The latest partial government shutdown has ended, and two facts stand out: Washington will keep spending like a drunken sailor, and Republicans squandered their cleanest leverage point to rein it in.

Start with the number that matters: The House approved $1.25 trillion in additional discretionary appropriations. That decision pushes the annual deficit toward $1.75 trillion. Republicans voted for it, complained about it, and then acted surprised that the spending binge continued.

If Republicans keep missing moments like this one, investors will keep moving into gold and silver, not out of ideology, but out of self-preservation.

The shutdown fight should have forced a trade. Democrats focused on cutting Department of Homeland Security funding. Republicans had options beyond folding. They could have demanded real cuts elsewhere, then used Democrats’ own political pain points to make the deal stick.

One obvious target sat in plain sight. The Trump administration proposed a 50% cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That should thrill the MAHA crowd. Democrats hate what they call ICE “overreach.” Republicans despise what they view as CDC mission creep and pandemic-era abuses.

Congress could have paired both cuts and sold it as a reset: trim enforcement and trim the public health bureaucracy, then avoid another shutdown. Democrats could claim restraint at the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans could claim restraint at the CDC. Taxpayers would finally get something besides another blank check.

Instead, Republicans let the moment pass, and voters got another spending package.

Don’t expect the next round to improve. Markets already read Washington’s behavior as a warning label. Gold and silver prices sit at record highs because investors smell what Congress refuses to admit: Deficits at this scale produce either inflation, higher taxes, or both.

Central banks have acted on that judgment for years. They have moved away from dollars and Treasuries and into gold. Poland’s central bank led global gold purchases in October and November last year. That shift isn’t a protest from adversaries alone. It reflects a broader conclusion, from allies and rivals alike, that Washington keeps making promises it cannot afford to keep.

RELATED: Congress needs to go big or go home

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

The trend looks set to continue. Goldman Sachs expects central banks to buy roughly 60 metric tons of gold per month in the year ahead. Retail demand is rising too. Gold-backed exchange-traded funds reportedly absorbed about 800 metric tons in 2025 as investors searched for an asset that doesn’t depend on congressional self-control.

Frederic Panizzutti of Numismatica Genevensis explains the appeal plainly: Gold’s simplicity attracts buyers “as geopolitics and geoeconomics have become more complicated.”

Americans across the political spectrum want to abolish wasteful agencies. Congress won’t do it. Fine. Then at least cut budgets hard enough to prove lawmakers can say no to constituencies, lobbyists, and the permanent bureaucracies that treat every crisis as a looting opportunity.

Washington’s real problem isn’t a lack of authority. It’s a lack of restraint. Entitlement growth, debt service, and a bipartisan appetite for militarized foreign policy push the country toward instability at home and abroad. Politicians focus on the next election and leave the bill to the next generation.

If Republicans keep missing moments like this one, the dollar’s erosion will accelerate. Investors will keep moving into gold and silver, not out of ideology, but out of self-preservation.

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The Trump administration ordered the removal of a Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument celebrating a riot by gay males against police in the ’60s.

The order said only U.S. flags and other authorized flags can be displayed at sites managed by the National Park Service.

‘New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.’

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed his outrage against the order in a post on the X social media platform.

“I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument,” Mamdani wrote. “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history. Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it.”

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said he would re-raise the flag at the monument Tuesday, along with other New York City-area politicians.

The national monument commemorates a riot against police by gay males in Greenwich Village. LGBTQ+ activists cite the rioting as a turning point in the gay rights movement. The monument was established under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

“I think it’s important that we speak out and stand up for the community, frankly, just as our forebears, who exhibited much more courage back in 1969,” Hoylman-Sigal said in an interview Tuesday. “This is not a moment for our community to stand by idly as attempts to undermine our history are put forward by Trump and the federal administration.”

“I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors — without exception,” Mamdani continued in his X post.

RELATED: Trans activists are outraged that Twitter has quietly removed restrictions on ‘dead-naming’ and misgendering people

A similar outrage erupted from LGBTQ activists in February when the Trump administration stripped the “T” and the “Q” from LGBTQ at Stonewall. Protesters vandalized the sign at the monument to add the word “transgender.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) denounced the Trump administration at the time.

“This is just cruel and petty,” she responded. “Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased.”

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California Democrats are seeking to replace missing revenue after they passed an electric car mandate that undermined inflows from a gasoline tax.

While some are pushing a tax-by-the-mile to reclaim the revenue, a backlash from Californians has led to Democrats backing off from the proposal.

‘We already pay the highest gas taxes in the nation. Now Sacramento is talking about adding a new tax for every mile people drive.’

