Tag: taxes

Justin Trudeau Getting Two Pensions And Severance Worth Over $8 Million

Nothing like being rewarded for a job well done. Or, in Justin Trudeau’s case, bringing an entire country to the brink of losing the respect of the entire world.

Maybe that’s why Trudeau is reportedly getting not one but two pensions, and a $104,000 severance, totaling more than $8 million,  according to the Toronto Sun.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released a chart Wednesday estimating pension and severance payouts for departing MPs.

“Pensions for former MPs depend on length of service and the rules at the time,” said CTF National Director Franco Terrazzano. “When Canadians see some of these numbers, the clear takeaway is that these political pensions are costing taxpayers too much money.”

The Sun writes that Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is eligible for two pensions: one for nearly 17 years as an MP and another for his 10 years as PM. Together, they’re valued at about $8.4 million. Starting at age 55, he’ll receive $141,000 annually from his MP pension, and another $73,000 a year from his PM pension when he turns 67.

“Trudeau is also going to be getting a severance just shy of $105,000,” Terrazzano added. “When we speak of leadership at the top, the first place for politicians to reign in the perks is to end the second pension for future prime ministers.”

A total of 110 former MPs qualify for either a pension, severance, or both. Those who served fewer than six years are eligible for severance worth half their salary—$104,900.

Notable names entitled to both pension and severance include Niki Ashton, Rachel Blaney, Jagmeet Singh, Seamus O’Regan, and others.

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Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Defunds Medicaid-Covered Transgender Surgery

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending budget, lovingly dubbed the “one big, beautiful, bill,” strips Medicaid’s funding for transgender surgeries — a move that will impact a large portion of such procedures if it passes the Senate.

The reconciliation budget, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives early Thursday morning in a 215-214-1 vote, would have initially prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for children, until a late Wednesday amendment struck the words “minors” and “under 18 years of age” from that section, the Independent reported.

Gender transition treatments that would no longer be covered include puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries. 

A 2023 study by gynecologists from Columbia University and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, revealed that a staggering 25 percent of so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries in the United States are covered by Medicaid. 

Out of the 48,019 patients identified in the report who underwent such surgeries, over 12,000 were Medicaid recipients. 

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Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Strips Al Capone-Era Tax On Suppressors

Gun rights groups celebrated Thursday morning after the House narrowly passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” in a 215–214 vote. Organizations like Gun Owners of America praised the legislation for including the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act (CHPA), which eliminates both the federal registration requirement and the $200 tax on firearm suppressors. The provision drew sharp criticism from anti-gunners and leftist media outlets as the bill now heads to the Senate. 

“The House of Representatives passes GOA-backed language 215-214 to ELIMINATE the unconstitutional taxation & registration of suppressors under the NFA,” GOA wrote on X, adding, “The bill heads to the Senate, where GOA will fight to include protections for short-barreled firearms too.” 

GOA’s Deputy Director of Federal Affairs, Benjamin Sanderson, said in a short video posted on X that the organization has been working on a budget reconciliation strategy to deregulate suppressors for the past year. He thanked the millions of GOA members who have supported their efforts.

Since being classified under the Al Capone-era National Firearms Act, suppressors have been subject to a $200 tax stamp imposed by the ATF. If President Trump signs the Senate version of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” purchasers only need to pass an FBI background check to acquire a suppressor.

“Shall not be infringed—or taxed. I’m proud that we secured the elimination of taxation and registration of suppressors in budget reconciliation. It’s past time we restore our constitutional 2A rights,” stated Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who originally introduced CHPA.

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Fury as Welsh Labour government spends £250,000 on project to count MOTHS while it cuts public services

Taxpayers have been left furious after the Welsh Labour government spent £250,000 on a project to count moths – while it cuts public services. 

The ‘Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn’ project is surveying the moths’ limestone habitats on Llandudno’s Great Orme headland and in neighbouring areas. 

It was handed a grant of £248,348 by the Government’s Nature Networks Fund, and will be delivered by the Heritage Fund.

