Tag: taxes

Coalition Of Dem AGs Sue Trump Admin Over Effort To Weed Non-Citizens Off Of SNAP Program

A coalition of 20 attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit Monday, arguing that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s demand that states turn over personal information about SNAP recipients dating back five years, violates privacy laws.

SNAP is a federally-funded, state-administered program that provides billions of dollars in food benefits to tens of millions of low-income individuals and families in the United States.

The new USDA demands, released last week, require states to provide a list of individuals who have applied or are currently receiving SNAP benefits, in addition to other information such as a list of their immigration statuses in the U.S., and information including their marital statuses, their residential and mailing addresses, and education and employment history, among other things.

The USDA has threatened to withhold administrative funding from states that don’t comply.

On April 24, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins issued a guidance to all State agencies directing them “to enhance identity and immigration verification practices when determining eligibility for the program.

Under Rollins’ direction, John Walk, acting deputy under secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, sent letters to state SNAP agencies, explaining that most noncitizens do not qualify for the benefits.

“By law, only United States citizens and certain lawfully present aliens may receive SNAP benefits. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) established that ‘aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs.’ SNAP is not and has never been available to illegal aliens,” Walk wrote.

Specifically, the USDA asked states “to cross-check Social Security numbers with a death master file and to use the free Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system provided by the Department of Homeland Security” to verify immigration status.

An estimated 1.5 million noncitizens collected a total of $4.2 billion in Food Stamp benefit payments in fiscal year 2022, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data.

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Administration Finds Millions of Individuals Double Enrolled in Taxpayer-Funded Coverage

Earlier this year, The Federalist highlighted a Wall Street Journal investigation that found taxpayers had spent billions paying for individuals who had enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states simultaneously. The kicker is not surprising but still shocking: As bad as the Journal exposé seemed, the reality is worse.

A new investigation increased both the number of enrollees with duplicate forms of taxpayer-funded coverage and the amount taxpayers are paying for such unnecessary double-dipping. It provides an example — one of many — to rebut leftist claims that the recently passed budget reconciliation bill will somehow destroy the safety net.

Explosion of Wasteful Spending

The Journal analysis of Medicaid data from 2019 to 2021 found taxpayers spent $4.3 billion over three years, providing duplicate coverage to an average of 660,000 people per year. The Trump administration recently examined what happened after four years of Biden administration policies, designed to promote enrollment in taxpayer-funded coverage at all costs.

The analysis by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of 2024 enrollment data concluded that, last year, “an average of 1.2 million Americans each month were enrolled” in Medicaid in multiple states — nearly double the level of duplicate enrollment cited by the Journal in the opening years of the Biden presidency. Moreover, CMS also noted that another “1.6 million Americans each month were enrolled in both Medicaid” and taxpayer-subsidized coverage on the insurance Exchange plans.

According to CMS, the total cost of all this unnecessary spending on a total of 2.8 million duplicate enrollments is $14 billion per year — more than three times the $4.3 billion figure the Journal reported earlier this year. CMS didn’t specify if that $14 billion figure represented total Medicaid costs (i.e., including the share of Medicaid costs that states pay themselves), or only the potential costs to the federal government.

Regardless, it represents a large amount. For purposes of comparison, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that, during the last fiscal year, the federal government would spend $607 billion on Medicaid. Simply eliminating the duplicate payments would reduce federal Medicaid spending by roughly 2.3 percent — without doing anything to harm beneficiaries, who would still have taxpayer-funded coverage, just not in multiple places at once.

Phony Coverage Losses?

The CMS data highlights two important points regarding Medicaid and taxpayer-funded insurance programs. First, the discussion about the number of individuals who will “lose” coverage seems overstated.

CBO has yet to release detailed coverage estimates regarding the final version of the bill, enacted into law. But the case described above demonstrates the absurdity of this type of exercise. The left might scream about 2.8 million people “losing” coverage — even though they “lost” coverage only on paper and are still insured elsewhere (and at taxpayer expense) in the system.

