Tag: taxes

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

A U.S. appeals court on Friday declared unconstitutional a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for ​Congress to exercise its power to tax.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of ‌Appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the nonprofit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members.

They argued that people should be free to distill spirits at home, whether as ​a hobby or for personal consumption including, in one instance, to create ​an apple-pie-vodka recipe.

The ban was part of a law passed during ⁠Reconstruction in July 1868, in part to thwart liquor tax evasion, and subjected violators ​to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Writing for a three-judge panel, ​Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones said the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing distilling in the first place, unlike laws that regulated the manufacture and labeling of distilled spirits on which ​the government could collect taxes.

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Mamdani pushed combined $23B worth of new NYC taxes in just his first 100 days

The past 100 days have been a taxing experience.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has backed new taxes during his short time in office that would squeeze a combined at least $23 billion out of even middle-class New Yorkers — despite his campaign pledge to only hike levies on the rich.

The democratic socialist campaigned on a freebie-filled agenda he contended could be funded by taxes on Big Apple millionaires and the largest corporations.

Once in office, Mamdani largely shifted his tax talk toward the need to fill a budget shortfall he initially said was $12 billion, but eventually revised down to $5.4 billion.

He even threatened an across-the-board nearly 10% property tax increase citywide if he didn’t get his “tax the rich” wish. And he accused City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Manhattan Democrat, of preferring to back cuts to city services rather than supporting his tax schemes — moves that baffled lawmakers and insiders.

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America Last: War Abroad, Tyranny at Home—and the Theft of a Nation

“We’re fighting wars, we can’t take care of … daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things… We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”—President Donald J. Trump

Every bomb dropped abroad is a bill sent home.

Every war waged in the name of “security” is paid for by Americans who go without—without affordable healthcare, without stable housing, without a government that prioritizes their well-being.

As the U.S. pours trillions into endless wars and military expansion, Americans are left paying the price—not just in dollars, but in lost freedoms and eroded constitutional protections.

This is not national defense.

This is organized theft.

While Americans struggle with rising gas prices, soaring grocery bills, and mounting debt—fueled in part by reckless tariffs and preemptive wars—the federal government is spending money it doesn’t have on military expansion, foreign conflicts, and presidential excess.

This is not America First.

If anything, it is becoming painfully clear that Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to governing puts America last every time.

Trump has not made it a priority to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. He has not made it a priority to invest in innovation or ensure that the nation remains competitive in a rapidly advancing technological world. Nor has he shown much concern for caring for veterans, the elderly, or the young.

Instead, the government is cutting back on programs that make Americans healthier, smarter, and more secure—while the president builds monuments to himself and indulges in a taxpayer-funded lifestyle of staggering excess.

Despite once claiming he would be too busy to play golf, Trump is on track to leave taxpayers with a bill exceeding $300 million in travel and security expenses—much of it tied to frequent trips to his Florida properties. Each visit to Mar-a-Lago costs an estimated $3.4 million.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are shelling out $273,063 per hour to keep Air Force One in the air.

And while millions of Americans struggle to afford basic necessities, Trump is demanding $377 million—an 866 percent increase—to renovate the White House residence.

But these excesses, outrageous as they are, pale in comparison to the true cost of this administration’s priorities: war.

The Trump administration has requested $1.5 trillion for its FY 2027 military budget—separate from an additional $200 billion in emergency funding for the war in Iran.

The sitting president of the United States is spending money that is not his to spend in order to fight endless wars unauthorized by Congress that do nothing to protect the American people or our interests, while insisting that the federal government’s only priority should be the military industrial complex.

In addition to increasing the budget for the military, prisons, nuclear weapons, and a weaponized Justice Department, the Trump administration has also proposed budget cuts of $73 billion to non-military programs—slashing funding for medical research, public schools, and low-income heating assistance, as well as cuts to affordable housing, job training, small-business lending, anti-poverty programs, agriculture, NASA, research in social sciences and economics, humanitarian assistance and global health programs, among others.

