
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he fears may inspire more resistance to a compromise that
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could lead to a real ceasefire. We're less likely to
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compromise in the nearest future, and some form of a
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compromise seems to be the only way to stop or
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pause the war, he said. Still, he added, the attack
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dramatically improved the SBU's reputation and deserves to be described
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in history books. The vulnerability of aircraft has long been
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a point of criticism among Russian military bloggers, who have
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called for better defenses such as hard and cover and hangers,
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said Samuel Bendett, a drone expert and adviser to the
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Russia's Studies program at the Center for Naval Analyzes, a
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research and analysis nonprofit in Washington. Air defenses on the
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base were probably honed to detect bigger Ukrainian drones that
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operate at long ranges and were probably not looking for
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FPV drones that literally snuck under the radar. Bendet said.
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FPV drones are small aircraft guided by a pilot using
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a camera with a first person view. A big question
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is how Russia rebuilds the bruised component of its nuclear arsenal.
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Bendet said. Among the destroyed or damaged planes are aircraft
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that have been modernized but are no longer in production.
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It would not make sense to rebuild propeller driven to
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U ninety five's, Bendet said, though Russia has yet to
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acquire the next generation bombers expected to replace them. Another
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question is how Ukraine ultimately steered the drones. The sophistication
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of launching the drones one after another points to capabilities
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such as drones pre programmed to fly towards their targets.
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Annylus said pilots may have been involved in the last
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stretch of the attack runs. Bendet said in one video,
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a drone slows down and hovers above the wings of
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a bomber, then targets a vulnerable portion of the wing
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between the fuselage and the engine. He said such a
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precise attack is a hallmark of FPV drones, which carry
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relatively small payloads but pack a big punch by specifically
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targeting vehicle weak points. Russian officials and state media meanwhile
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remained noticeably silent on Sunday's attacks. According to Russian outlet Agensko,
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Russian state broadcasters Channel one and Grossia one each devoted
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forty seconds of airtime to this unprecedented attack on distant
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Russian air basis. By Monday morning, the news had disappeared
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from news bulletins. The smartest saying Putin could do right
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now would be to not respond immediately, wrote Vladimir Pastuvko,
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a Russian political scientist based in London. Putin's best response
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is to delay his response, which he is good at.
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Putin does not have many spectacular good moves in the
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current situation, he continued. Ukraine has no comparable facilities that
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can be destroyed without infernal civilian casualties and enormous damage
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to the environment, which would traumatize the already troubled Trump.
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Pro Kremlin military blogger Mikhail Zevinschuk, who runs a rye
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Bar telegram channel, said that the attack would cause substantial
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moral and science pschological damage, and that Ukraine's operation was
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aimed not only at exploiting gaps and defense, but also
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at creating colossal tension in society and discrediting the security services.
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If Ukraine can attack air bases, he speculated, it could
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also attack highways and transport routes, stirring panic. Of course,
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from the point of view of undermining Russia's military potential,
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this is an extremely unpleasant story, especially in the context
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of the loss of the t U ninety five am
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masth Zavinshuk said, referring to the mainstay of Russia's fleet
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of nuclear bombers. Russian opposition figures meanwhile marbled online at
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Ukraine's amazing and crazy operation. Everyone says that the only
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way to negotiate with Putin is to negotiate from a
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position of strength. Well here it is, wrote Russian opposition
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politician and former political prisoner Ilyyayashan on social media. Jan Matveya,
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a military analyst at the Anti Corruption Foundation founded by
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opposition figure Alexei Navagni, described the attack as a direct
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and highly sensitive blow to the nuclear triad that destroyed
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rare and expensive bombers. Most importantly, it reduced the Russian
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air force's ability to strike Ukrainian cities. Matveyev wrote on Telegram,
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destroying or damaging in a fifty is a significant achievement
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for Ukraine. The aircraft topped with a radar is a
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flying command center that helps coordinate Russian air attacks and
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detects incoming threats. Moscow has few in its inventory. One
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such plane was shot down with the Ukrainian Patriot Air
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Defense system last year. Abel reported from London and Horton
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from Washington. Natalia Abakumova and Riga Latvia contributed to this report.
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Next an item entitled suspect charge in Colorado attack officials
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Zionist people targeted. Man faces hate crime, attempted murder counts
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A Carolin y Johnson, Ben brash Anumita Kauer, Roman Stubbs
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A Michel Boors sign from Boulder, Colorado. The man accused
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of using a flamethrower to attack a demonstration voicing support
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for Israeli hostages in Gaza told investigators he planned the
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assault for a year and wanted to kill all Zionis
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people and wished they were all dead. According to court
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documents released Monday, twelve people were injured in Sunday's attack,
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which sent another ripple of unease through the American Jewish community.