Many of the other supposed “losses” from the legislation fall into similar buckets: individuals who choose not to comply with the new work requirements, undocumented migrants denied taxpayer-funded coverage for public policy reasons, and so forth.

A good percentage of Americans would have few qualms about lawmakers making these types of reasonable policy judgments. And yet the left hopes to overwhelm such rational behavior with screaming headlines talking about Trump taking away health care from 15 million Americans.

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Federal government halting funding for asylum seekers’ hotel rooms starting in September

On Monday’s live stream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Alexa Lavoie discussed the implications of the federal government halting the funding of hotel rooms for asylum seekers.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced last week that federal funding for asylum seekers to stay in hotel rooms will end on September 30. The taxpayer-funded hotel rooms have reportedly cost Canadians over $1 billion since 2020.

The federal government has reportedly been funding hotel rooms for asylum seekers across Canada since 2018 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Sheila explained that despite the announcement sounding positive for conservatives, the negative impact on taxpayers caused by asylum seekers will still be present.

“That doesn’t mean that the asylum seekers are going to go home. What does that mean? It means they’re going to be dumped up to the provinces to take care of, and the municipalities,” she said.

Sheila went on: “They’ll be in your homeless shelters, they’ll be taking up your subsidized housing meant for low-income or upwardly mobile low-income Canadians who need to just stop on their way to something better in subsidized housing.”

“This is going to cause an even worse homelessness and poverty problem in this country because these people who should not be in our country, who are here illegally, are no longer housed by the federal government,” she added.

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Trump Shows Strong Support for Israel as Palestinians in Gaza Starve to Death

President Trump has shown strong support for Israel in recent days, while much of the world has been outraged over the images of Palestinians who are starving to death due to the US-backed Israeli siege on Gaza.

After the US and Israel quit ceasefire talks, Trump blamed the lack of progress on Hamas and suggested it was time for Israel to “finish the job” in Gaza. “I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump said on Friday, referring to Hamas.

For its part, Hamas has said that it was surprised by the US and Israel quitting the truce talks and that it was committed to continuing the process until a deal was reached.

In recent weeks, Trump has been claiming that a ceasefire deal was close, but now he is appearing to suggest that Israel should escalate its genocidal war. “They’re gonna have to fight, and they’re gonna have to clean it up. You’re gonna have to get rid of [Hamas],” he said.

Israeli officials told Axios that they weren’t sure if Trump’s comments were a negotiating tactic or a “green light” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use even more extreme military measures. The report said the Trump administration was rethinking its Gaza strategy, but there’s no sign it’s considering putting pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire.

Israeli officials also told Axios that Trump has applied virtually no pressure on Netanyahu to end the slaughter in Gaza in recent months. “In most calls and meetings, Trump told Bibi, ‘Do what you have to do in Gaza.’ In some cases, he even encouraged Netanyahu to go harder on Hamas,” one official said.

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‘Obama Phone’ Scam: Florida CEO Headed to Prison, Must Pay $128 Million Fine After Defrauding Government

The owner of a Florida telecommunications company will spend the next five years in prison and his firm must pay a hefty fine regarding an “Obama phone” scam.

Q Link Wireless LLC and its owner, identified as CEO Issa Asad, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and steal federal funds from the Lifeline program that began in the 1980s, Fox News reported Sunday.

The program offers subsidized cellphone services to lower-income people. In 2012, a video emerged of a protester outside a Mitt Romney event who claimed her neighbors received an “Obama phone,” Breitbart News reported at the time.

When asked why she supported Obama, the woman said, “Everybody in Cleveland low minority got Obama Phone. Keep Obama in President, you know? He gave us a phone, he’s going to do more.”

The clip shows the woman standing with other protesters on the side of a roadway while holding signs. The Breitbart News article speculated that she may or may not have been a paid agitator.