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FRAUD FUGITIVE ON THE RUN: $11M Medicaid Scam Suspect Flees U.S. Before Trial After Posting Bond — Critics BLAST Tim Walz’s “Soft-on-Crime” System for Letting Him Keep Passport

In another jaw-dropping example of Minnesota’s collapsing justice system under far-left Governor Tim Walz, a major fraud kingpin in the state’s largest-ever Medicaid scam has skipped the country, just days before his high-profile trial was set to begin.

Abdirashid Said, the top defendant in a sprawling $11 million personal care assistant (PCA) fraud scheme, is now a fugitive after skipping a scheduled pretrial hearing in Hennepin County.

The trial, expected to last weeks and expose a massive web of fraud targeting taxpayer-funded Medicaid programs, has now been abruptly canceled.

According to reporting from KARE 11’s Lou Raguse, Said had been facing serious charges including racketeering, aiding and abetting theft by swindle, and perjury.

Prosecutors alleged he played a central role in a coordinated scheme involving PCA companies that billed Medicaid for services that were never performed, effectively siphoning millions from taxpayers.

Said had already been convicted of fraud in a previous scheme and was ordered by a judge NOT to work for any company receiving Medicaid funds, KARE 11 reported.

Yet he allegedly continued the grift, complete with perjury on the witness stand, where he claimed massive checks were just “loans and gifts” to pay off prior restitution.

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Welfare Loophole That Lets Millionaires Get Food Stamps

Rob Undersander is a millionaire. He also received taxpayer-funded food stamps. His story illustrates an absurd – and intentional – loophole in America’s welfare system that taxpayers need closed immediately.

Rob applied for food stamps in 2016. A Minnesota resident, he clearly exceeded the program’s asset limits. But in the application process, he was deemed eligible to receive a brochure on domestic violence services, which under state policy allowed him to receive food stamps. Three weeks later, his first food-stamp benefits arrived in the mail. The taxpayer cash arrived like clockwork for the next 19 months, ultimately amounting to more than $6,000. (Rob only did this to prove the system was broken, and instead of keeping the money, he donated every penny to charity.)

It’s no accident that despite being a millionaire, Rob received welfare payments that are supposed to be for the truly vulnerable. The federal government and states have conspired to create a system that intentionally bypasses the program’s eligibility standards. Call it fraud by design.

Federal law establishes two ways to qualify for stamps – either by meeting the income and asset limits, or by qualifying for a cash welfare program. But in 1999, the Clinton administration issued guidance that lets states decide what qualifies as a benefit under those programs. States have responded by offering benefits that are nothing of the kind, in a deliberate attempt to bypass the asset and income limits for food stamps. The domestic violence brochure that Rob received is a good example. States routinely print pamphlets or establish hotlines that have nothing to do with food stamps, yet states deem them as benefits that let ineligible people get on the program anyway.

The Clinton administration frankly admitted the guidance violated congressional intent. The Obama administration later encouraged as many states as possible to use this loophole, while giving it a formal name: “Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility.” Today, 43 states and Washington, D.C.. have embraced this fraud. Our organization estimates that at least 5.9 million otherwise ineligible people are enrolled in food stamps through this loophole. They are also a major reason why at least one out of every $10 spent on food stamps is improper.

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Baltimore Creates $35 Million Reparations Fund But None of the Money Has Been Paid Out Because Everyone is Fighting For Control Of It

When the state of Maryland legalized the sale of marijuana a few years ago, they decided that they would set aside a few dollars from each sale to go into a reparations fund which would pay for all sorts of social programs.

Now the fund has $35 million in it but almost none of the money has been paid out because pretty much everyone involved is fighting for control of the fund. Who could have predicted that such a thing would happen?

It’s probably safe to assume that lots of people are going to be very disappointed when this is all finally sorted out and decided.

