In place of the Weekly Update, we present to our many friends and followers the Taxpayer Turkeys of 2025. With so many good candidates, this is the toughest job we have. These paltry (or poultry) politicians gobble up taxpayer dollars, stifle innovation, and put politics before people. With a $38 trillion national debt, rising interest costs, and an economy rattled by political brinkmanship, Americans deserve better than the same reheated ideas that leave taxpayers footing the bill. Unfortunately, 2025 delivered no shortage of bird-brained policies. As is tradition, this year’s turkeys come from both sides of the aisle: House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who helped manufacture a damaging government shutdown while holding federal workers and the broader economy hostage to force through costly Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy extensions; and Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), whose bizarre, heavy-handed proposals threaten to jeopardize the Constitution, crush innovation, and keep
spending far too high.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)

Minority Leader Jeffries earns his turkey feathers for treating taxpayers and consumers like bargaining chips to secure an unhealthy helping of ACA premium tax credits. Instead of working to keep the lights on at federal agencies—or ensuring pay stability for hundreds of thousands of workers and contractors—Jeffries dug in and refused to support a funding agreement unless Congress first committed to continuing the expanded ACA subsidies. As media outlets tirelessly reported, Jeffries made clear that Democrats would not compromise on extending the credits, even as the impasse pushed the country into a shutdown and disrupted paychecks and essential services across the country. All this pain was for the expansion of subsidies that were supposed to be a temporary COVID-era band aid and expire by the end of this year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that expanding out the premium tax credits would add roughly $350 billion to the deficit over the next ten years, while doing nothing to
rein in the underlying drivers of health insurance inflation. In all, taxpayers currently contribute about $100 billion annually to subsidize Obamacare insurance health exchanges, and that number will rise to about $140 billion in 2034. That’s more than $1 trillion over a ten-year period, an inexcusably high amount. TPA has suggested Congress-driven reforms, such as bolstering telehealth availability and pushing states to end laws restricting hospital construction, that would lower the cost of healthcare without basting taxpayers in debt. Jeffries’ strategy conveniently ignores these reforms and exemplifies the worst of Washington. Using shutdown chaos as leverage to keep the gravy train flowing for large insurance companies is just plain wrong.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)

Jeffries isn’t the only turkey on the table. Sen. Hawley continues to push one of the most aggressive—and economically reckless—anti-tech agendas in modern American politics. Hawley’s recently introduced GUARD Act would mandate that artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots implement age verification measures, despite the grave constitutional and privacy concerns posed by these sweeping mandates. The Supreme Court and other federal courts have ruled that age verification mandates that block access to the exercise of First Amendment rights are unconstitutional. Age verification necessarily affects all users—not just children. Besides violating the right to speak anonymously—a right recognized by the High Court in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995)—these mandates impose impermissible burdens on adults’ ability to access speech, whether it’s on chatbots, social media, or at the app store level. As one federal judge wrote in a 2023 opinion enjoining an Arkansas law, “It is likely that m
any adults who otherwise would be interested [in accessing online services] will be deterred – and their speech chilled – as a result of the age-verification requirements.” Unfortunately, Sen. Hawley’s pie-and-stuffing approach to governance doesn’t end with his disregard of the First Amendment. He has predictably stood in the way of any reform that could improve Medicaid, America’s nearly trillion-dollar low-income health insurance program. Summing up the evidence from more than ten years of Medicaid expansion under the ACA, Mercatus Center scholars Liam Sigaud and Markus Bjoerkheim find, “no consistent evidence of lasting health improvements among those targeted by the reform” and even a possible decline in reported “very good” or “excellent” health in the years following expansion. While the One Big Beautiful Bill will improve the program’s function and lower costs, Hawley repeatedly rejected commonsense reforms such as work requirements, more regular auditing, and increased priv
ate-sector participation.

In a year filled with fiscal irresponsibility, political brinkmanship, and economically illiterate policymaking, Jeffries and Hawley take the cake (or apple pie). As families gather for Thanksgiving, taxpayers can at least take solace in one thing: TPA will continue shining a light on the waste, abuse, and misguided policies that leave Americans paying more for less. Here’s hoping 2026 offers fewer turkeys—and more leaders committed to protecting taxpayers rather than plucking them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1101 14^th Street, NW
Suite 500
Washington, D.C.
Office: (202) 930-1716
Mobile: (202) 258-6527
www.protectingtaxpayers.org

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