Tag: taxes

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy SLAPS New York with $73 MILLION Federal Funding Cut for REFUSING to Revoke Illegally Issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses to Illegals

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is withholding a staggering $73,502,543 in federal highway funds from the state of New York.

Because far-left New York Democrats under Governor Kathy Hochul have flat-out refused to revoke thousands of illegally issued nondomiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) handed out in violation of federal law.

Back in December 2025, The Gateway Pundit reported on the FMCSA audit that flagged New York as one of the worst offenders in the nation for rubber-stamping CDLs to non-domiciled drivers, many of them illegal aliens or migrants whose temporary work authorizations had lapsed.

“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership. Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy at the time. “This administration will never stop fighting to keep you and your family safe on our roads.”

On Thursday, the Trump administration stripped the state of New York of more than $73 million in federal highway funding after it failed to revoke thousands of improperly issued commercial learner’s permits and CDLs.

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Spanberger awards $5 MILLION to husband’s firm for Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities project

It has been revealed that Democrat Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed off on grants totaling $18 million to help a company where her husband works in expanding its operations in Orange County, $5 million of which will be awarded to the company directly. The grants will help build the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities in Orange County.

L3Harris, an aerospace technology company as well as a defense contractor, had announced an over $1 billion expansion for solid rocket motor production capacity at the company’s site in Orange County. The grants are part of the project expansion.

“Governor Spanberger approved two grants of $12.5 million and $500,000 from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Orange County with the projects. The Governor also approved a performance-based grant of $5 million from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies. Funding and services to support L3Harris’ employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program,” a press release from Spanberger’s office said.

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‘Happy Tax Day’: NYC Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani Posts Menacing Message to New Yorkers

No one loves April 15th more than Democrats as they dream and plan how to spend your money.

On tax day, radical communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a menacing message to New Yorkers, reminding them that he is coming for them.

The video starts out with Mamdani telling viewers, “When I ran for mayor, I said I was gonna tax the rich.”

Then, with a grin and an attempt at a bit of Hollywood flair (which translated into creepiness), he leaned menacingly into the camera, tapped the lens and declared, “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”

“I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.”

“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich, those who store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here.”

“But even so, they’re able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world. And most of the time, these units are sitting empty since, again, they don’t actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.”

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The ‘Minnesota Millionaire’ Exposed A ‘Fully Weaponized’ Welfare Loophole

They call him the “Minnesota Millionaire,” a wealthy retiree who helped expose how a loophole in the food stamp program is being abused and screwing taxpayers out of billions of dollars. 

“I like to say I audited the program. And what better way to audit the program than to be a part of it?” Rob Undersander told The Federalist in a phone interview this week. 

Over the past decade, the retired engineer has been a crusader against the federal Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE) policy, a welfare enhancer with roots in the Clinton administration that has incentivized wholesale theft from U.S. taxpayers ever since. Undersander has worked alongside the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) to end the BBCE loophole and prevent millionaires like himself from tapping into benefits they have no business receiving. 

In a new video exclusively provided to The Federalist, FGA breaks down the scam that more than 40 states have used to balloon the nation’s welfare rolls. The foundation calls it “fraud by design.”  

“In fact, millions of food stamp recipients exceed the federal asset or income limits,” the video explains. Roughly one in five of those Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients count assets of $100,000 or more, the FGA notes. 

Undersander began “auditing” the SNAP program in 2016 — by collecting SNAP benefits. 

‘Fully Weaponized the Loophole’

The retiree was volunteering at the Central Minnesota Council on Aging, helping seniors sign up for Medicare plans, when he learned about Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility. The loophole helps states bypass federal food stamp eligibility requirements, specifically income and asset thresholds. The latter limits take into account liquid assets, such as cash on hand or readily available money in bank accounts. Wealth in property, retirement accounts, life insurance, personal goods and other possessions don’t count toward the asset limits.

States get around the limits through the so-called “non-cash benefit” provision. 

“If someone is deemed eligible to receive other welfare benefits, they automatically qualify for food stamps,” FGA explains in the video. “And states have fully weaponized this loophole.” 

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Woke Boston mayor hands out $500 haircut and MASSAGE vouchers to migrants despite city’s budget plunging $50m in red

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is handing out $500 vouchers to migrants so they can enjoy haircuts, massages and other self-care benefits, despite the city’s budget plunging nearly $50 million short. 

Applicants who are ‘low-income, isolated queer and trans migrants, asylum seekers and refugees’ are prioritized for the ‘wellness allowance.’ 

