Tag: taxes

Philly mayor yells at public, asks ‘how dare’ they question how much she wants to tax

n one of the most out-of-touch examples I’ve seen of Democrats in recent weeks, we’ve now got Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker yelling at her constituents over a new tax she wants on each and every ride-sharing journey: if enacted, all Uber and Lyft rides would have an additional dollar tacked on (to support the dying city education system), which in a substantial number of instances, wouldn’t be a miniscule tax. (The average cost of a rideshare in Philadelphia is somewhere between $16 and $24, or 6.25% and 4%, respectively.)

Parker wonders “how dare” the citizens and voters question how much she wants to take out of their pockets for others’ expenses.

Just so we’re all clear, this same woman just marched against “kings” a few weeks back, and even showed up as a featured speaker (via video) for her city’s protest…now imposing unpopular taxes by royal decree.

For context, under Cherelle Parker’s “leadership,” the public school system is facing a $300-million deficit, which according to the superintendent, “is driven by salary increases… rising charter school payments, and higher healthcare costs.” Entry-level teaching positions start around $54,000—in a school district where a whopping 85% of kids don’t test at or above a “proficient” level in their studies, according to the “Nation’s Report Card” data. Ironically, you may remember that Parker is the same woman who in 2025, made headlines when she couldn’t even spell “Eagles,” as in the Philadelphia Eagles. Her city’s own NFL team. A five-letter word. “E-L-G-S-E-S!”

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Kathy Hochul Faces Backlash After Reversing Course on Taxes Amid NYC Proposal

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing criticism after backing a new tax proposal targeting wealthy property owners in New York City, a move that critics say contradicts her earlier pledge not to raise taxes, as reported by The New York Post.

The controversy centers on a proposed pied-à-terre tax that would apply to certain high-value secondary residences in the city.

The plan, which has been discussed in Albany for years, gained renewed attention after Hochul signaled support for it in recent days.

The proposal would target roughly 13,000 second homes in New York City valued at $5 million or more.

According to the governor’s office, the surcharge is expected to generate at least $500 million annually, with the revenue intended to help address the city’s estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit.

Hochul’s shift comes after months of pressure from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and members of the Democratic Socialists of America, who have pushed for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations.

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Dr. Oz on Insane Fraud: After Stopping Payments to 450 Hospices in CA, NOT ONE Has Asked for Reinstatement of Funds

In March, investigative journalist Nick Shirley released video on uncovering $170 million in fraud in California.

“We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences,” Nick Shirley said.

“California’s version of Medicaid called ‘Medi-Cal’ has more than doubled since 2022 from $108 billion to a proposed $222 billion in 2026. Their population, however, has not grown exponentially. However, their spending has,” Nick Shirley said.

“There has been a 1,000 percent increase in hospice care in Los Angeles County,” Nick Shirley said. It’s estimated that the fraud in California could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Nick Shirley visited ‘hospices’ in Los Angeles and ‘daycares’ in San Diego.

In early April, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announced his office had charged 21 suspects in a $267 million hospice fraud ring in Southern California.

A Trump administration Fraud Task Force also conducts raids against healthcare fraudsters across the southern part of the state. Eight people were arrested and charged with over $50 MILLION in fraud.

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“Mamdani Mart” Exposes The Inefficiency Of Socialism In One Chart

Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z New Media published the most popular charts of the week on financial markets, but the most revealing one came at the end of the note: a comparison suggesting that New York City’s first grocery store, which will soon be run by unhinged socialists, will be structurally less efficient than private-sector supermarkets.

But who cares when it’s not taxpayer monies?

According to the New York Post, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed city-owned grocery store in East Harlem would require roughly $30 million in taxpayer funding.

At just 9,000 square feet, the project implies a construction cost of about $3,000 per square foot – an exceptionally and alarmingly high number by grocery industry standards. 

From an economic standpoint, the “Mamdani Mart” underscores a familiar pattern: state-directed supermarkets often fail to achieve the cost discipline, operational efficiency, and scale seen in private-sector chains.

