Politics and views in the United States.

The House has passed a budget outline. Elon Musk attends first Trump cabinet meeting. And federal workers leave jobs despite litigation allowing them to stay. 

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

This is the first important step in opening up the reconciliation process.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda.

We're going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it.

And this is the first step in that process.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was able to corral just enough votes to advance a budget to the Senate.

Infighting among Republicans almost kept it from passing.

No House Democrat voted for it, and the only Republican voting no was Thomas Massey of Kentucky.

The spending outline calls for $2 trillion in cuts to safety net programs to pay for extending tax cuts that mostly go to corporations and the wealthiest households.

Congress has to act in two weeks to avoid a government shutdown.

This comes amid continuing confusion among government workers about their employment status.

While the Department of Government Efficiency has been causing chaos, that advisory group's leader Elon Musk is downplaying his part.

He described himself as nothing more than tech support at President Donald Trump's first cabinet meeting and says he's just working to cut the deficit.

We simply cannot sustain a $2 trillion deficit.

Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department's spending.

We spent a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like over a trillion dollars on interest.

If this continues, the country will go, become de facto bankrupt.

A new Office of Personnel Management memo calls for agencies to submit a plan for cutting more jobs by March 13th.

By mid-April, agencies must offer a management reorganization plan and move certain positions out of Washington, D.C.

That's likely to be challenged in court, and a lawsuit in California aims to halt the dismissal of probationary government workers.

Unions and nonprofits want thousands of federal employees to keep their jobs while the suit is litigated.

Plaintiff and retired Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher works with the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.

He says civil servants deserve better.

They were told they were fired because they were bad employees.

But the evidence so far is just the opposite.

They were good employees and it was just an excuse.

So we believe it was an illegal firing and they didn't follow a lawful process.

A key battle looks likely to be Republicans' plans to cut Medicaid, which they say is riddled with fraud.

State officials say the federally funded state-run program that covers low-income families and people with disabilities is actually much more cost-efficient than private health care.

They say without it, millions of pregnant people and rural folks would lose coverage.

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Democrat Nicole Canizaro says the cuts would cause chaos and cost the state billions.

Any Republican tax bill that cuts Medicaid or other essential funding for Nevadans should be at the top of the list to say no to.

Republicans only have a very small majority in the U.S.

House and one courageous Republican could likely stop any Medicaid cuts from happening.

She's pushing her Republican colleagues to vote no, but Republican Nevada Congressman Mark Amodi praises it for prioritizing border security, national defense and domestic energy production.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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