Which specific 2024–2025 Democratic budget line items did Club for Growth and Heritage Action call wasteful?

1. Why the original claim collapses under documentary scrutiny: activists named criticisms, not line-item lists

The documents supplied and summarized by the analysts show that neither Club for Growth nor Heritage Action furnished a detailed roster of 2024–2025 Democratic budget line items described as wasteful. Club for Growth materials in the collection focus on electoral spending, scorecards and broad fiscal principles rather than itemized budget attacks; the organization’s public materials evaluate votes and policy positions rather than publish an exhaustive list of “wasteful” Democratic appropriations ^{[1] [4]}. Heritage Action’s outputs in the bundle include advocacy for rescissions and opinion pieces that name program areas—like public broadcasting and foreign-aid grants—but they are presented as examples and political priorities rather than a systematic, annotated line-by-line charge against the Democratic budget ^{[2] [3]}. The absence of a formal line-item list in these sources undermines any claim of a specific catalogue of wasteful items attributed to both groups.

2. What Heritage Action actually singled out in these excerpts: rescissions and small grants

Heritage Action’s materials in the set explicitly supported a Trump administration rescissions package targeting roughly $9.4 billion in spending, with named targets such as Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS and some foreign-aid allocations administered by USAID ^[2]. Separately, Heritage Foundation commentary—which often overlaps with Heritage Action’s policy positions—compiled examples of small grants the author deemed frivolous, including scholarship and climate-related grants abroad, grants tied to racialized public-health projects, and modest cultural or environmental programs; the list reads as selective examples rather than an official line-by-line attack on a Democratic budget ^[3]. These documents therefore show Heritage-aligned entities prioritizing cuts to media funding, certain foreign-aid projects and DEI-style grants, but they stop short of presenting a comprehensive Democratic budget hit list.

3. What Club for Growth materials emphasize: principles, scorecards, and anti-tax, anti-spending framing

Club for Growth’s published materials in the dataset emphasize broad fiscal principles—reducing taxes, limiting government spending, and judging lawmakers with scorecards—rather than naming particular 2024–2025 Democratic appropriations for elimination ^{[1] [4]}. The organization’s campaign and scorecard documents evaluate congressional votes on economic growth and spending restraint, and advocacy around the Limit, Save, Grow Act targets funding priorities like expanded IRS enforcement and Green New Deal–style credits, but these are programmatic priorities rather than a catalog of Democratic line items ^[5]. In short, Club for Growth’s public messaging is to criticize categories of growth-inhibiting spending (IRS expansion, climate tax credits, student-loan bailouts) rather than to publish a detailed list of Democratic line items identified as wasteful in 2024–2025 ^{[5] [4]}.

4. Points of overlap—and where the record leaves gaps that matter

Both organizations converge on attacking spending categories favored by Democrats—foreign-aid grants, public broadcasting, DEI initiatives, certain health programs, and expanded IRS activity—so the political message is consistent even when itemized evidence is sparse ^{[2] [3] [5]}. However, the provided sources do not show Club for Growth and Heritage Action coordinating or publishing a joint, itemized list of Democratic 2024–2025 budget line items labeled wasteful. That distinction matters for fact-checking: examples cited in opinion pieces and rescission backing are valid indicator points, but they are not the same as an authenticated line-item denunciation released by either group as a comprehensive list ^{[2] [3]}.

5. Bottom line and what to cite next to close the gap

Based on the available documentation, the claim that Club for Growth and Heritage Action called out specific 2024–2025 Democratic budget line items as wasteful is not fully substantiated; the record shows examples and categories, not an authoritative checklist ^{[1] [2] [3]}. To produce a definitive, source-citable line-item list, obtain direct press releases, op-eds, or policy memos from Club for Growth and Heritage Action dated during the 2024–2025 budget cycle or request their formal rescission/line-item proposals; without those primary documents, any published list will be an interpretation of examples rather than a verbatim claim by the groups themselves ^{[1] [4] [3]}.