The initiative, called ‘Belonging Matters’, was created by OUTnewcomers, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ migrants in Boston alongside the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, Mass Daily News reported. 

Applicants get $250 to $500 toward ‘non-clinical care’ completely funded by the city agency, which is run by the Democrat’s administration. 

They can participate in activities like meditation, yoga, peer support, creative healing, acupuncture and gym memberships, as detailed in the post. 

It comes as the city faces a $48.4 million deficit and teachers are faced with possible staffing cuts due to a $53 million shortfall for Boston Public Schools, according to statistics for this fiscal year. 

OUTnewcomers was founded by Sal Khan, a ‘queer activist’ and drag performer who is also the organization’s executive director, according to the group’s Facebook page. 

The 33-year-old, whose drag queen name is Miss Chilly Masala, also refers to himself as ‘angry brown queer,’ according to his Instagram. 

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Pro-Life Father Targeted By Biden’s FBI Wins $1M Settlement

During the Biden administration, pro-lifers were routinely targeted by the Department of Justice.

In 2022, under the leadership of then Attorney General Merrick Garland, father of seven and pro-life warrior Mark Houck was arrested in Pennsylvania as dozens of fully-armed FBI agents raided his home and terrified his family.

The arrest stemmed from an incident outside an abortion clinic in 2021.

A 72-year-old abortion escort allegedly insisted on harassing Houck’s 12 -year old son, who was accompanying him during sidewalk counseling in front of the clinic. After weeks of agitation, Houck ultimately shoved the abortion escort. No injuries were reported.

Although local prosecutors declined to pursue the case and a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by the escort, Federal authorities charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Houck was found not guilty.

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Today Would Be a Great Day to Expel Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

Happy Tuesday. 

While the rest of the country is already well into the workweek, Congress is just getting started. Must be nice. 

But as they drag their feet on a growing list of priorities that Americans demand, from the SAVE America Act to funding the Department of Homeland Security, there’s at least one thing they could get done quickly. Something simple that shouldn’t drag out any longer than it already has. 

Expelling Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. 

It’s been nearly six months since the Florida Democrat was charged with stealing $5 million in FEMA disaster relief funds, money prosecutors say she used to bankroll the very campaign that got her into Congress. That primary campaign was won by five votes, and in a seat where that’s effectively the election, it meant the seat and everything that comes with it. The salary, the staff, the offices, the travel, and the power that she’s been enjoying ever since. 

Republicans didn’t wait around when it was one of their own. They expelled George Santos with a razor-thin majority and gave up the seat. 

Now months have passed, and she is still there. 

And during that time, she’s been trying to cover it all up. 

Her official congressional portrait already showed her sporting a roughly $100,000 yellow diamond ring—one prosecutors say she bought with the very FEMA funds at the center of the case. By Christmas, I caught her posting the same image with the ring inconspicuously photoshopped out. 

Not suspicious at all. 

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Will Americans Keep Paying a ‘Tariff Tax’?

When Eileen Nusselt and Gio Cox got married earlier this year, they skipped the traditional registry and asked their guests to donate to a home renovation fund. Yet as tariffs have pushed up the price of materials like lumber and paint, that money isn’t going as far as they expected. 

“We’re having to cut off projects that we really want to do,” said Cox, who lives with his wife in Charleston, South Carolina.

Many of the Trump administration’s signature tariffs were struck down earlier this year, but the couple doesn’t expect prices to fall anytime soon. “What incentive do any of these big companies have to lower their prices?” Nusselt asked. Especially, she added, “if they’re getting money back” from the government in the form of tariff refunds.

After the Supreme Court ruled in February that the Trump administration lacked the authority under emergency economic powers to levy many of its tariffs, the Court of International Trade ordered the federal government to process refunds — plus interest — to the more than 330,000 companies that have paid roughly $166 billion in tariffs now considered illegal. Since then, more than 2,000 companies have filed suit against the federal government to demand their refunds.

American consumers, however, will likely not be compensated for the tariff costs they bore, passed on through higher prices. Indeed, as taxpayers, they may be responsible for the interest that accrues each day the government does not process refunds.

But the cost of tariffs largely fell on shoppers, not companies.

Transferring Tariff Costs

According to analysis from the Budget Lab at Yale, prices of consumer goods (excluding more volatile food and energy) rose more than 2% throughout 2025 and into January 2026, reversing recent declines and adding to evidence that the costs of tariffs are being passed on to consumers. 

Tariffs accounted for an estimated 86% of the rise in prices for imported household goods through January, with the passthrough even more pronounced for long-lasting durable goods like cars, appliances and furniture, the Yale researchers found.

