Tag: taxes

Zohran Mamdani Has No Idea How He’s Going to Fund ‘Free’ Buses in New York City 

Zohran Mamdani, the new Democratic Socialist (communist) mayor-elect of New York City clearly has no idea how he is going to pay for all of the supposedly ‘free’ buses he has promised to voters.

He was recently pressed on this issue by a reporter, and when he could not answer the funding question, he simply said that it’s more important that they get it done, not how they fund it.

That’s not how things work in reality.

Transcript via Real Clear Politics:

MAMDANI: Well, I think the mayor will find that he’ll have a tough time trying to stymie the momentum that we have as a campaign and as a movement, because more than a million New Yorkers came out to vote for our vision of making the city more affordable. I know that’s difficult for the mayor because he ran an administration where, for four years, he made it more difficult for those New Yorkers to afford this city.

And even one of the people he floated appointing to the Rent Guidelines Board is a star of a show that I think is called Selling New York, which in some ways is a description of what Eric Adams tried to do.

MANNARINO: But if he does it, does that put a foil — or at least a pause — on freezing the rent?

MAMDANI: I think it’s an obstacle, but it’s one that I think we can overcome.

MANNARINO: And the other one — talking about fast and free buses, and your meeting with the governor. I’ve heard you say many times that you don’t want to take money away from the MTA — you want to put money back in. And it’s something she agrees with, right? “We don’t want to take away money from the MTA.”

How are you getting that $700 million to make the buses free into the MTA if she’s not for raising taxes?

MAMDANI: You know, I think the two clearest ways to raise that money is through raising the state’s corporate tax to match New Jersey. A lot of this is still a case to be made — whether it’s the corporate tax or the personal income tax on those who make more than a million dollars a year. I think these are the clearest ways.

I’ve also said that if there are other ways to raise this funding, the most important fact is that we fund it — not the question of how we do it, but that we do it.

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Energy Department loans $1B to help finance the restart of nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island

The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday that it will loan $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under contract to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft.

The loan is in line with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, including bolstering nuclear power and artificial intelligence.

For Constellation Energy, which owns Three Mile Island’s lone functioning nuclear power reactor, the federal loan will lower its financing cost to get the mothballed plant up and running again. The 835-megawatt reactor can power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, the Department of Energy said.

The reactor had been out of operation for five years when Constellation Energy announced last year that it would spend $1.6 billion to restart it under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to buy the power for its data centers.

Constellation Energy renamed the functioning unit the Crane Clean Energy Center as it works to restore equipment including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems. It hopes to bring the plant back online in 2027.

The loan is being issued under an existing $250 billion energy infrastructure program initially authorized by Congress in 2022. Neither the department nor Constellation released terms of the loan.

The plant, on an island in the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident, in 1979. The accident destroyed one reactor, Unit 2, and left the plant with one functioning reactor, Unit 1.

In 2019, Constellation Energy’s then-parent company Exelon shut down the functioning reactor, saying it was losing money and Pennsylvania lawmakers had refused to subsidize it to keep it running.

The plan to restart the reactor comes amid something of a renaissance for nuclear power, as policymakers are increasingly looking to it to shore up the nation’s power supply, help avoid the worst effects of climate change and meet rising power demand driven by data centers.

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SNAP Fraud: A $50,000 EBT Card, One Person Getting Benefits from 6 Different States – This Is What Taxpayers Are Funding

If there’s any good that’s come from the government shutdown, it’s exposing all the fraud being committed to exploit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

To be sure, there are millions of needy Americans who were hurting from being deprived of SNAP as they tried to support children and keep their families from going hungry. This is not about them. This is about the other people — the individuals who dip into this program unjustly at the expense of the taxpayer.

Just the News reported that Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Steven Vaden has indicated his agency is engaging in data collection relating to SNAP across several states to see where funds for the program are going.

So far, what he’s uncovered is not promising.

Vaden cited an instance of one individual getting SNAP in six separate states.

Another person had over $50,000 loaded onto their electronic benefits card.

EBT cards work like credit cards for anyone getting government assistance, with funds rolling over to the following month.

Clearly something is amiss.

As Vaden put it, “The taxpayers have a right to know what is being done with their money and that, when we have appropriations, we are spending more than nine billion a month.”

On the case of a $50,000 card, Vaden clarified, “[Taxpayers] especially have a right to rest assured that only those who truly need are benefitting from the program, because every dollar you give to someone who has a balance of more than $15,000 on their EBT card cannot go to someone who is truly in need.”