In 2013, Breitbart News reported that opposition to the “Lifeline” program was growing as Tracfone Wireless, “the company that most benefits from the government subsidy, is now advertising on inside-the-beltway news websites in an effort to save it.”

The Fox article said Asad was sentenced to prison and he, along with his company, must pay $128 million in fines.

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War Bankrupts Empires, Nations & City-States – Here We Go Again

France was on the brink of its Fifth bankruptcy in 1720. France defaulted in 1558 under Henry II, following the costly Habsburg-Valois Wars (also known as the Italian Wars), the outright repudiation of debt, and currency devaluation. Then in 1648, a Debt Crisis occurred under Louis XIV (Early Reign) with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). Louis XIV suspended payments and manipulated currency. Then, in 1661, there was another financial collapse under Louis XIV, when Finance Minister Nicolas Fouquet was arrested for corruption. Jean-Baptiste Colbert later reformed finances, but debt remained high.

Then, in 1715, France fell into bankruptcy following the death of Louis XIV. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) left France deeply indebted. The regency of Philippe d’Orléans implemented the Visa of 1715, a partial debt repudiation. This brings us to 1720 and the collapse of the Mississippi Bubble (John Law’s system), for which history blamed him without examining France’s chronic debt problems. John Law’s speculative financial scheme collapsed, resulting in hyperinflation of paper money and a banking crisis. The French government defaulted on its obligations.

This was followed by the 1770  Bankruptcy under Louis XV. The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) and financial mismanagement led to another debt crisis. The Finance Minister Étienne de Silhouette and later René de Maupeou imposed austerity and partial defaults.

Then, just 19 years later, this brings us to the debt crisis that sparked the 1789 French Revolution. The Pre-Revolution Financial Crisis was when France was effectively bankrupt under Louis XVI, leading to the Estates-General and the French Revolution (1789). The revolutionary government later repudiated royal debt.

Then, 23 years later, we come to the 1812–1813 Financial Crisis under Napoleon. The Napoleonic Wars drained French finances. The government resorted to forced loans and currency debasement. Just 5 years later, we come to the 1818 Post-Napoleonic Debt Restructuring. After Waterloo (1815), France struggled with reparations and debt. The Duc de Richelieu negotiated loans to stabilize finances. It is a wonder why anyone lends to governments that always want war.

We arrive at the next Revolution in 1848 and the 1848  Financial Crisis during the Second Republic. The February Revolution led to a credit crunch. The government imposed emergency financial measures, as it was unable to meet its debts, given that this was a socialist revolution against the wealthy.

Never learning from the past, which they always seem to assume is gone, we again arrive at the 1871 Post-Franco-Prussian War Bankruptcy Threat. Here, France had to pay 5 billion francs in reparations to Germany after losing the war. The government took massive loans (e.g., Morgan Loans) to avoid default. This was also why France demanded reparations from Germany after World War I, which resulted in bringing Hitler to power in 1933.

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NIH Betrays Promise to End Fauci-Era Animal Cruelty by Renewing Horrific Kitten Heart Failure Experiments, Slaughtering Dozens More Innocent Kittens with YOUR Tax Dollars

In a shocking betrayal and show of government hypocrisy and waste, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has quietly renewed deadly heart failure experiments on kittens, despite public pledges from top officials to “phase out” such barbaric testing on cats and dogs.

This explosive revelation comes from an exclusive investigation by the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), which uncovered how the NIH is reviving Fauci-era pet torture labs while claiming to “work tirelessly” to end them.

“Within days of @NIH publicly claiming it is ‘working tirelessly’ to ‘phase out’ dog and cat labs, the agency extended a grant that’s paying experimenters to surgically induce heart failure in healthy 8-week-old kittens, forcing them to suffer for months, and then killing them” https://t.co/wx7SERNwIx pic.twitter.com/UQjJ6SRTuA

— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) July 25, 2025

According to documents obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), experimenters at Temple University, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania are taking adorable 8- to 10-week-old kittens, cutting open their tiny chests, prying apart their ribs, and surgically implanting bands around their aortas to deliberately restrict blood flow and induce painful heart failure.