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Mohammed Sabre Solomon, forty five, who has been charged with
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a federal hate crime and state charges of attempted murder,
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appeared in court on Monday afternoon in an orange gemsuit
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and with a bandage around his head. Authority said Solomon
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had more than a dozen unused molotov cocktails and are
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investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. The horror
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of the attack, many of the victims, including a Holocaust survivor,
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were senior citizens, was magnified by repeated violent incidents targeting
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American Jews since twenty twenty three, when Hamas invaded Israel,
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setting off Israel's current war in Gaza. A young couple
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were gunned down last month as they exited a Jewish
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museum in d C. And the residence of Pennsylvania Governor
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Josh Shapiro, who was Jewish, was set on fire in
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April by a man blaming him for Middle East violence
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against Palestinians. Although incidents of anti Semitism have been rising
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in the United States since twenty sixteen, groups that monitor
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hate crimes say the numbers have exploded since October seventh,
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twenty twenty three. The high profile nature of a tax
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over the past few weeks and the intense political debate
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about the causes of the war in Gaza has left
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some US Jews feeling more vulnerable. It's definitely not the same.
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Every Jew in America is feeling this and thinking about
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it differently. Many has lived open, engaged act of Jewish
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lives and never felt anti Semitism as a threat in
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any meaningful way. And I don't know any one who
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thinks that now, said Haydo Suskind, president of the progressive
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advocacy group New Jewish Narrative. Solomon yelled Free Palestine as
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he used a flame thrower and tossed an incendiary device
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into the crowd at a Colorado pedestrian mall where the
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local chapter of a pro Israeli group, Run for Their Lives,
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was hosting an event calling for the release of Israeli
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hostages in Gaza. Law enforcement officials have said Solomon learned
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about the group from an online search and specifically targeted them.
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According to court documents, no one should ever be subjected
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to violence of any kind, but our laws recognize that
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such violence is particularly pernicious when some one is targeted
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because of their race, religion, or national origin. J Bishop Gruel,
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acting US Attorney for the District of Colorado, said at
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a news conference Monday, the maximum sentence for the federal
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hate crime charge is life in prison, he said. In addition,
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Solomon is facing forty two felonies, including sixteen counts of
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attempted murder in the first degree. According to Bolder District
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Attorney's office, Solomon is being held on a ten million
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dollar bond. He is represented by a public defender. The
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Colorado State Public Defender's Office declined to comment or name
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Solomon's attorney. Solomon, whose Egyptian, entered the United States on
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a B two tourist visa in August twenty twenty two.
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According to the Department of Homeland Security, He applied for
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asylum in September twenty twenty two, and his visa expired
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in February twenty twenty three. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLoughlin
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said DHS did not respond to further questions about the
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status of his asylum case. In a truth social post,
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President Donald Trump said that the attack was yet another
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example of why we must keep our borders secure and
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called for the suspect's deportation based on DHS's information. Solomon
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didn't have legal status, but was also lawfully present in
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the US, said Musaphar Kishti, a senior fellow at the
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Migration Policy Institute. This is a semantics issue at some level.
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Kishti said, he didn't have legal status, but he was
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not removable because he was an asylum applicant. The Boulder
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attack took place on the eve of Chevat, a two
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day holiday that celebrates God giving the torrons to the
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Jewish people at Mount Sinai. It was aimed against peaceful
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people who wished to express his solidarity with the hostages
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held by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahu said in
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a statement, calling the incident a vicious terror attack. Authorities
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initially said there were eight victims, four men and four women,
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ranging from fifty two to eighty eight years old. Two
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were still hospitalized Monday. Authorities said four more victims with
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minor injuries were confirmed Monday afternoon, bringing the injured toll
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to twelve. Their identities and details about their conditions have
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not been released. Authorities detained Solomon near a black plastic
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container filled with more than a dozen unlit Molotov cocktails,
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glass wine kiraff bottles, and jars holding eighty seven octane
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gasoline with red rags hanging out of the bottles Gruel.
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The U S attorney said that when interviewed by law Enform,
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Solomon said he had tried to purchase a firearm but
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resorted to the Molotov cocktails when he could not purchase
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them because he was not a legal citizen. Solomon lives
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in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children. According
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to the complaint, his home sits on a quiet street
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on the east end of the city, in a four
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units stucco apartment complex. On Monday morning, neighbors closed their
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shades as television media vehicles parked outside. Jimmy Pruett, forty six,
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lives in the neighborhood and said he knew Solomon to
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be a quiet family man. My daughter and their kids
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played together, He said, we spoke like regular neighbors. David
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Costello practices Messianic Judaism and along with his family, moved
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from Illinois to Colorado Springs last month. They settled across
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the street from Solomon. He said, Solomon's wife brought cupcakes
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to welcome them to the neighborhood. His kids said hello
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to Solomon's kids. My personal opinion is to not be
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intimidated by bullies, Costello said. If there is some one
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here that is dangerous to me, the worst thing I
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can do is give in. Solomon worked as an independent
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contractor for Uber driving passengers for the last nine months,
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an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement Monday. He started
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with the company in spring twenty twenty three as a
21:21
food delivery driver. The spokeswoman said that Solomon met all
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the requirements in accordance with Colorado state law and that
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he had no concerning feedback while driving on the Uber platform.
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His driver's account has been banned, the statement said. Lisa Ephras,
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a documentary filmmaker in Boulder, said she was eating lunch
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Sunday with her teenage daughter a block away from the
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Run for Their Lives event and planned to join the
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group at the end of its weekly walk every Sunday.