Democrats have known the state would be hit with lower tax revenue since 2023 when an independent legislative analyst released a report saying the mandate would lead to a loss of $5 billion per year by 2035. The gas tax is also affected by increased vehicle gas efficiency.

However, when Republicans in the state raised the alarm about the possibility of a mileage tax, legislative staffers in Sacramento said they were hit with angry calls from voters against it.

The outrage was so strong that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was forced to address the controversy.

“Studying a concept is not enacting it,” his press office wrote on social media Wednesday. “Despite national support from prominent *conservatives* like the Cato Institute, there is no mileage tax proposal in California — and the Governor would not sign one.”

Democrats were also hit with angry messages on social media.

RELATED: LA Times gets obliterated online for scolding people wanting to leave high-tax California

“Californians are already getting crushed by the cost of food, housing, power, and gas,” Republican Assembly Leader Heath Flora said. “We already pay the highest gas taxes in the nation. Now Sacramento is talking about adding a new tax for every mile people drive.”

Newsom is widely considered to be trying to expand his national brand recognition in preparation for a possible presidential campaign in 2028.

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While the previous Epstein file dumps have proven to offer little information for the general public to work with, the latest Epstein files release has revealed just how evil some of the most powerful people really are — and naturally, BlazeTV contributor William Wolfe from the Center for Baptist Leadership is among those incredibly disturbed.

“What stood out to you the most about what is, you know, the most revealing Epstein file dump yet?” Deace asks Wolfe.

“I would say two things. One is that the conspiracy theorists are proven right yet again,” Wolfe says. “There is this cabal of truly horrific, disgusting, pedophilic people running things in our country and globally. And, you know, Alex Jones just stays winning and vindicated on this overall theme of, the worst people you could ever imagine are in charge.”

“The second thing that really stood out to me is just the total banality of evil. I mean, they’re just kind of dumb, evil, disgusting people. You know, they just happen to also have power. These are the same kind of evil people you could run into any day on the street. Yet somehow this cadre of individuals managed to take this evil to the highest levels of power and influence across our government,” he continues.

“And so, I mean, really in some ways it’s not that surprising. But it’s shocking, it’s revealing, it’s disgusting. But this is just, like, what we’re up against. It is a fight of good versus evil from the top to the bottom, from your everyday life at your city council to the highest levels of government,” he adds.

Wolfe believes that this is definitive proof that we’re in a “spiritual battle of good versus evil.”

“I don’t know how you look at these files and come away from that with any other conclusion,” he says.

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To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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A nonprofit organization linked to the wife of the mayor of Baltimore is facing intense scrutiny after it ended operations despite taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to WBFF-TV.

The mission of the Bmore Empowered nonprofit was to encourage black women and girls to excel in entrepreneurship and “holistic wellness,” according to its website. It was first founded in 2017 and came to be led by Hana Scott in Sept. 2021 until Sept. 2025.

‘This is not a pause. It is the end of a beautiful chapter.’

Her tenure as director of operations ended the same day that Bmore Empowered announced an “organizational pause.”

The organization is reportedly behind on tax filings, has been sued for unpaid rent, and is listed as “delinquent” on the state’s charity database.

In July 2022, Hana Scott went public about her relationship with Baltimore’s mayor, and Bmore Empowered got a surge of new funding.

The taxpayer-funded Downtown Partnership of Baltimore granted the group $80,000 at an event attended by the Scotts. The Baltimore City government gave the group taxpayer-funded payments that added up to $34,950 by 2024. And the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, also paid for by taxpayer money, sent the organization $62,500.

Despite this, Bmore Empowered failed to report a tax form for the 2024 fiscal year, which was due to the IRS in May 2025.

WBFF reported that the organization did not respond to questions about how it intends to spend the taxpayer money. Hana Scott did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment, and the mayor’s office did not respond to questions about a possible conflict of interest, among others.

The report said that Bmore Empowered paused operations in September, but a post on its Facebook page Monday said the organization was coming to a close, adding, “This is not a pause. It is the end of a beautiful chapter.”

In addition to all of the taxpayer funds that Bmore Empowered received, the group obtained $175,000 from Open Society in 2022, which is funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros. The donation was part of a campaign by the Alliance for Open Society International to provide millions in funding for organizations in the Baltimore area.

RELATED: Nonprofit claimed to provide daily brown-bag meals to thousands of students — schools say they got nothing

WBFF also documented how Bmore Empowered received tens of thousands of dollars from the BOOST program of the Downtown Partnership to open a storefront and failed to do so. Instead, it opened offices at a separate location and then was sued for not paying rent at that location. The landlord won a financial judgment against the group when no one showed in court.

A Blaze News request for comment from the Bmore Empowered organization was not answered.

Despite pausing operations, Bmore Empowered continues to sell T-shirts on its website.

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