This story has played out time and again in the U.S., as unhinged left-wingers have experimented with socialism:

The end result is Cuba.

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Zohran Mamdani to Introduce New York City to Exciting New Innovation of… Trash Cans – By 2031

New York City’s new democratic socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani took a moment this week to tell people of the city about an exciting new invention called rat-proof trash bins, which he will be implementing by the year 2031.

You absolutely could not make this up.

Couldn’t he put these bins all over the city by say… this coming week if he wanted to? Who needs a five-year plan to put out trash cans?

WABC News in New York reports:

Containerized trash is expanding to six more New York City districts by the end of 2027, as the Mamdani administration targets citywide containerization by 2031.

Businesses and low-density residential buildings are already required to put their trash bags in containers for pickup.

Over the next year, the Sanitation Department will distribute large Empire Bins to all residential buildings with 30 units or more in the six districts.

Officials say 6,500 large Empire garbage bins will be rolled out for more than 3,500 buildings in this expansion.

They can be only opened by building staff with a keycard, or by sanitation workers…

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement, “In the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have their sidewalks covered in garbage. By finishing the job on containerization, we will ensure New York City’s streets remain the envy of the world. We have the plan, we’re investing the money and we’re delivering on the promise of clean, healthy streets for every neighborhood.”

He actually did an announcement about this.

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DOJ says Mamdani would be sued if he tries requiring white neighborhoods to pay higher property tax

he U.S. Justice Department said it would sue New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he tries requiring white neighborhoods to pay higher property taxes.

Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, was responding to a socal media post about a New York Post front page from the NYC mayoral campaign.

“This is illegal. If it happens, expect a lawsuit. Or many,” she wrote.

Earlier this month, Mamdani released details of his current tax plan, which includes requiring luxury second homes to pay higher property taxes.

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Air National Guard Leaders Urge Congress To Fund Dozens Of New Fighter Jets Annually To Reverse ‘Oldest, Smallest, Least Ready’ Air Force

Leaders of the Air National Guard are pressing Congress to dramatically accelerate fighter jet procurement, warning that the U.S. Air Force is operating at historic lows in age, size, and readiness.

In a letter sent earlier this month to key congressional appropriators, adjutants general from 22 states with Air National Guard fighter units called for funding at least 72 new fighter jets in the fiscal 2027 budget, with an optimal target of 108 aircraft per year across the entire Air Force.“

The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest, and the least ready in its 78-year history,” the letter states. “We must build a fighting force that will win,” reports Stars and Stripes.

The signatories argue that simply shifting older “legacy” fighters from active-duty units to the Guard and Reserve does not constitute true modernization. “Cascading legacy fighters from the active component to the reserve component is NOT recapitalization,” they wrote.

Specific Procurement RequestsThe generals are urging Congress to approve multiyear procurement authority for:

  • A baseline of 48 F-35A Lightning II and 24 F-15EX Eagle II fighters per year.
  • Scaling up in future years to 72 F-35As and 36 F-15EXs annually, reaching the 108-aircraft target.

These new jets would replace aging fleets of F-15C Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and F-16 Fighting Falcons still in service.

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Doug Ford’s $29-million taxpayer funded gravy plane

Doug Ford did not rise to power as a champagne-sipping man of luxury. He rose to power off the back of a family brand built on resentment of the political class — the insiders, the freeloaders, the entitled crowd riding what Rob Ford memorably called the gravy train.

That was the whole point. The Fords were supposed to be the ones who hated the perks, hated the waste, hated the fancy nonsense that politicians always seem to justify for themselves and deny to everyone else.

And that is why this latest move lands with such force.

Ontario has now confirmed the purchase of a pre-owned 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 for $28.9 million, a jet the government says is needed to provide the premier with more certain, flexible, secure and confidential travel.

And let’s be honest about what makes this so politically toxic: it is not merely the cost. It is the class signal.