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Ephres said the walkers starred on the west side of
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town and walk east carrying a banner that says bring
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them home Now. They carry posters or print outs with
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the faces of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza and
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in their walk in front of the historic Boulder Courthouse
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with a reading of the names of the hostages and
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a singing of Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem, which translates
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to the Hope. A little after one thirty p m.
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On Sunday, she saw first responders racing down Pearl Street.
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Her gut told her it involved the march. She told
22:27
her teenage daughter to stay in the car and ran
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to the scene. I saw there were a lot of
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people that were partially clothed, and found out minutes later
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that people had taken their clothes off to try to
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put the fire out on the burning victims. Ephras sat.
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The article includes a map showing the approximate location of
22:46
the incident. Roman Stubbs reported from Colorado Springs, Burst Eye
22:51
from Washington. Pravinas Amasundaram, Emily wax Thibideaux, Jeremy Roebuck, Maryanne Levine,
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and war Irne p Strobel in Washington, Nihamasi in Seoul,
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and Annabel Timsett in London contributed to this report. Next
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from Today's front page, Polish election builds on populist tide
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in europe nationalists narrow wind reflects rising strength of magastyle
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movements by Leo Sans, a conservative nationalist backed by President
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Donald Trump, was elected to Poland's presidency over the week end,
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capping a string of tightly fought contests that analysts say
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underscore the growing strength of far right and populous parties
23:37
in Europe, fueled in part by the influence of the
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Magma movement from across the pond. Kiarnarowski, a historian supported
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by Poland's Conservative Law and Justice Party, narrowly defeated Warsaw's
23:51
Liberal mayor in Sunday's election, fifty point eight nine percent
23:55
to forty nine point one one percent. Last month, U
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S Homeland Secure Ruty Secretary Christiel Naum had urged polls
24:03
to elect him, the latest in a spate of controversial
24:06
interventions by Trump administration officials into European domestic politics. Neurowski's
24:12
victory comes a year after many far right parties surged
24:16
in the European parliamentary elections. Since then, far right parties
24:21
have continued to fare largely well, coming first in Austria,
24:25
staging historic advances in Portugal and Germany, and making ways
24:29
but ultimately falling short of expectations in Romania and France.
24:34
Daniel Hegagus, a regional director at the German Martial Fund
24:38
think tank, said the narrowness of the results showed how
24:42
entrenched Europe's divide between right wing populace and centrics had become,
24:46
reflecting political divisions in the United States. There is a
24:51
very significant overlying trend. Elections not only in Europe but
24:55
across Western democracies are evolving into plebiscites, he said in
25:00
a phone interview Monday, effectively becoming referendums on populism. Voters
25:06
are presented with a really stark choice either rules based
25:09
liberal democracies or Maga esque ethno nationalist types of leaders,
25:14
said Armida Vanrige, who leads Year program at Chatham House,
25:19
while cautioning that the trend has been unfolding for as
25:22
long as a decade. Although annalysts said there is a
25:26
strong political and cultural nexus between Trump and Europe's emergent
25:30
populist parties, what those ties mean in practice and whether
25:34
they are sustainable in the long term is a matter
25:37
of debate. Ever since Trump's election, the European far ride
25:42
feels really galvanized. Ben Riach said. On the ground, however,
25:46
she said the feeling of momentum has yet to translate
25:50
into a sustained streak of political advances. There's even some
25:54
evidence that voters are scared of the Trump effect, and
25:58
that's rallying people towards the list, she added. Francesco Nicoli,
26:03
a political economist at the Brutal Thing Tank, also pointed
26:07
to several points of possible future contention between ruling European
26:12
nationalists and the Trump administration. It's hard for them to
26:16
take a fully aligned position with an American administration as
26:20
some of these things are clearly not in a European interest,
26:23
he said, pointing to Trump's recent threats to impose terrace
26:26
on Europe and pushed to lift security guarantees for the continent.
26:31
These are eventually things that will bite far right governments.
26:35
Here's how far right and populist parties have fared in
26:38
recent elections in Europe. Romania, the centrist mayor of Bucharest
26:43
defeated his MAGA embracing eurosceptic rival by about seven percentage
26:48
points in May's presidential election. You confronted the hate way.