Some company leaders have spoken publicly about incorporating tariffs into their pricing. In a call with investors last May, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said the retail behemoth would “do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” but also that “higher tariffs will result in higher prices.” In an August 2025 earnings call, Home Depot Executive Vice President of Merchandising Billy Bastek spoke of “some modest price movement” due to tariffs.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC in January that the company stocked up on items  before the tariffs were instituted to keep prices low, but that supply ran out last fall. “You start to see some of the tariffs creep into some of the prices,” he said.

An analysis by congressional Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee found that American consumers paid more than $231 billion in total tariff costs between February 2025 and January 2026, amounting to roughly $1,745 per household.

“Tariffs are regressive in nature, and they impact low- and middle-income families more than wealthy individuals,” said Ryan Mulholland, a senior fellow focused on international economic policy at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. Lower-income people not only spend a greater share of their income, they’re also more likely to buy cheaper, imported items — the kind likely subject to tariffs. At the same time, tariffs may contribute to inflation more broadly, which also disproportionately affects households with less financial flexibility.

“As budgets get tighter, tariff pressures bite more,” said Mulholland. Indeed, researchers at the Budget Lab at Yale found that, as a share of income, tariffs may burden the poorest households more than three times as much as the wealthiest.

Currently, only “importers of record” are entitled to refunds per U.S. trade law, and companies don’t have a legal obligation to pass any of that money on to the consumers who paid higher prices.

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California Provides Sex-Change Procedures to Homeless Illegal Aliens

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator.

We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it.

St. Vincent De Paul’s MSC-South facility is San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter, and, in 2024, signed a $66 million service contract with the city. After we arrived at the front entrance, an employee wearing a do-rag and a light green polo shirt showed us around and confirmed that illegal aliens were living there.

“You got a few people here from El Salvador. . . . You got a few people here from Venezuela. You got a few people here from a little bit of everywhere,” he said.

As a rule, he suggested, management instructed employees to refuse cooperation with federal immigration authorities. “When the ICE thing was going around, we all had a meeting, and they told us, ‘We ain’t letting them in.’”

Among the shelter’s residents was a group of Hondurans who identified as transgender. During our visit to MSC-South, whose executive director did not respond to a request for comment, we spoke with two Honduran men, “Lyca” and “Alondra,” who identified as transgender women. Both indicated that the local government gave them shelter and food.

Lyca, who wore long hair and red lipstick, was candid about this arrangement. He confirmed that he was an illegal immigrant and that the shelter doesn’t ask questions about immigration status. “Tengo Medi-Cal,” he said, referring to the state health-care program, which, under Governor Gavin Newsom, began providing “full scope” coverage to illegal aliens, which includes transgender procedures, or “gender affirming care.” He said he was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy—and bore the physical signs of having done so.

Alondra, a muscular man in a camouflage shirt and dyed hair tied behind his head, said he had been in the United States after claiming asylum. According to the translator, the city government had offered to pay first and second month’s rent on private apartments for him and Lyca. But neither accepted the offer—in Lyca’s case, because he might not be able to pay for the apartment after the second month.

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NYC Mayor Mamdani’s City-Run Grocery Plan Is Revealed, and the Receipts Already Make No Sense

The old maxim when pointing out failed Marxism attempts is the wan excuse that “True Socialism has not been tried yet!” Somehow, over the generations, every attempt at implementing Socialist/Marxist/Communist policy managed to get it wrong. In those cases where countries retain this leadership for decades (we are looking at you, Cuba), they never make the adjustments to “proper” socialism to fix things, remaining in their economic quagmire.

Yet we still get these insistent attempts at foisting this doomed leadership on a populace, because those were incorrect applications, according to the studied eggheads promoting the political system, while comfortably ensconced in capitalist countries. It seems revealing that these experts never make the trek to these nations to fix the problem, despite professing to have all the answers, like they will translate the cartoon instructions on an IKEA bookshelf that is listing like the Living Room Library of Pisa.

And this brings us to The Stale Apple, as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced his plan to fulfill his campaign promise to open a collection of city-run grocery stores. This alone is a surprise, after he tossed aside his other pledged Utopian solutions, like the mobile homeless shelters – wait, sorry: “Free public transportation”. 

This pie-in-the-sky (but not on the shelves) idea is meant to supply city denizens with affordable and plentiful grocery items, all under the benevolent supply of the city government. Already you see the issue when applying the professionalism and efficiency of the DMV offices to the food supply, but Mamdani came out Sunday to boast about his achievements after 100 days in office, and he announced his plan for the NYC grocery project.

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