1500+ “Zombie Programs”, Over 8% of Federal Budget Spending at $516 billion, is Unauthorized, Possibly Illegal

by Assistant Editor Apr. 4, 2025 6:00 pm

A federal program is separately authorized and funded by Congress. If a program is not authorized, or authorized at a specific level, it is not supposed to receive funding. But because of Congressional inaction, apathy, and inattention, these programs regularly receive such funding even though they lack legal authorization.

491 specifically-identified unauthorized programs and federal spending accounts for roughly 8% of the annual federal budget of $6.45 trillion, or $516 billion dollars. The DOGE effort to cut government fraud, waste, and abuse has so far saved taxpayers $140 billion by comparison.

The Congressional Budget Office couldn’t find or estimate the dollar amounts spent by the other 1,000 zombie programs they identified.

According to a recent investigation by RealClearInvestigations, the United States government is quietly funding what experts are calling “zombie programs” — agencies and initiatives that legally expired but are kept alive through backdoor budget tricks and annual appropriations

In 2016, candidate Trump even mentioned this concept of refusing to pay for unauthorized programs as a way to get more funding to the military. The media ‘fact checked’ Trump’s claim as ‘false’ even though it was true, because, they said, Congress doesn’t have to follow the law.

One of the most egregious examples? The Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a taxpayer-funded outfit originally established to provide free legal assistance to low-income Americans. Congress let its authorization expire in 1980, yet the agency is still alive and well in 2025 — operating with 135 employees and a $560 million budget.

Republicans in 2011 tried to make modest cuts to the LSC, and the left-wing mainstream media said it would cause major social problems. Leftist media said it was going to “gut a crucial anti-poverty lifeline.” Left-wing non-profits rallied to protect this subsidy and corporate welfare to the nation’s attorneys.

The LSC has long been accused of funding politically motivated litigation, supporting left-leaning advocacy groups, and diverting taxpayer money into causes far beyond its original mandate. In past decades, LSC grantees have been caught assisting in lawsuits to block welfare reform, challenging voter ID laws, and filing environmental and immigration-related lawsuits aimed at advancing progressive policy goals rather than defending the poor in court. Some grantees have used federal funds to lobby state legislatures, coordinate with activist networks, and even sue landlords and small businesses en masse under dubious legal theories.

45 years after it was supposed to be shut down, the LSC is still spending hundreds of millions with zero legislative oversight.

This problem has been plaguing Congress for years, and many white papers and organizations have attempted to bring this problem to the legislature’s attention for many years…..

More https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/1500-zombie-programs-8-federal-budget-spending-516/

South Korean Populist President Removed from Office, continuing an international trendline

by John Mills Apr. 4, 2025 3:40 pm

Commentary

We now have a distinct trendline.  The United States, Brazil, Romania, Hungary, France, and now South Korea have all faced crushing attacks on their societies because of the rise of Populist leaders.  Populism is the mortal danger to Globalism and China.  Globalists and China will work together to ensure a populist leader is defeated, removed, and subject to extensive and crushing lawfare to render them powerless.

At approximately 1030pm Eastern Time on April 3, the South Korean Constitutional Court decided 8-0 for sustaining the impeachment and immediately removing President Yoon from office.  It is looking like up until April 1st, the Justices were leaning to nullify the impeachment until the senior judge changed his mind and the other judges fell into place.  Unclear what changed his mind, but this is one of the differences in the South Korean and American Court systems, there is this atmosphere of conforming to the consensus in South Korea.  President Yoon was from the People Power Party, a relatively recent creation of conservatives and populists who came together to fight the insipid growth of the Korean Democrat Party (KDP).

Since 2017 the KDP has grown in strength and continued to win elections despite what the public sentiment appeared to be.  It started with the May 2017 elections in the wake of the impeachment and removal of a previous President, Park Geun-hye, of the Grand National Party, the pre-existing conservative Party.  There were valid issues about Park, but her circumstances were also leveraged to call for Presidential Elections, which the KDP won after the episode with Park.

The KDP has grown in strength in the National Assembly and a corrupt leftist, Moon Jae-in won the 2017 Presidential election and soon eliminated 100s of Military and Intelligence officials and dismantled the Intelligence Agency’s ability to defend against North Korea and China to consolidate his power and strengthen his ties with China.  The elections in 2017 and 2020 were fraught with fraud issues.  The Korean Election Commission (KEC) and the Association of World Election Bureaus (A-Web) have the USAID Logo on their websites which is now explains much of what the KEC and A-Web were really up to and who was paying them.

Yoon’s removal was a huge and hurtful loss to months of amazing, never before seen mass demonstrations from the Korean populist movement.  With the South Korean Constitutional Court decision to sustain the impeachment of President Yoon it means he is immediately removed from the Presidency and the Presidential Residency of South Korea.

The unanimous outcome of the court was shocking.  In addition, new elections will be conducted within 60 days.

The supporters of the KDP waved Blue, Green, and Antifa Flags (Blue and Green normally reflect Communist leanings).  The very upset Populists waived South Korean and American Flags.  The different flags explain everything

To South Koreans who are anguished: this is what Americans had to undergo since 2020.

Many Americans were upset, were angry, and some felt it was over.

But those who supported Donald J. Trump formed, stormed, and prevailed through four years of a twisting landscape of daily obstacles from the Communists and Deep States, and now President Trump is back, but the fight continues daily.

The lesson learned is to never give up, never surrender.  The South Koreans must be Identify the causes and methods of the fraud and relentlessly expose them despite a corrupt domestic media.

The good news is that the USAID ATM has been cut off, and there will be a new U.S. Ambassador in place soon.

More https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/south-korean-populist-president-removed-office-continuing-international/