26:52
This is your victory. Now, President nucos or Dad told
26:56
his supporters just after the vote. George Simi, who lost,
27:01
had previously advocated for the country's historical claims on Moldovan
27:05
and Ukrainian territory, and during the campaign pushed for ending
27:10
Romania's support of Ukraine. The election was effectively a do
27:14
over of the November contest won by ultra nationalist Kaelin Giordesciu,
27:19
but annulled by the country's Constitutional court over campaign finance
27:23
violation and an illicit social media campaign the Romanian authority
27:28
said was stoked by Russia. In February, US Vice President
27:32
j D Vance criticized a ruling as based on flimsy suspicions,
27:37
but a member of the US Federal Election Commission, after
27:39
a visit to Bucharest, told reporters there was clear evidence
27:43
there was some sort of nefarious activity. Portugal. Portugal's far
27:48
right Chega party, which translates to Ananoff, won the second
27:52
most seats in the country's parliamentary elections last month. In
27:57
six years, they've gone from non existence to having a
28:00
twenty two percent vote share and being the main opposition party,
28:04
said Van Rige, the political scientist, remarking on the speed
28:08
of the far right Party's ascendants in Portugal, the party
28:12
campaigned on a promise to save Portugal and surge on
28:16
an anti immigrant platform. Germany, the far right Alternative for
28:21
Germany a f D, came in second in February's federal elections,
28:26
the best result for a German far right party since
28:29
the end of World War II. Despite doubling its twenty
28:33
twenty one vote chare to over twenty percent, it lost
28:36
out to the conservative Christian Democrats. Before the vote, vance
28:41
and tech billionaire Elon Musk expressed support for the far
28:45
right party. Friedrich Nutz, who now serves as Chancellor, denounced
28:50
the intervention from Washington as no less drastic, dramatic, and
28:55
ultimately no less outrageous than the intervention that we have
28:58
seen from Moscow. Austria. The Freedom Party won about twenty
29:04
nine percent of the vote in Austria's September legislative elections,
29:08
marking the first time since World War II that a
29:11
far right party has won a national election in the country.
29:16
In February, Austria's three leading centrist parties reached an agreement
29:20
to form a coalition that would exclude the far right party,
29:25
founded in nineteen fifty six and initially led by a
29:28
former Nazian s S officer. The Freedom Party is pro
29:32
Russian and has sought to join the rising tide of
29:36
hard right movements across Europe by tapping into voter anger
29:40
over immigration. The Centrist Party's agreement curbed the ambitions of
29:45
Herbert Kickl, the party's leader, who aspired to become what
29:49
he called Volkes councilor or People's Chancellor, a term that
29:54
was embraced by Ottolf Hitler. France, Marie Lepen's National Rally
30:00
Party fell short of the high expectations that built up
30:04
ahead of July's election, coming in third behind a surging
30:08
left and even President Emanuel Macron's ailing Centrist alliance. The
30:14
far right's chances shrank significantly in the week between the
30:18
voting rounds, as left wing and centrist candidates who had
30:22
place third in the first round voluntarily withdrew from more
30:26
than two hundred runoffs. The strategy was to prevent splitting
30:30
the vote in a way that would have enabled far
30:33
right victories. In March, a French court convicted Le Penn
30:37
of embezzlement and barred her from running for political office
30:41
for five years. Rick Noak, Scott Clement, Kate Brady, William Booth,
30:48
Catherine Belton, Madeline Niktschiu, and Aaron Weiner contributed to this report.
30:55
Our next item from today's front page is entitled some
30:59
dose reforms The opposite of efficient New requirements add red
31:04
tape that delays even simple federal functions by Hannah and Tensen.
31:11
Somewhere in the world. Last month, a state department employee
31:14
began the routine process of hiring a vendor for an
31:18
upcoming embassy event, but quickly ran into a problem. The
31:22
vendor was refusing to sign paperwork certifying that he did
31:26
not promote diversity, equity and Inclusion or DEI, a new
31:31
requirement under President Donald Trump's executive order eradicating DEI from
31:36
the government. The state employee, who spoke on the condition
31:40
that neither he nor the location of his embassy be
31:43
named for fear of retaliation, sighed. Then he got busy
31:49
the workaround he knew would take time. First, he got
31:52
his ambassador's signed approval to hire the vendor anyway. Next,
31:56
he filled out an Office three sixty five form justify
32:00
the expense in two hundred fifty words, before selecting which
32:04
quote pillar of necessary spending, it fell under, choosing from
32:08
options including safer, stronger, more prosperous. After submitting that to
32:14
higher ups and getting their sign off, he filled out
32:18
yet another form, this one destined for political appointees back
32:22
in Washington. A week later. The vendor was secured. Under
32:28
any previous administration, he would have taken one day, the
32:32
employee said. Similar layers of new red tape are plaguing
32:37
federal staffers throughout the government under the second Trump administration,
32:41
stymying work and delaying simple transactions. According to interviews with
32:46
more than three dozen federal workers across nineteen agencies and
32:51
records obtained by The Washington Post, many of the new hurdles,
32:55
federal workers said stemmed from changes imposed by the U
32:59
S do S Elon Musk's cost cutting team, which burst
33:04
into government promising to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse and
33:08
trim staff and spending. The team's overarching goal was in
33:13
its name. DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency, although
33:18
it is not part of the cabinet. But as Musk
33:22
departed government on Friday, many federal workers said DOGE has
33:26
in many ways had the opposite effect. Doge's intense scrutiny
33:32
of federal spending is forcing employees to spend hours justifying
33:37
even the most basic purchases. New rules mandating review and
33:42
approval by political appointees are leaving thousands of contracts and