The under-fire government claims it with help protect at-risk insects, including the Horehound Plume micro-moth. 

A Tory councillor branded the spending ‘ridiculous’ – as families struggle with the cost of living and local authorities cut frontline services.

Llandudno’s Louise Emery hit out after a grant was awarded by the Welsh Government to Conwy county council.

She said: ‘Rather than for the benefit of invertebrates, how about Welsh Government benefit schools and communities by properly funding local authorities to improve education and provide basic services such as maintaining highways and public toilets?

‘It’s about priorities, and establishing the number of moths on specific limestone headlands should not be a priority when Welsh Labour in Cardiff continue to tell local authorities they have no money. This is utterly ridiculous.’

The project, which also works with schools, found ‘a staggering’ 1,109 horehound plume moth caterpillars on the Great Orme in Llandudno.

Cllr Emery continued: ‘There is money available from Welsh Government but only for certain things, so while local authority budgets are really being squeezed, Welsh Government finds money for projects such as the Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn.

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Liberal Boomers lined up for Carney—now their grandkids are lining up at the food bank

In 2021, 5.8 million Canadians lived in households struggling to put food on the table. By 2024, that number shot up to nearly 10 million.

Newly released data from Statistics Canada shows that food insecurity in this country has taken a horrifying leap, with a staggering 72% increase in just three years.

Among children, the picture is even bleaker. Nearly 2.5 million Canadian kids—one in three—now live in food-insecure households. That’s not some distant tragedy in a far-off land. That’s right here, in your neighbourhood, in your kid’s classroom.

And while families are rationing groceries, Liberal Boomers just handed the reins to Mark Carney—the unelected high priest of net-zero—who’s promised to keep punishing farmers, truckers, and the energy industry with his anti-energy policies. 

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European Commission Accused of Orchestrating $735M Speech-Control Campaign

A new report has uncovered an expansive and quietly orchestrated campaign by the European Commission to shape public discourse through nearly €649 ($735M) million in taxpayer-funded projects aimed at regulating online speech.

Titled Manufacturing Misinformation: The EU-Funded Propaganda War Against Free Speech, the document was released by the think tank MCC Brussels and authored by Dr. Norman Lewis, a seasoned analyst of digital communication and regulatory policy.

Behind the EU’s frequent calls to combat “hate speech” and “disinformation” lies what the report describes as a vast ideological infrastructure designed to erode free expression under the guise of safety and civic empowerment.

The Commission, the report states, “has funded hundreds of unaccountable non-governmental organizations and universities to carry out 349 projects related to countering ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’ to the tune of almost €650 million.”

That staggering figure surpasses what Brussels spends on transnational cancer research by over 30%, a discrepancy the report calls deliberate: “The EU Commission regards stemming the cancer of free speech as more of a priority than the estimated 4.5 million new cancer cases and almost two million cancer deaths in Europe in 2022, for example.”

While EU officials present these programs as public-interest research, the report argues they constitute a form of “soft authoritarianism,” enshrining speech codes and narrowing acceptable opinion through bureaucratic manipulation. “This is a top-down, authoritarian, curated consensus,” it states, “where expression is free only when it speaks the language of compliance established by the Commission.”

Many of these initiatives feature a distinct use of vague and euphemistic terminology, part of what the report calls “NEUspeak;” a deliberate linguistic strategy designed to obscure intent and preempt scrutiny. The project acronyms alone, such as FAST LISA and VIGILANT, are described as a form of branding deceit.

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Cop who claimed total disability was seen ‘dancing and drinking’ at Stagecoach, ran 5Ks, and went to Disneyland: DA

A former police officer from California claimed she couldn’t perform her duties after sustaining a head injury on the job — and then she was seen dancing at a music festival.

According to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 39-year-old Nicole Brown was a police officer with the Westminster Police Department when she was injured on the job in March 2022. The release stated that Brown sustained “a minor abrasion to her forehead while attempting to arrest and handcuff an uncooperative suspect.” She was examined at the emergency room after she complained about headaches, but was released without any medical restrictions.

