Tag: taxes

Federal Reserve Stonewalls DOJ Prosecutors Investigating Headquarters Construction: Report

Federal prosecutors made a surprise visit Tuesday to the construction site of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters renovation project.

Workers at the site refused to admit them, saying they did not have clearance in advance of the visit, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The $2.5 billion project has been under review by the administration, and the prosecutors came from the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80 percent over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” Pirro said in a statement.

“And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?” she asked.

Robert Hur, an attorney representing the Fed, said prosecutors Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden appeared “without prior notice” and sought a tour to check the work’s progress.

President Donald Trump has praised Pirro “for having the courage” to investigate the Fed.

Keep reading

DNC votes down ‘dark money’ resolution singling out AIPAC, defers resolution on military aid to Israel

Members of the Democratic National Committee voted down a symbolic resolution aimed at curbing the “growing influence” of “dark money” corporate groups in Democratic primaries that specifically called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Earlier in Thursday’s meeting in New Orleans, committee members approved a broader measure condemning the influence of dark money in the midterms without naming specific groups. They then rejected a separate resolution that singled out AIPAC.

Allison Minnerly, who sponsored the resolution, responded to the criticism that her resolution was singling out AIPAC, the pro-Israel political lobbying group.

“Members like to say that we don’t want to single out AIPAC, but AIPAC will entirely single out them and all of our different progressive leaders when it comes to primary elections,” said Minnerly.

AIPAC’s influence has become a flashpoint inside the Democratic Party, as leaders struggle to respond to rapidly shifting views about Israel among progressives, especially in the wake of the war in Gaza and amid the current U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. 

DNC Chair Ken Martin posted on X, stating, “We had various resolutions that focused on different industries and groups, and instead of going one-by-one, we passed a blanket repudiation.”

The panel’s rejection of the AIPAC resolution means it will not go before the full body for a final vote on Friday.

Keep reading

O’Keefe Media Group: LA Housing Department Financial Officer Admits Witnessing Fraud – Embezzlement Helps Mayor Karen Bass Maintain “Re-Election Funds” 

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released undercover video of a Finance Development Officer for Los Angeles Housing Department admitting to witnessing multiple instances of fraud.

Donald Byers told the undercover OMG journalist that $10 to $20 million are going into people’s pockets and that homeless developers are embezzling money.

Byers also said that the superiors look the other way to help corrupt Democrat Mayor Karen Bass maintain “re-election funds.”

Per the O’Keefe Media Group:

Donald Byers, a Finance Development Officer from the Los Angeles housing programs, admits on hidden camera that millions of taxpayer money disappear inside the city’s low-income housing system. Byers told our undercover journalist he flagged the fraud internally but was ignored.

“I’ve reported it… nothing happens.”

Accountability is avoided. Despite years-long delays on projects, funding continues to flow even when, by his own admission, officials are failing. Meanwhile, as billions are poured into homelessness programs, the money is “going to people’s pockets.”

Despite years-long project delays, funding continues to flow even as, by his own admission, oversight appears to be failing. After raising red flags, Byers says nothing changed and now he claims, “At this point, I’m just covering myself.”

“I have a couple of developers doing really sketchy stuff,” Donald Byers said.

My project was with a developer called CRCD — Marcella Gardens. We [LA City] can’t figure out where all the money is going… it’s going to people’s pockets,” Donald Byers said.

“If they [LA Housing Department] were to call out the people [Developers] contacting Karen Bass’s office, she might not get enough money for re-election — or for what she needs done,” he said.

Keep reading

Navy’s Green Laundry Initiative Weakened A $15 Billion Carrier

The $15 billion USS Ford was forced to cut short its deployment due to a 30-hour laundry fire that did millions of dollars in damage. And it has been revealed that even while it remained on station in the Gulf, Ford could not generate combat sorties for two days due to the raging 30-hour laundry fire that drove some 600 sailors out of their sleeping quarters. Thirty hours to get a laundry fire under control raises a couple of questions. Why would a laundry catch on fire, and why did it take the firefighters and damage-control personnel of the USS Ford so long to put out the laundry fire? Sadly, the answers can be found in some wrongheaded decisions the Navy made in its effort to be viewed as being “green.”

Design for the Ford-class carrier began in March 1996, and finally, more than $15 billion later, the USS Ford was fully certified for combat in April 2023. Due to a misguided green initiative, instead of installing inherently super energy-efficient steam-based laundries, the Ford-class carriers have standardized on more expensive, more complex, inherently fire-prone, ozone-based systems.

The green reason for these systems is that they supposedly save energy and water by being able to operate with cold water only, while also needing 30 percent less water than the steam-based systems the U.S. Navy has historically relied on. A Jan. 12, 2012, Navy memo made this revealing statement:

“Ozone technology is increasing the earth-friendly aspect of shipboard laundering and moving navy laundries towards a ‘greener’ process. Good for the sailor… good for the ship… good for the earth!”