33:47
projects on ice for months. Large scale firings spearheaded by
33:52
DOGE have cut support offices, especially IT shops that assisted
33:57
federal workers with issues ranging from glitching computers to broken
34:01
desk chairs, and the piecemeal reassignment of staff is causing
34:06
significant lags and work in some agencies, notably Social Security,
34:11
as inexperienced workers adjust to new roles. Meanwhile, most everyone
34:17
across every agency is dealing with fallout from new policies
34:22
or executive orders, even as colleagues continue to resign or retire,
34:27
increasing the workload for those who remain. Leadership is overcome
34:33
with meetings and questions from people on how this will
34:36
all work. The human resource teams have conflicting information and
34:41
confusion rain, said one Defense Department employee, who, like others
34:45
interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity
34:49
for fear of losing his job. Every day, he said,
34:53
it feels like each person still standing is battling a
34:57
dozen fires. Any presidents try to reshape the sprawling federal
35:02
bureaucracy to achieve their specific policy goals, said George Krause,
35:07
a University of Georgia professor who studies public administration. Such
35:12
efforts span Democratic and Republican administrations back to Richard M. Nixon,
35:17
whose political appointees were known for clashing with career federal executives,
35:22
Kraus said, but the DOGE driven efforts appear to be
35:26
backfiring in ways that other initiatives did not. What Musk
35:31
showed is that you cannot do this without a plan,
35:34
And if you do it without a plan that respects
35:36
some of the functions of government that everybody wants, then
35:40
what's going to happen. You'll end up making the government
35:43
less efficient, not more efficient, said Elaine Camerack, director of
35:48
the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution
35:52
and a former Clinton administration official. What House spokesman Harrison
35:57
Fields said in a statement that through DOGE, President Trump
36:02
is curbing government wasted and reforming a system that has
36:05
long burdened American taxpayers. He added, any one resistant to
36:10
these critical reforms has had ample opportunity to step aside,
36:14
but the work of DOGE will press forward unobstructed. The
36:18
State Department on Saturday shared an e mail statement from
36:22
a quote senior official it declined to name. Quote. The
36:26
State Department will never apologize for putting processes in place
36:30
to ensure taxpayer dollars are used correctly. It's what the
36:34
American people expect and deserve. End quote. But on Friday,
36:39
almost exactly twenty four hours after a Post reporter asked
36:42
about the requirement that international vendors certify that they do
36:46
not promote d e I, State had issued guidance rescinding
36:50
that mandate for staff overseas. According to a directive obtained
36:54
by the Post, holding up Everything at NASA, employees recent
37:00
only wrote several detailed paragraphs across multiple rounds of emails
37:04
to win approval to buy simple fastening bolts. According to
37:08
a staffer and records obtained by the Post, within the
37:12
General Services Administration, the government's Real estate arm, more than
37:17
one thousand, five hundred project requests included fully executed leases
37:22
and notices saying construction can begin backed up in an
37:26
internal tracker awaiting political appointees. Attention. Record show some items
37:32
waited for months, and almost two hundred are still on hold,
37:36
while about three hundred were never approved. An employee set,
37:40
and at the Food and Drug Administration, once routine tests
37:44
on food monitoring for accuracy and labeling, coloring, and exposure
37:49
to heavy metals were delayed significantly, a former employee set
37:54
that's because the agency began requiring department level approval for
37:58
expenses at every step purchasing samples to test, paying to
38:04
ship samples between labs, buying lab supplies. This hands on
38:09
approach reflects the Trump administration's drive to rein in what
38:13
official see as decades of unsupervised, wasteful federal spending. Speaking
38:19
in the Oval Office in early February, Trump said, without
38:23
providing evidence, that there are billions and billions of dollars
38:27
in waste, fraud, and abuse. That's one of the reasons
38:30
I got elected. Citing the example of the Treasury Department,
38:35
must claim the government is missing quote basic controls that
38:39
should be in place that are in place in any company,
38:42
such as categorizing payments by code and providing justifications for
38:46
each expense. Systems to do both already existed across agencies,
38:53
and so shortly after Trump's inauguration, Doze imposed a one
38:57
dollar federal credit card freeze and limited purchasing power to
39:01
only a handful of people in many departments. Decisions that
39:05
have incapacitated parts of agencies as varied as a National
39:10
Park Service and the Pentagon. Soon, the Department of Health
39:14
and Human Services and the Commerce Department required that political
39:18
appointees green light many funds before disbursement. In April, Doze
39:23
rested control of a federal grant's website used to dole
39:27
out billions each year. Many federal employees say they supported
39:32
closer inspections of how the government spends money, but in practice,
39:36
they said, the Trump administration's chokehold is tangling up basic
39:41
everyday tasks. The results seem to run counter to the
39:45
goal of efficiency. At air traffic control towers at two
39:50
dozen West Coast airports, officials are unable to easily pay
39:54
to have the windows washed and shades cleaned, said the
39:58
Federal Aviation Administration employed. A Doge ordered overhaul of the
40:02
payment system means FAA staffers must write statements justifying all expenditures.
40:08
The employee said, not just for window washing, but also
40:13
elevator maintenance and even pens and pencils. The employee said.
40:18
Purchase orders that used to take fifteen or twenty minutes
40:21
to fill out now consume one or two hours for
40:24
each tower. These are things that people don't think about,
40:29
but clean windows are crucial for controllers, the employee said.
