The GOP majority passed a rescissions package last week that will trim $9 billion in previously approved federal expenditures, some of which included sending money overseas to renovate swimming pools in foreign countries. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the Trump administration is “making sure that when we are spending it is for the benefit of our taxpayers right here in the good old U.S. of A.”

“Wake Up America” host Sharla McBride asked Ernst to comment on her recent post where she said, “Joe Biden used your tax dollars to renovate pools around the world. I am stopping the splashy spending.” Ernst said the DOGE effort has enabled her and her team to “scrutinize government spending.”

“There are open records that we can request. And through that process, we did find out that the federal government was spending $1 million on upgrading pools all around the world — in Russia, Sudan, Indonesia, and even five of them in Iraq. And this is at a time when we know we need to tighten our belts here in the United States,” Ernst said.

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