For some in Chicago, Universal Basic Income came early…

Such was the case when approximately $300,000 was reported stolen last week after bags of cash tumbled from a Brinks Home Security Company truck in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, according to a police complaint, the New York Post and NBC. 

Brinks stated that the truck’s rear door opened by “unknown means,” causing three bags filled with U.S. currency to spill out. 

While driving south on Austin Boulevard last Tuesday, a Brinks driver lost three bags of cash, according to a police complaint. When the driver returned, 50 to 100 people were seen grabbing money and fleeing. Brinks estimated the loss at $300,000. As of Friday, Oak Park officials said no arrests had been made.

We’re sure whoever opened the door was “just looking for bread to feed their family”, to borrow AOC’s parlance…

…and hey – wait til they found out those dollars have already lost 9% of their purchasing power…but we digress.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Congressional Democrats said on April 29 that the Trump administration has blocked about $430 billion in federal funding and that they are chronicling how it is stopping the flow of funds.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, released a tracker on April 29 to “shine a light on President Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in every zip code in America.”

“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro. They said the funding that was cut or frozen by the Trump administration had been approved by Congress.

The powerful Appropriations committees in the House and the Senate, where Republicans have majority control of both chambers, draft the annual funding bills that Congress passes and sends to the president’s desk for his signature to become law.

Since taking office in January, Trump has said that he wants to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government while seeking to terminate various programs that don’t align with his administration’s priorities.

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created via an executive order in January by the president and is tasked with those efforts. According to its website, DOGE says it has saved an estimated $160 billion, or around $993 per taxpayer.

The White House, which has not responded to the Democrats’ claims, did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment.

In a news release on Tuesday, Democrats highlighted some programs that were slashed under the Trump administration, including $1 billion for HeadStart, which provides early childhood education, health, and nutrition services.

They noted $12 million in canceled funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program that gives grants to nonprofits to “prevent housing discrimination.” They also cited nearly $1 billion for the Green and Resilient Retrofit program; $10 million for the Citizen and Integration Grant program; $80 million in grants and contracts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more.

The Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the administration’s cuts to federal agencies.

“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” said Musk, a senior presidential adviser and special government employee, in an appearance at the White House in February. “That’s what democracy is all about.”

This past week, after Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla posted lower-than-expected profits and revenue for the first quarter of 2025, Musk told investors on a call that his work with DOGE will drop significantly in the next month or so. In any case, as a special government employee, Musk can work only 130 days for the government before departing.

Musk said he will continue to support the Trump administration and DOGE “to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back.”

In a statement released by the White House, Trump said that DOGE is designed to bring “accountability and transparency to federal spending, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively,” which he said, “has already saved taxpayers billions of dollars.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.