40:33
Because he is so often busy with purchase justifications, he
40:37
has fallen behind on landscaping, fire alarm safety, and pest control,
40:42
all of which are staples in the air traffic towers.
40:45
He said. The added reviews extend beyond financial issues to
40:50
questions of policy and political speech, including press releases. At
40:55
some parts of the National Institutes of Health POOR, an
40:59
employee there, every grant must now be fed through an
41:02
AI tool to screen for references to concepts deemed unpalatable
41:07
by the Trump administration, such as de e I, transgender China,
41:13
or vaxine hesitancy, the employees said. Further delaying grant's is
41:18
another new requirement n i H staff must check to
41:22
ensure the recipient isn't on the list of colleges and
41:25
universities that have drawn Trump's wrath, including Columbia, Harvard, Northwestern Brown,
41:33
and Cornell. At the State Department, employees are spending hours
41:39
coming through official documents to remove the words diverse, equitable,
41:44
and inclusive stead of staffer there. Months after Trump issued
41:48
his executive order ending diversity efforts, NASA, the ni h G,
41:54
s A, the f d A, and the f a
41:57
A did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nobody
42:02
is working at top efficiency. The administration's ongoing shake ups
42:06
of the workforce, from buy out offers to firings to
42:10
sweeping reorganizations, are also undermining efficiency at the Social Security Administration.
42:17
For example, TRUMP officials and DOGE pushed thousands of central
42:22
office workers to take lower level positions, answering phones and
42:26
field offices, threatening to fire whoever did not make the jump.
42:30
According to e mails reviewed by the Post and interviews
42:34
with a half dozen agency employees, chaos has ensued across
42:39
field offices in the weeks since the reassignments took effect.
42:43
Staffers said claims processing has bogged down as regular field
42:48
office staff, already overburdened because of widespread resignations and retirements,
42:54
are pulled off their normal duties to train incoming administrators
42:58
and analysts, but the backlog means the trainings are being
43:04
shortened and rushed through, employees said, so inexperienced reassigned staffers
43:10
start work unprepared. That leads to more mistakes, more requests
43:15
for help, and more backed up claims, and more time
43:19
wasted all around. To sum it up, you now have
43:24
half the staff with very little knowledge of how to
43:26
do the work, one relocated staffer said, and the other
43:30
half of staff overwhelmed with work and unable to really
43:34
train or mentor these new folks. Asked about the reassignments,
43:39
Social Security provided an email statement from an unnamed official
43:43
whom had declined to identify. The statement said DOJ's work
43:47
at Social Security had charted a new better course for
43:51
the agency. The voluntary reassignment of approximately two thousand employees
43:57
to direct service positions has not caused us ructions at
44:00
the agency. The statement read. As these employees complete their
44:04
training and become fully proficient in their new positions, they
44:08
will further accelerate the progress the agency is making those
44:12
reorganized other agencies by dismissing gobs of technical staffers or
44:17
incentivizing them to resign and centralizing it services. Although it
44:23
sounded good in theory, said one Interior Department staffer, in practice,
44:27
it meant he lost his in office it contact. He
44:31
used to pop around the corner to ask for assistance.
44:34
Now help tickets take up to three days. In other places,
44:39
staff dismissals or departures are tripping up operations as employees
44:43
struggle to keep up with a sharply increased workload. One
44:48
office in the Transportation Department lost nearly fifteen percent of
44:52
its staff who were fired as probationary employees, then rehired,
44:57
then promptly took advantage of the minute ministration's second round
45:01
deferred resignation offer to leave for good, said a worker. There,
45:06
now all those jobs and responsibilities have fallen on everyone left.
45:10
The worker said. There's a learning curve, no knowledge transfer,
45:14
and in some cases no access to do the job
45:17
for a while. Loss of productivity lost. Within one FDA office,
45:23
a reduction in force removed everyone who worked in administrative support.
45:28
A former staffer said, the people who coordinated travel, ran purchasing,
45:33
and processed personnel paperwork. Remaining staff were given general email
45:38
addresses to contact, the staffer said, but no names as
45:43
for comment. A range of agencies asserted that Trump was
45:46
improving efficiency, not hurting it. President Trump's decisive actions have
45:51
allowed us to eliminate bureaucratic waste, said an Interior Department spokesperson.
45:57
We are replacing outdated, sluggish systems with dreamlined, mission driven operations,
46:02
said an HHS spokesperson, following years of unchecked spending, bureaucratic bloat,
46:08
and ideologically driven initiatives that strayed from serving the American people.