SNAP fraud gets worse when considering recent comments by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on “The Ingraham Angle.”

Over 500,000 people were found to have been taking SNAP benefits twice, with 5,000 dead people receiving it.

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Massachusetts out-of-state SNAP spending soars, including in Hawaii

With the federal government reopened, Massachusetts SNAP benefits continue to reach far and wide, with out-of-state expenditures on the rise as the feds consider revamping the program to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed SNAP benefits on Newsmax TV Thursday, telling the network that SNAP data from blue states is “going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

According to data from the state Department of Transitional Assistance, there have been notable increases in out of state spending through the SNAP program in eight states. From FY24 to FY25, these expenditures have jumped by 48.7% in Illinois, 47.1% in New Jersey, 25.9% in Arkansas, 21.8% in Minnesota, 20.8% in California, 10.9% in Washington, and 1.9% in New York. There was even a 16.7% increase in SNAP spending in Hawaii by Massachusetts residents.

This as other states, notably four of the other five states in New England, are getting the cold shoulder from Bay State SNAP purchases. Massachusetts EBT spending in Alaska was down 55% in FY25 and Florida experienced a 12.5% drop. Out-of-state EBT spending in Connecticut dropped 6.5% with a 5.9% slump in New Hampshire. Rhode Island and Maine saw decreases of 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively.

Acting DTA Commissioner Michael Cole tells the Herald that the out-of-state expenditures are negligible compared to what Massachusetts SNAP recipients spend at home and regionally.

“The SNAP program is a lifeline for more than one million Massachusetts residents, including veterans, seniors, children and people with disabilities. It brings in $2.7 billion annually that is spent at over 5,500 retailers and small businesses in Massachusetts,” Cole said.

He also emphasized the importance of allowing online purchases: “While 91% of all EBT transactions are made within Massachusetts and nearby states, it is important that recipients also have the ability to purchase food online. For example, some seniors are home bound due to their health or disabilities and are unable to physically visit a grocery store. All of these policies are set by the federal government.”

The DTA also says many Massachusetts SNAP recipients could be visiting or taking care of sick relatives and loved ones in other states, requiring them to spend money on food while away.

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Albany Republicans’ $20B shame: state spending madness is their fault, too

Albany Republicans, the minority in the state Senate and Assembly for the last seven years, face a long hike back to political relevance.

They can start by answering the $20 billion question.

That’s the difference between what New York state expects to spend this fiscal year — $148 billion, excluding federal aid and borrowing — and what it would be spending if the last budget enacted with GOP support, in 2018, had kept growing only at the rate of inflation.

That amount is $128 billion.

Republicans correctly note state spending is higher than ever — and, given Albany’s reliance on a small subset of high earners, rising unsustainably.

But they can’t put the blame on the Democrats alone.

The $20 billion question isn’t about what Republicans would cut if voters again entrusted them to steer the state.

It’s a deeper challenge: It asks them to explain, to themselves especially, how they can credibly claim to be the taxpayers’ champions when they not only supported much of this fiscal bulge, but pushed to make it worse.

Most of the budget growth since 2018 has been in just two programs: Medicaid and school aid.

Republicans supposedly concerned about the state’s fiscal picture have repeatedly agitated for higher spending on both.

New York spends $4,942 per resident (enrolled or not) on Medicaid, per Empire Center’s Bill Hammond. That’s 23% more than the next-highest state, Kentucky, and double what New Jersey spends.

A credible opposition party would be hammering Gov. Kathy Hochul on this, arguing that the program is pushing up taxes, crowding out essential services and often failing the vulnerable people it’s meant to help.

But the tiny group of upstate fiscal hawks making these points are undercut by their own Republican team: Sen. Pat Gallivan, ostensibly his conference’s health care point man, last year joined 1199 SEIU, the state’s largest health care union, to demand  “Medicaid equity,” a budget-busting increase in what the state pays hospitals and other providers.

New York’s GOP can’t even credibly levy its evergreen complaint about “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, a once-tiny initiative meant to help a small group of people live outside nursing homes, mushroomed into a $9 billion boondoggle that pays more than 400,000 people to care for 250,000 New Yorkers.

Republicans should have been first to sound the alarm on CDPAP — yet when Hochul proposed modest reforms by eliminating middlemen, they called her suggestion a “full-blown catastrophe” and all but ignored the fiscal hemorrhaging.

