Democrats Shouldn't Compromise with Russell Vought to End the Shutdown

"OMB chief Russ Vought told House Republicans on a private call Wednesday that the administration will start mass reduction in force moves, or firings, of federal workers in a day or two, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call. Vought and President Donald Trump have both threatened to inflict maximum pain on Democrats during the shutdown as Senate Republicans hope to peel off additional Democrats in the coming days to vote for the GOP-led stopgap to end the standoff."

"Vought warned that money is about to run out for both the nutrition program for low-income moms and babies, known as WIC, and for pay for active-duty members of the military. This is rancid blackmail even by Republican standards, which are stratospheric at this point. Vought couldn't care less if every family dependent on WIC died by the side of the road. He might be a bit more gingerly in approaching military pay, but I wouldn't bet real money on it."

"Vought is an uncompromising ideologue dedicated to some pretty destructive notions on how the country should be run. A year ago, ProPublica ran a prescient piece about him before he returned as director to the OMB. In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought, who served as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump's executive actions."

Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and architect of Project 2025, urged rapid mass reductions in force for federal workers and threatened political pain during a shutdown. He warned funding for the WIC nutrition program and active-duty military pay is close to depletion, framing the shortfalls as leverage. The tactics are described as punitive and ideologically driven. In private speeches, he outlined efforts to craft legal justifications to prevent military leaders or government lawyers from blocking executive actions, and framed those plans as responses to perceived existential threats to the country.

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