46:13
But other employees say that strict imposition of Trump's return
46:17
to office rule and requirements that federal workers must be
46:20
in their seats from nine a m. To five p
46:23
m sharp are frustrating staffers who say their productivity and
46:27
drive have dropped. Within a research arm of the Defense Department,
46:31
staff no longer take work home or travel to conferences
46:35
on weekends, not in one employee. At FEMA, people have
46:39
to take a day off or work a half day
46:42
to make medical appointments, rather than working remotely and missing
46:45
fewer hours, set a staffer there. One Department of Homeland
46:50
Security staffer noted that after her hours were changed to
46:53
nine to five, it briefly prevented her from attending an
46:57
eight a m. Meeting until higher up's real life as
47:00
a problem and changed it. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLoughlin
47:05
wrote in a statement that meetings being moved is a
47:08
small price to pay for federal employees to finally be
47:11
back in their taxpayer funded offices to do their work
47:14
for the American people atop everything else. Freyed fatigued federal
47:20
workers have little capacity left to do their jobs well
47:23
or at all. They said. People are so demoralized, anxious,
47:28
and sleep deprived, said a NASA employee. Nobody is working
47:32
at top efficiency. Next, GOP tries a quieter approach to
47:38
ACA cuts. Repeal and replace gives way to efforts to
47:43
push people off program By Paige Winfield Cunningham, Congressional Republicans
47:49
are pursuing changes to the Affordable Care Act that would
47:53
mean ten point seven million fewer Americans using its insurance
47:57
market places and Medicaid, a huge reduction that some view
48:02
as a way to accomplish part of the health care
48:04
coverage cancelation that failed in twenty seventeen. They're not branding
48:09
it a repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health care
48:13
law this time around, and this year's effort wouldn't erase
48:17
its marketplaces or Medicaid expansion. Congress tried that the last
48:21
time President Donald Trump was in office, but abandoned it
48:25
amid an outcry from the health care industry, advocates and voters.
48:30
But the GOP plan making its way through Congress would
48:34
sharply increase the number of people without health insurance, largely
48:38
by narrowing the path for poor Americans to gain coverage
48:42
and making it easier for them to be booted off.
48:45
It would target the twin pillars of Medicaid expansion and
48:49
federally subsidize insurance marketplaces with new rules Republicans say will
48:54
reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. That's a notable departure from
48:59
the Obamacare repeal in her Place Republicans pursued for years,
49:03
but an approach that still undermines the law's broad goal
49:07
of getting most Americans covered. It is very much like
49:11
a back door repeal in her Place, said Matt Sallow,
49:15
former executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors
49:19
and now a health care consultant. They've been too cute
49:23
by half by doing it but not calling it. That
49:27
animosity toward the Affordable Care Act, which still exists among
49:31
some Republicans, isn't what gave rise to this latest slate
49:34
of proposed cuts. Rather, it was a need to help
49:38
pay for extending Trump's tax breaks in the Budget Reconciliation
49:42
bill the President has urged them to pass. This summer
49:46
House Republicans managed to find more than eight hundred billion
49:50
dollars over ten years in savings for Medicaid and the
49:53
market places in a bill they passed last month, which
49:57
is now under consideration in the Senate. The Congressional Budget
50:01
Office has estimated that should their bill become law, seven
50:05
point six million fewer people would be enrolled in Medicaid
50:09
and three point one million fewer would be enrolled in
50:12
the market places than would be on the rolls a
50:15
decade from now. Their not calling this a c A
50:19
repeal in her place, but the coverage losses would be
50:23
among many of the same people who would have lost
50:26
their insurance under a c A repeal, said Larry Levitt,
50:30
Executive vice president for health Policy at k f F.
50:34
States would face new mandates and restrictions under the go
50:37
P bill. They would need to verify Medicaid expansion eligibility
50:42
every six months instead of once a year. They could
50:46
no longer sign up the lowest income market place enrollees,
50:50
throughout the year, they would have to collect more paperwork
50:53
from certain market place applicants. The open enrollment period would
50:57
be shortened by a month. The bill would also delay
51:01
two bidinary regulations aimed at easing and streamlining enrollment by
51:06
helping people more easily transition between Medicaid and Children's Health
51:11
insurance program and private marketplace plans. Taken together, those changes
51:17
would amount to the biggest slash and enrollment since repeal
51:21
failed eight years ago. Except for when states resumed eligibility
51:25
checks after a pause during the coronavirus pandemic, states would
51:30
face a steeper burden in administering their Medicaid programs and
51:33
market places, resulting in eligible people losing coverage, said Edwin Park,
51:39
a research professor at the Georgetown University mc Court School
51:42
of Public Policies Center for Children and Families. You can
51:47
imagine the state is completely overwhelmed because you have to
51:50
create and administer a complex system, Park said. Supporters of
51:55
the legislation insist the purpose of the GOP bill is
51:59
to s shore it up for the most vulnerable Americans,
52:03
the pregnant women, poor children, and disabled people. It was
52:06
originally intended to cover. If you read the actual language
52:11
we're working with. It is designed for one major purpose,
52:15
to allow the President of the United States and the
52:18
governors who run the states to align on what we
52:21
should be doing for the most vulnerable members of the population.