This sure sounds wonderful, but just a bit of analysis shows that the ozone-based laundries, like so many of the U.S. military’s so-called green initiatives, actually weaken our military while costing more than the mechanically robust, battle-tested systems they replace.

First, it must be pointed out that when you look at the energy budget of a typical warship, including propulsion, less than 1 percent of the warship’s total energy budget is expended on freshwater production and laundry services, with the vast majority of energy being used for the ship’s propulsion and the rest of the systems described by the Expanded Ship Work Breakdown Structure for Navy ships.

What’s more, the annual cost for producing fresh water on our entire fleet of Navy ships is just $22 million, and the water for the laundry is a fraction of this. Further, every Navy ship can produce far more fresh water than it needs for its average daily use. For example, both Ford- and Nimitz-class carriers can produce double the average amount of water needed daily. Getting more specific, installing an ozone-based laundry on an Arleigh Burke destroyer, which uses gas turbines instead of steam turbines, does result in a 30 percent reduction in energy used by its laundry system, including the energy savings from reduced freshwater desalination. But with laundries consuming less than 1 percent of ships’ overall energy consumption (including propulsion), this would result in less than 0.3 percent energy savings. All other things equal, that might make sense, especially if the systems were built into the ship from the outset. But the ozone-based systems cost more, require more ongoing maintenance, are more dependent on expensive shore-based vendor support to keep them operational, and are built around a potent oxidizer—ozone.

Finally, the ozone-related laundries end up creating a much drier environment than the moist atmosphere created by steam-reliant systems. It was the drier environment that helped create the extremely dry lint that caused the Ford laundry room fire. And these high-tech laundries require very expensive, corrosion-resistant piping, fittings, and seals, along with 24/7 monitoring to ensure the highly corrosive, lung-irritating, fire-accelerating ozone does not find its way past the specialized, very expensive seals. So, even for ships that rely on gas turbines or marine diesels, such as our Navy’s destroyers and some of our larger warships, the case for ozone-based systems is highly debatable, to say the least.

Keep reading

Rep. Burchett Reveals Gov’t Giving $40 Million per Week to the Taliban and Dems Oppose Ending It

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) did not mince words when he pulled back the curtain on where some American tax dollars are going this past week.

In an interview with radio host Jesse Kelly, the Tennessee Republican described a system that sounds less like foreign aid and more like a revolving door of wasted cash and fraud.

Burchett said billions are flowing through so-called non-government organizations and international bodies with little to no transparency.

He pointed directly to the United Nations and a sprawling network of NGOs as conduits for that money.

According to Burchett, the total is staggering and still growing, and the spending has the total support of Democrats in the Senate.

He cited a State Department memo estimating that more than $5 billion has been sent out.

Burchett’s most striking claim should evoke concern if not anger.

He said roughly $40 million per week is effectively making its way into Taliban-controlled territory.

That is American money, collected from working taxpayers, ending up in the hands of people who openly despise them and want them dead.

The congressman tied this issue to his own bill, the No Tax Dollars For Terrorists Act, which has been sitting dormant in the Senate for about a year.

Keep reading

Political pressure from Somali community hampered Minnesota fraud probes, whistleblower says

A key whistle-blower, and one of the first to draw attention to what he believed was widespread fraud in the Minnesota welfare system, says that state officials hampered probes into the allegations over concerns about pressure from the state’s Somali immigrant community. 

That community has been at the center of recent welfare fraud accusations, including the Feeding Our Future fraud case, in which prosecutors say more than 70 defendants — most of them part of Minneapolis’ Somali community — were charged in connection to a $250 million pandemic-era fraud on a state-funded meals program for children. 

Last year, new charges in the Feeding Our Future case sparked renewed interest in the state’s federally-funded daycare program. Independent journalists flocked to Minneapolis and recorded videos of empty daycare centers that had received millions in state grants. 

“It was obvious that they were committing fraud”: DHS investigator

But, concerns about Minneapolis daycare centers go back at least a decade, according to the whistle-blower, Scott Dexter, who worked as an investigator at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) from 2013 to 2019. He told Just the News that his team uncovered evidence of fraud in the state’s taxpayer-funded daycare system almost immediately after he started his work. 

“The very first [daycare] that we investigated […] had received about $3.75 million in one year, and so it was obvious that they were committing fraud,” Dexter told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Tuesday.  

“And the number of these childcare centers would be owned by the same owners, or there’d be, you know, intertwined people involved in it. So one daycare center was involved with another daycare center, so it was obvious that it was a coordinated fraud scheme,” said Dexter. 

In his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, Dexter said that he was hired after a 28-year law enforcement career to be part of a new investigative unit in the Office of the Inspector General at the Minnesota DHS tasked with identifying fraud in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). 

Dexter testified that what his team uncovered was “deeply concerning” regarding daycare centers operating out of commercial spaces “with windows covered, no visible play areas, and very few children ever present.” After reviewing records and surveilling locations, they found “documented patterns of overbilling, nonexistent attendance, and in some cases, children being signed in for hours they were never actually at the center.” 