No serious person denies that aircraft can be useful tools for executives or government leaders. A small working plane for getting around a massive province on a tight schedule is one thing. A luxury intercontinental jet is something else entirely.

The Ford government says this purchase is about travel. But a Challenger 650 does not look like fiscal restraint. It looks like a politician who has been in power too long, surrounded by too many people telling him he deserves the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

That is a far cry from the Doug Ford who once boasted, in 2019, that he refused to use the premier’s plane. As reported by CHCH News and highlighted again by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Ford used to present himself as the rare politician who did not need that kind of pampered treatment.

What changed?

Not the average Ontarian’s finances. Those have only gotten worse. Housing is brutal. Debt is crushing. The cost of living has done real social damage, especially to younger people trying to start families and build anything resembling a middle-class life.

And Ontario is hardly swimming in prosperity. The province’s industrial base has been weakening for years. The auto sector is under pressure. Manufacturing has been hollowed out over decades. Yet somehow, amid all that economic anxiety, the province has found room in the budget for a premier’s luxury aircraft.

That is why the issue cuts deeper than an aviation procurement story. This is about transformation. Doug Ford was elected as a blunt instrument against elite entitlement. But after years in office, he increasingly looks like another politician who has learned to love the comforts of power.

There is also the simple common-sense test. If the purpose were purely practical — quick regional travel, security, efficiency — a smaller working aircraft would be easier to defend. Ontarians can understand the case for a tool. What they are being asked to accept here is a status symbol.

And once governments buy status symbols, taxpayers are expected to suspend all instincts and trust that the thing will never be abused, never become normalized, never be folded into the culture of insiders, handlers, entourages and political vanity. That requires more faith than this government has earned.

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US to Create 4000-Acre High-Tech Economic Security Zone in the Philippines

The United States and the Philippines are set to build a 4,000-acre industrial hub after Manila became the latest government to sign up to a Washington-led initiative to secure semiconductor supply chains needed for artificial intelligence, the U.S. State Department announced on April 17.

The move makes the Philippines the 13th country to join “Pax Silica,” an international program that aims to secure the full technology supply chain, including critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, computing, and data infrastructure.

The initiative is a key aspect of President Donald Trump’s economic strategy aimed at reducing the United States’ dependence on rival nations and strengthening cooperation among allied partners, with the State Department describing it as “a positive-sum partnership of nations who want to remain competitive and prosperous.”

Other signatories to Pax Silica include Australia, Finland, India, Israel, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK.

The new hub will be erected in New Clark City, the Philippines’ planned metropolis north of Manila, which is owned and developed by the government through the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

New Clark City sits within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a strategic hub that includes Manila and neighboring regions to the capital.

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Florida officials warned to avoid reparations-style effort as state gears up to restrict DEI even further

Leon County, Florida, wants to address “historical harms” like many other local municipalities, cities and states, but was warned against it.

The Leon County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday in Tallahassee to revive a measure that would address historical harms by conducting a study of the past and providing some sort of compensation.

However, county leaders must also comply with the new incoming state law, SB 1134, banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across public institutions and local governments. The Florida House in March approved legislation to ban local governments from funding, promoting, or taking official actions related to DEI initiatives.

Commissioners changed the language of the county’s initiative to avoid any state or federal law violations by slashing all references to slavery, DEI and reparations.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Leon County government staff asked commissioners to avoid the measure as they risk losing $16.8 million in grant money and potentially being removed from the board.

“SB 1134, in part, prohibits the County from funding, promoting, or taking any official action related to DEI and creates a cause of action that may be brought by a resident against a county that violates the bill,” staff reportedly wrote in the agenda.

“The bill also provides that a member of a county commission acting in his or her official capacity who violates the prohibitions commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office and is subject to removal.”

Beyond Florida, reparations have been a growing trend by lawmakers at the local to state level. Similar to Leon County, local municipalities and states have adopted or are considering adopting task forces to study historical harms of slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining policies that led to housing discrimination. 

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