52:25
Memot Oz, who runs the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid,
52:29
said on Politico's The Conversation podcasts, which posted Sunday. Medicaid
52:35
has become too big, costly, and wasteful, said Representative Brett Guthrie,
52:40
Republican from Kentucky, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
52:45
which wrote the Medicaid part of the GOP bill. Undoubtedly
52:49
Democrats will use it as an opportunity to engage in
52:52
fair mongering and misrepresent our bill as an attack on Medicaid,
52:57
he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op ed. In reality,
53:01
it preserves and strengthens Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities,
53:06
and the elderly for whom the program was designed. Republicans
53:11
swung harder at the Affordable Care Act back in twenty seventeen,
53:15
proposing legislation that was estimated to reduce insurance enrollment by
53:20
three times as much, but since that time, enrollment in
53:23
Medicaid chip and the marketplaces has grown from eighty six
53:28
million Americans to about one hundred million, making them even
53:32
more politically difficult to target. Conservative health policy thinkers, most
53:37
prominently Brian Blaze, whose Medicaid ideas heavily influence the legislation,
53:43
say that's precisely why Medicaid needs to be paired back. Blaze,
53:48
president of Paragon Health Institute, points to the financial realities
53:53
of transforming Medicaid from a safety net that chiefly covered
53:56
the most vulnerable into a broader program that in most
54:00
states now covers people who earn up to forty four
54:03
thousand dollars for a family of four. Medicaid now costs
54:07
the federal and state governments nearly nine hundred billion dollars
54:11
per year, up from five hundred ninety billion dollars in
54:15
twenty seventeen. On top of that, Blaze notes the federal
54:20
government has assumed a larger share of Medicaid spending in
54:23
recent years. That's partly because it covers a much larger
54:27
share of the costs for Medicaid expansion enrollees compared with
54:30
people eligible for the program under the old rules. Additionally,
54:35
states have been using a loophole that allows them to
54:38
collect more federal Medicaid dollars They collect at tax from
54:42
hospitals and other Medicaid providers, which they then pass back
54:46
in the form of higher state payments, drawing down more
54:49
federal matching funds. That maneuver, which plays another Conservatives term
54:55
money laundering, is addressed in the GOP bill, which caps
54:59
state provider taxes and ban states from establishing new ones.
55:04
There has been a massive cost shift from the states
55:07
to the federal government. Blaise said, I think reform needs
55:11
to put more responsibility back in the states. I think
55:15
we have a better Medicaid program when states are spending
55:18
their own money. Some Senate Republicans, as they did in
55:22
twenty seventeen, are balking at the cuts. Chief among them
55:26
is Senator Josh Holly, Republican from Missouri, who has called
55:30
them morally wrong and politically suicidal. More than one million
55:35
Missouri residents are on Medicaid the state expanded the program
55:39
in twenty twenty one. Republicans who do support the cuts
55:43
insist they're just going after waste in medicaid and the
55:47
market places by kicking ineligible people off the rules. They're
55:52
looking at fraud, waste, and abuse, and nobody minds that
55:55
Trump said on Meet the Press on May fourth. There
55:58
are no reliable estimates of fraud in medicaid, but reports
56:02
by the Department of Health and Human Services, Expected General,
56:06
and the Justice Department have indicated that providers like nursing homes,
56:10
paying clinics and ambulance services, not recipients, are largely the
56:15
culprits investigators who detect and root out that fraud. Medicate
56:20
fraud control units, the HIHS, Inspector General, and the DOJ
56:25
wouldn't get any new funding under the GOP bill. It
56:29
does require states to take more steps to ensure no
56:33
dead people are on the rolls and conduct extra screening
56:36
of medical providers, but those modest provisions frequently touted by
56:41
Republicans aren't estimated to provide any savings. Democrats and many
56:47
health policy experts charge that there's so little frauded medicaid
56:50
in the market places that the coverage losses will mainly
56:54
be among people who are eligible but fail to jump
56:57
through all the new hoops created by the GOP legislation.
57:02
They're branding it as eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, which
57:06
is ridiculous, said Leslie Dock, who worked on health care
57:09
in the Obama administration and now heads the Democratic Alligned
57:13
Group Protect our Care. Doc and other Democrats are particularly
57:18
upset about the bill's new work requirements, which produce about
57:22
one third of the savings. The biggest chunk. Working age
57:25
adults in the Medicaid expansion would have to prove to
57:29
state Medicaid programs at least twice per year that they're
57:33
either working or volunteering at least eighty hours a month.
57:37
Health policy analysts say that would have little effect on
57:40
labor force participation because most Medicaid enrollees already work. Eight
57:46
percent of healthy working age adults who use Medicaid in
57:50
twenty twenty three were unemployed and weren't care giving or
57:54
attending school, according to k FF, a non partisan organization
57:59
that does health policy research. Yet work requirements are popular,
58:04
supported by more than half of Americans and eight and
58:07
ten Republicans, and a recent k f F poll that
58:11
could bode well for Republicans in their effort to sell
58:14
the bill to the public. Unfortunately, we will be unable
58:18
to complete this item due to the constraints of time.
58:22
This concludes the reading of the Washington post for to day, Tuesday,
58:26
June third, twenty twenty five. Your reader has been Cindy Fraser.
58:30
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions concerning this program,
58:35
please feel free to call us at A five nine
58:38
four two two six three nine zero. Thank you for
58:41
listening and now please stay tuned for continued programming on
58:45
Radio I