These poor creatures are then subjected to months of suffering, two or four months, to be exact, before being killed in the most horrific way imaginable: by cardiectomy, which means cutting out their still-beating hearts while they’re alive. And now, despite the project being set to expire on July 31, 2025, the NIH has extended it for another full year, dooming 25 more kittens to this nightmare.

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Feds Want $2.5 Billion For Lavish Marble Palace As Americans Can’t Afford Homes

The Federal Reserve’s website boasts a freshly updated page explaining ongoing renovations to two buildings, in the interest of transparency.

The page neglects to mention the cost of the renovations. 

The project’s price tag stands at a staggering $2.5 billion dollars, according to Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought. That’s up from a modest $1.9 billion proposal at the outset, according to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Chairman Jerome Powell has grossly mismanaged the Fed.

While continuing to run a deficit since FY23 (the first time in the Fed’s history), the Fed is way over budget on the renovation of its headquarters.

Now up to $2.5 billion, roughly $700 million over its initial cost.… pic.twitter.com/lHK4cWlAvf

— Russ Vought (@russvought) July 10, 2025

“At a time when the Fed is running an operating deficit, maintains high interest rates, and is receiving significant public scrutiny, one has to wonder whether the so-called ‘Taj Mahal near the National Mall’ project is in the best interests of the board & the public it serves,” questioned James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff.

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Trump Admin. Awards $1.26 Billion for the Largest Migrant Detention Center in the U.S.

The Trump administration is awarding $1.26 billion to build the nation’s largest detention and deportation center, to be located at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Fort Bliss, which is near El Paso, encompasses more than 1.12 million acres of land along the border with Mexico, and also features an airport. The new facility will have room for 5,000 beds and will likely serve as a deportation hub for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to Bloomberg.

The housing is set to consist of tents that will feature heating and air-conditioning. The contract is being awarded to Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics Company with $232 million of the total price being put up by the U.S. Army.

An ICE official told Bloomberg that the federal government “is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity. This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases.”

The announcement of the contract for Fort Bliss comes only a week after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that DHS will be setting up new deportation and detention facilities at military bases in Indiana and New Jersey.

Since Trump came into office this year, the administration has added 60 facilities to the list of those used to house migrants marked for deportation.

Now two more are being added to that list. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth informed Congress in a letter that Camp Atterbury in central Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey will be available “for temporary use by the Department of Homeland Security to house illegal aliens.”

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Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed at Helping Cities and States Get Homeless People Off the Streets and Into Treatment Centers

President Trump has just signed a new executive order which is intended to help cities and states get homeless people off of sidewalks and streets and into treatment centers. It’s part of his effort to make America safe again.

Homelessness has always been an issue in America but has exploded in certain blue cities in recent decades and the people who run these places seem unwilling or unable to deal with the problem.

For some reason, many liberals seem to think it is compassionate to allow people to continue to live in filth, addicted to dangerous drugs.

FOX News reports:

Homeless people can be removed from streets by cities, states in new Trump executive order

As part of his effort to “Make America Safe Again,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order to allow cities and states to remove homeless people off the streets and into treatment centers.

Trump signed the order, “Ending Vagrancy and Restoring,” Thursday afternoon.

The order states that the “number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the Biden administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.”

It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” stopping or limiting cities and states from removing homeless individuals from the streets and moving them to treatment centers.

Though it is unclear how much money will be allocated to the effort, Trump’s order redirects federal funds to ensure that removed homeless individuals are sent to rehabilitation, treatment and other facilities.

Additionally, the order requires Bondi to partner with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to prioritize federal grants to cities and states that “enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders,” according to USA Today.

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