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US Debt Rose By $620 Billion During The Government Shutdown

“This package demonstrates that we can govern without surrendering to big spending or letting Democrats dictate priorities,” wrote the House Freedom Caucus in some talking points released to the media.

“We successfully stiff-armed a massive omnibus spending bill; locked in disciplined, flat spending levels; preserved President Trump’s policy priorities… and kept our leverage for the next round in January.”

People can say whatever they want, but I’m pretty sure our politicians closed the US government for a record 42 days and changed absolutely nothing. That’s quite an accomplishment. Sublime ineptitude. Congressional approval ratings supposedly declined 11pts to 15% during the period. Remarkable.

If a trader knew that 85% of his decisions were losers, he’d become the richest man on earth by simply doing the exact opposite of his instinct. I’m guessing Pelosi made good money trading the chop, but the broad equity market ended the shutdown period roughly a percent higher than where it started.

Extrapolating the recent pace of deficit spending, the Federal government accumulated another $600bln of debt during the shutdown, adding more leverage to the system, sustaining the economy, supporting asset values.

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Rollins: ‘Next Step’ Is to Make ‘Everyone Reapply’ for SNAP to Ensure Integrity

On Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed data on food stamps and said that data from blue states is “going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

Rollins stated, “29 states, mostly the red states, responded with their data sets, February, March, April. … But here’s the most unbelievable news I have really, just over the last few days: That 5,000 dead people, that was just one month, the number is closer to 186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check. Now, that is what we’re really going to start clamping down on. Half a million are getting two. But here’s the really stunning thing: This is just data from those 29 mostly red states. Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data, what we’re going to find?”

She continued, “It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it. And that’s the next step here.”

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5,000 Dead People Getting SNAP, 500,000 Receiving Benefits Twice: Rollins

The secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a recent interview that the department found that 500,000 people are registered twice for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, while more than 5,000 deceased people have also been receiving the benefits.

In an interview on Nov. 12 with Fox News, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said that SNAP is one of the “most corrupt, dysfunctional programs” in U.S. history, adding that 80 percent of people using the program are able to work. After an investigation, the secretary said that 5,000 dead people were getting SNAP, while another 500,000 people were getting SNAP twice under the same name.

“They choose not to work” because taxpayers are footing the bill, she added, saying that “very big announcements” will be coming in the next week.

Her comment was made as SNAP benefits, known as food stamps, saw setbacks and legal wrangling during the government shutdown that was ended on Wednesday evening.

Rollins also suggested that if some SNAP benefits are cut off, more illegal immigrants will self-deport, which she said would change the outcome of the Census.

Earlier in the month, as SNAP benefits were suspended, Rollins described “massive fraud” in the system, noting that the fraud was discovered only in states that had cooperated with a prior investigation. She said that 21 states refused to hand over their SNAP data to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was established by the Trump administration earlier this year.

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Here Are All the States That Have Paid Full SNAP Benefits for November

More than a dozen states have conveyed the full amount of food stamps for November, with some issuing them after President Donald Trump signed a legislative package that ended the government shutdown.

Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin residents have received the full amount of food stamps they were due to receive for November, officials said.

The government reopened this week after Trump signed the funding bill on Nov. 12.

The package includes full funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with the help of states. SNAP involves lower-income people receiving money for groceries on electronic cards.

Many of the states paid full November benefits before Trump signed the package, after receiving a memorandum from the USDA that stated it would soon complete the actions necessary to issue full benefits for the month.

The USDA reversed course in another directive, but a federal judge blocked that memo.

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Full SNAP Benefits to Be Restored by Monday, Agriculture Secretary Says

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits would be restored by Monday, Nov. 17. This came the day after the Nov. 12 passage of a funding legislation to reopen the federal government.

Rollins made her comments during a Nov. 13 interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown, saying that the end of the government shutdown prompted quick action by her agency. 

“We, immediately last night, began moving out, making sure that the program continues unabated, starting once the government reopened, and hopefully by the end of this week, most will receive it at the very latest on Monday,” Rollins said.

“But keep in mind, the SNAP program is funded by the federal government, but it is the 50 states and 50 different infrastructures that move that money out, which is what made it so complicated, the patchwork.”

Some states have already assured residents that the assistance will again be available to them. 

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey announced on Nov. 13 that SNAP has been restored, and every cardholder should be “fully funded and able to purchase food with their EBT cards.”

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