Keep reading

Staggering 8-figure sum NYC taxpayers will pay to fund Mamdani’s first city-owned grocery revealed

Zo’s cheap groceries will cost taxpayers a pretty penny.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first-unveiled city-owned grocery store will cost a staggering $30 million to build from the ground up at East Harlem’s longstanding La Marqueta, officials confirmed – as local grocers worried it’d gobble up their business.

The new grocery at the  longstanding city-owned La Marqueta marketplace will run with a yet-to-be-picked operator reaping the benefits of a rent- and tax-free deal, City Hall officials told The Post on Monday.

Mamdani envisions that the low-cost deal — which he anounced during a Sunday celebration of his first 100 days in office -– will allow the grocery’s operator to pass on savings to hardscrabble New Yorkers reeling from foodstuff sticker shock, but neighboring grocer Abdul Shaher had doubts about its efficiency based on the exorbitant $30 million upfront cost.

“How can they manage something like that? A small supermarket?” said Shaher, who owns and manages Healthy Choice near La Marqueta, laughing with disbelief. 

Keep reading

We spend (borrow) $22 billion every week to pay interest on National Debt — just the freaking interest. National Debt grows by $6 billion every day.

The problem with an increasing debt burden is that it costs more to maintain it: This is precisely the issue with which the U.S. Treasury is wrangling at present. As total U.S. national debt ticks over $39 trillion, the interest payments on that value are eye-watering: $529 billion for the first six months of the current fiscal year.

A new budget update from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released yesterday highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out the near $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.

That means the service payments on public debt are roughly equal to spending for the same period on both the Department of Defense’s military budget and the Department of Education. These two outlays contribute costs of $461 billion and $70 billion respectively.

Keep reading

NYC Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani Hosts Self-Congratulatory Party as Agenda Unravels

New York City Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing growing backlash after throwing an elaborate, self-congratulatory celebration marking his first 100 days in office, while many of his biggest campaign promises have already unraveled.

The event, held at a large venue in Queens, was framed as a celebration of “progress.” In reality, it raised serious questions about priorities inside City Hall.

Mamdani not only delivered a speech praising his own leadership but also leaned heavily on the same socialist rhetoric that defined his campaign, doubling down rather than addressing mounting concerns about performance.

“I was elected as a Democratic socialist, and I will govern as a Democratic socialist,” Mamdani declared, reiterating a message that continues to divide voters across the city.

The optics only grew more questionable from there. The event featured what attendees described as a “100 days museum,” complete with staged displays celebrating minor accomplishments—such as pothole repairs and symbolic policy announcements.

At one point, even a fast-food wrapper from a public appearance was reportedly included in the exhibit.

Keep reading

Degrees of Seriousness on the National Debt

We hit an ignominious milestone recently when the national debt crossed $39 trillion. Naturally, regular citizens have chimed in about what’s to blame, who’s at fault, what can be done, or whether it even matters.

The discussion usually takes one or more of the following shapes.

If you’re new to the conversation, just dipping your toes in for the first time, you might think we can simply cut defense spending, or eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse.” Considering how many military bases we have around the world, that’s a legit angle.

Likewise, when you factor in the Pentagon’s numerous failed audits and run-of-the-mill household items running into the thousands of dollars, you could kill two birds with one stone.

We’re just scratching the surface here, though.

If you’re somewhat serious, in addition to those, you would do well to point out discretionary spending. Those are monies that Congress approves annually, such as farm subsidies, spending on education and housing, etc. The nearly trillion-dollar defense budget is part of it.

However, all told, such spending barely makes up a quarter of the overall budget—if that.

If you’re more serious, you could include all the aforementioned items, plus the programs on autopilot: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They are the three biggest items in the federal budget, eating up over half.

Interest on the debt, another expenditure on autopilot, recently overtook defense as the fourth largest item—but cannot be tackled directly. Only by addressing all the rest will that one be pushed down in the process.

Social Security’s financial health has been feeling the strain of an ever-growing number of beneficiaries and a declining birthrate.

By some estimates, what is in the Social Security Trust Fund will be insufficient to pay benefits within the next decade.

Regarding health insurance, its very structure is handicapped by its third-party payer nature. When consumers don’t know the actual price of the service they’re receiving, they’re less judicious in their spending.

Most Americans choose a low-deductible insurance plan where, after a visit or two to the doctor, all they pay is a $20 or $50 copay. Few have an idea of what the full menu of prices is for medical services.

At that point, general tax revenue, i.e., what comes out of your federal tax withholding, will be tapped to make up the difference.

One of the few less efficient enterprises than that is the government. That it is the genesis of Medicaid and Medicare exacerbates the problem.

Regardless, you know that you’ve encountered someone very serious about debt and deficits when he discusses attacking it at its root: the government’s ability to service it.

Investors (remember to check your 401k) will continue to buy US Treasurys if they believe Uncle Sam will continue to have the ability to pay the interest. That ability rests on the taxing power it has over productive citizens.

So, why not cut tax rates and reduce that ability?

Keep reading