The Baltimore Beat reports:

Baltimore has received more than $35 million in cannabis reparations money, but none of it has reached residents

In the three years since Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, Baltimore has received more than $35 million in tax revenue to reinvest in communities devastated by the War on Drugs. To date, not a single dollar has reached the people it was meant to help, and the first round of funding may still be a year away.

At the center of the delay is an escalating dispute over who controls the money: City Hall or the Baltimore Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission, the 17-member body established in November 2024 to oversee how the funds are distributed. City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds.

That holdup means that while Maryland’s legalization of cannabis in 2023 led to over $1.1 billion in sales over the following year alone, even as Black communities continue to be targeted by the drug war, none of it has helped repair that damage…

State Senator Mary Washington, who sponsored SB0894, told the Beat that the law was not intended to give local elected officials control over how the money is spent, and argued Baltimore City’s interpretation is out of step with how the law has been understood elsewhere in Maryland.

“The money was never intended to be a slush fund for a county executive or mayor,” she said. Instead, she said, it was meant to reinvest in communities impacted by the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, which continue to face disparities in homeownership, wealth-building, and life expectancy.

This has disaster written all over it.

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Public Attorneys Doing Way More For Illegal Migrants Than You Might Think

Criminal migrants across the country are increasingly avoiding deportation thanks to an unlikely source: public attorneys using local taxpayer dollars to represent them in immigration court.

Foreign nationals facing criminal prosecution have long been provided Supreme Court-mandated legal advice on the potential impacts of guilty pleas. However, public attorneys are more frequently representing non-citizens in deportation proceedings, sparking ethical concerns from immigration hawks who note that there’s no legal requirement for free lawyers in civil court.

“You don’t have a right to pay counsel in civil proceedings any more than you do in tenant-landlord court or divorce court,” Art Arthur, a resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Arthur — who previously served as an immigration judge — highlighted how government-funding for immigration attorneys is becoming more common across the U.S.

“If they’re going to provide free counsel to respondents — which is how we refer to them in immigration court — are they providing free counsel to people facing bankruptcy, to people who are facing eviction, to people who are attempting to get out of abuse of marriages?” Arthur continued. “I got a feeling the answer that probably no.”

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Migrants ‘to be handed 40 per cent of new homes by 2030’

Nearly four in 10 new homes built by 2030 will be needed to accommodate migrants arriving in Britain, according to fresh analysis.

The research, conducted by the Conservative Party, draws on projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

According to the OBR, net migration between 2026 and 2030 is expected to reach almost 1.2 million people.

Using ONS data on average household size, the Conservatives estimate this would require around just under 500,000 additional homes for new arrivals alone.

Britain is projected to deliver about 1.34 million new homes over the same period.

The Conservatives say this means 37.1 per cent of all homes built over the next five years would be needed to house migrants.

By 2030, that proportion is forecast to rise to 39.1 per cent.

Government figures also suggest migration-driven demand could increase property prices by around £9,489 per home.

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California Attorney General Charges 21 Suspects in $267 Million Hospice Fraud Ring

Democrat officials in California are suddenly interested in prosecuting hospice fraudsters after the Justice Department created a division dedicated to arresting fraudsters.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) on Thursday announced his office charged 21 suspects in a $267 million hospice fraud ring in Southern California.

Five of the 21 suspects have been arrested so far.

“California Attorney General Rob Bonta, together with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), today announced charges filed against 21 suspects and the dismantling of a major hospice fraud scheme that defrauded California of $267 million,” Bonta’s office said.

“Operation Skip Trace resulted in the arrest of five people after ten different locations were searched in Southern California. In addition, two handguns and over $757,000 in cash were seized,” Bonta’s office announced.

“Investigators found that those involved purchased personal identifying information for people living outside of California on the dark web, then enrolled them in Covered California by posing as California residents,” Fox News reported.

“Straw owners” then bought a number of hospice companies and began billing Medi-Cal for services never provided to those stolen identities. The suspects used fake records, nonexistent offices, and fraudulent diagnoses to justify these claims, Bonta said.” – the outlet said.

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