This Week In Waste – September 26, 2025
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior.
CAGW Names Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) September 2025 Porker of the Month
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) its September 2025 Porker of the Month for pushing billions in reckless new spending that would drain the state’s Rainy-Day Fund and deepen the budget deficit. His demands have caused a three-month budget impasse and threatened Pennsylvania’s long-term fiscal stability.
A failed experiment in reducing medical costs is ripe for elimination
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) was created as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and tasked with testing and creating new models to reduce costs and improve healthcare quality in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Instead, CMMI has cost taxpayers money and failed to help patients. The program is also unaccountable and, after 15 years of failure, must be eliminated. Read more here.
WSJ Reinforces the Fight Against Waste and Abuse in Healthcare
Poor oversight has allowed large hospitals to exploit the 340B Drug Pricing Program to increase their profits instead of helping patients receive drug discounts. A September 21, 2025, Wall Street Journal editorial joined growing bipartisan calls for reform, including support for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s rebate pilot program, which would increase accountability and transparency by requiring claims to be filed with manufacturers rather than getting up-front discounts. Read more here.
Europe’s Privacy Rules Should Not Shape America’s
The U.S. needs a clear federal data privacy framework to replace the costly patchwork of state laws, which could cost consumers and businesses up to $239 billion annually in compliance. The framework should not be based on the European Union General Data Protection Regulation or California’s Consumer Privacy Act, both of which have stifled innovation and impose heavy compliance costs, especially for small businesses. Read more here.
Democrats’ $1.5 trillion demand to keep the government open sets a new record for gall
Senate Democrats are blocking S. 2882, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions and Other Matters Act, which is a clean extension of fiscal year 2025 spending, by demanding $1.5 trillion in wasteful and unnecessary spending in exchange for a deal to avoid a government shutdown on October 1, 2025. With the national debt at $37.3 trillion, Democrats are continuing to push the country over the edge of a fiscal cliff. Read more here.
EU’s Sustainability Requirements Pose “Severe” Costs to American Companies
The European Union (EU) has adopted burdensome corporate sustainability directives that would cover U.S. companies that operate in EU countries, leading 22 Republican attorneys general to urge President Trump to reject them. In their September 23, 2025, letter, the attorneys general argued that these regulations could result in less investment and fewer jobs. Read more here.