Brown then allegedly called out sick for several days and claimed she’d been diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome, which resulted in her being placed on total temporary disability.

While unable to perform her duties as an officer, Brown was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits after sustaining her alleged injury while on the job — including her full salary, tax-free, paid for by “the city, county, or state agency that employs the officer,” according to the DA. After a one-year period, that amount decreases to 2/3 of her full salary but can pay out for up to 104 weeks.

According to the DA, Brown collected more than $600,000 in benefits.

However, evidence obtained by the DA’s office called Brown’s so-called “total disability” into question. While out on disability, Brown allegedly claimed that she suffered from “headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words, and an inability to work on the computer or do any screentime.”

But on April 23, 2023 — a full year after Brown went on disability and while still claiming to be suffering symptoms of a concussion — Brown was seen by “several people” who had knowledge of her medical status “dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival, with more than 75,000 people in attendance with loud music and bright lights everywhere and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.”

After those people reported Brown’s activities at Stagecoach to the Westminster Police Department, an investigation into the officer’s disability claims began.

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Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending

Congressional Republicans are the absolute worst, for many reasons, but this time, it has to do with the “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that’s working its way toward Donald Trump’s desk—Republicans, despite holding both houses, as well as the Oval Office, are set to retain hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal provisions, if they get their way. Here’s the context, from Adam N. Michel and Joshua Loucks at the Cato Institute:

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was pitched as a climate solution. In practice, it turned the tax code into a multi-trillion-dollar energy entitlement program, creating subsidies without caps, sunsets, or accountability. The recently passed House Ways and Means Committee tax bill repeals eight of the IRA credits, phases out five, and keeps or expands several others.

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Sen. John Kennedy Obliterates Democrats’ HHS Narrative—This Exchange Changed Everything

Sen. John Kennedy just obliterated the Democrats’ narrative on HHS budget cuts with nothing but a few simple questions.

RFK Jr. was under heavy fire.

Then Sen. Kennedy stepped in—and hit a grand slam.

This exchange flipped the whole hearing on its head. You have to see it.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went head-to-head with Senate Democrats today over major proposed budget cuts, including $18 billion slashed from the NIH and $3.6 billion from the CDC.

But for many Democrats, you’d think it was the end of the world.

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) led the charge, slamming Kennedy for a $3 billion drop in federally funded biomedical research compared to last year.

Kennedy stood his ground.

“We’re cutting waste, we’re cutting duplicative programs,” he said.

Still, Baldwin wouldn’t let up. She framed the loss of “3,200 fewer grants” as an attack on “life-saving programs.”

Kennedy hit back with a devastating stat.

“We spend 70% of the world’s biomedical research out of NIH. 70%. And we’re the sickest country in the world,” he said.

“We’ve had a 38% increase in our agency growth over the past four years,” he added. “That money has not been well spent.”

The exchange summed up a broader dynamic: Democrats trying to paint RFK Jr. as a villain, slashing life-saving science, while Kennedy pointed out that America’s health is declining because of how this money is being spent, not despite it.

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22 More People, Entities Charged in Arizona Medicaid Fraud Scheme

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 22 individuals and entities linked to a massive Medicaid fraud scheme involving sober living homes.

The charges include money laundering, theft, conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, patient referral fraud, and forgery, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday.

These indictments are part of an ongoing investigation into a $2.7 billion fraud that exploited Arizona’s health care system, particularly targeting Native Americans seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

According to the charge document, the 20 individuals indicted are associated with a church and a mental health organization called Happy House Behavioral Health. Prosecutors allege that Happy House was paid over $60 million for services that were either never rendered or only partially completed. Some of the billing, they say, was for clients who were deceased or incarcerated.

Prosecutors also allege that sober living facilities referred clients to Happy House, which in turn received funds from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s Medicaid agency. Happy House then allegedly paid the referring sober homes for those client placements, an arrangement at the center of the fraudulent scheme charges.

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