Some of the gold bars flew under the radar?

Despite President Donald Trump’s pledges to kill Biden-era clean energy spending, a POLITICO analysis has found $600 billion in funding backed by the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law escaped cuts, at least for now.

The surviving funds — more than half of $1 trillion targeted by Trump — are still available though grants, contracts and other direct federal outlays for recipients to spend or agencies to award, as my colleagues Jessie Blaeser, Benjamin Storrow and Kelsey Tamborrino write.

“Why are they keeping it? Because it’s a really important investment in our electricity and energy infrastructure all over the country,” said Heather Boushey, who served on former President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers.

What’s worse is that during April, the Energy Department decided to keep most of the spending, while restoring some funds it had opted to end. The former spending makes sense since it involves power grid upgrades and some fossil fuel activities, but the latter does not.

We’re still trillions of dollars in debt and obviously need a DOGE Part Two.