Tag: taxes

Trump Admin Moves To Cut Another $4.9 Billion In Foreign Aid Funding

President Donald Trump on Aug. 28 proposed the cancellation of $4.9 billion in appropriated funds for foreign aid spending, using a maneuver that could effectively bypass the congressional approval process normally required to rescind the funds.

The funds were allocated to the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development—which is in the process of being closed by the Trump administration—during the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process.

Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the government must make a rescission request to Congress, which then has 45 days to approve the cancellation of appropriated funds. A “pocket rescission,” however, refers to such requests made within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. In these cases, the funds are withheld during the 45-day congressional review period, and if Congress doesn’t act before the fiscal year ends, the funds expire.

“Last night, President Trump cancelled $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid using a pocket rescission,” the Office of Management and Budget, a cabinet-level agency in the Executive Office of the President, wrote on X on Aug. 29.

Pocket rescissions are uncommon, and the last one attempted was in 1983, when President Ronald Reagan sought to cut $2 million appropriated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Trump, during his second term, has successfully requested some rescissions from Congress. A rescissions bill canceling $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasters was approved by Congress in July.

Rescission requests, when presented to Congress, may be enacted through legislation with simple majorities voting in favor in both houses, meaning that the minority has no leverage to stop or alter the process. Democrats in Congress, who are the minority in both houses, have thus protested against Trump’s rescissions, but often to no avail.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an Aug. 29 statement that the announcement of the administration’s rescissions plan “is further proof” that Trump and congressional Republicans are set on “rejecting bipartisanship and ‘going it alone’ this fall.”

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National debt to rise to 120% of GDP by 2035, budget watchdog warns

The national debt is projected to rise from 100% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at present to 120% of GDP by 2035, according to the latest figures from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, based on baseline budget data from the Congressional Budget Office.

The CRFB released an adjusted August 2025 baseline, which found that annual deficits will “remain above 6% of GDP throughout most of the decade,” which is “more than twice the 3% target advocated by some policymakers.”

The budget watchdog group estimated that bringing the federal deficit down gradually to 3% of GDP would require around $3.5 trillion in savings over five years, including interest, or $7.5 trillion over ten years.

“To hold debt at 100% of GDP, approximately $4 trillion is needed over five years, or $9 trillion over the decade,” read their analysis.

The CRFB found that achieving a deficit equal to 4% of GDP would require about $5 trillion in savings while balancing the full federal budget, including interest, would require about $15.5 trillion in total savings.

The watchdog group noted that economic growth alone cannot solely take the place of major fiscal policy changes to get the fisacl situation in the U.S. under control. The CRFB recommended that the U.S government implement “super PAYGO” as well as trust fund reform and other spending reduction initiatives.

“Under Super PAYGO, every dollar of new spending or tax cuts would be offset by at least two dollars of revenue increases or spending reductions, thus ensuring that new tax cut and mandatory spending legislation also includes deficit reduction,” the CRFB said.

CRFB noted that “faster growth can make these fiscal goals easier.” However, the watchdog group said that “thoughtful pro-growth deficit reduction and reform is likely the best way to put the country on a sustainable fiscal path.”

The CBO recently released a separate estimate which found that the Trump administration’s tariffs will cut the U.S. federal deficit by $4 trillion through 2035. 

The analysis found the tariffs would lead to $3.3 trillion in direct tariff revenue and $700 billion in savings from lower interest payments on borrowing. These projections are revised from CBO’s earlier estimates. In June, the CBO had estimated that tariffs would offset budget shortfalls by $3 trillion.

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The Harsh Truth About Life In Canada Today

Canada is often portrayed as a land of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity. Reality, however, tells a different story…

Statist policies, crushing taxes, bloated bureaucracy, and a society overtaken by woke ideology have shattered Canada. This is a cautionary tale for those looking at Canada as an ideal living space. If you are asking yourself what living in Canada is like, let me explain: Canada is not a land of fulfilled dreams but of enduring harsh conditions and barely getting by.

As if economic hardships aren’t enough, Canadians are also oppressed by the Orwellian newspeak that woke culture is creating. If you speak your mind, you’re labeled a fascist. If you question social policies, you’re accused of microaggressions.

There are no best places to live in Canada anymore. As a Canadian, I see little chance of Canada becoming livable again. Since I founded Expat Money in 2017, I have been helping expats build their Plan-Bs to protect their wealth and freedom and leave countries like this one.

Let’s look at the unfortunate condition that Canada has fallen into.

The Restrictions Imposed During Covid

The strict quarantine measures and harsh government interventions implemented in Canada during the COVID-19 hysteria were shameful. The government expanded police and administrative powers to smash public backlash against its COVID policies.

A significant protest movement called The Freedom Convoy began in early 2022. Truckers and citizens held large demonstrations in Ottawa against vaccination mandates, harsh pandemic restrictions, and the government’s authoritarian tendencies.

Former Prime Minister Trudeau used extraordinary powers to freeze the bank accounts of protesters and crack down on activists. Individual and property rights were arbitrarily violated.

The Canadian government imposed mandatory vaccinations on federal employees, healthcare workers, and those in the transportation sector, turning personal health decisions into state mandates. Those who were not vaccinated were suspended from their jobs, their travel rights were restricted, and they were ostracized from society. Even the private sector was coerced to impose vaccinations under government pressure.

Moreover, harsh lockdowns and restricted entry into the country forced businesses into bankruptcy. Massive numbers of people lost their jobs, and the government’s financial structure was severely damaged.

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EU science grants are funding Israeli military tech, data shows

The EU has given Israeli technology start-ups run by ex-IDF soldiers nearly half a billion euros in research grants since the start of the Gaza genocide. Some of the founders of these tech start-ups have served as reservists in Gaza, and in at least one instance the technology has been deployed to aid the genocide.

This article was originally published by ¡Do Not Panic!

The Horizon Europe program, described by the EU as ‘a scientific research initiative to develop a sustainable and livable society in Europe,’ has awarded around 475 million euros to 348 Israeli start-ups and research projects since October 2023, many of which are run by former IDF soldiers and intelligence officers.

In 2024, the EU awarded grants of €220m to 179 companies and initiatives run by Israelis. The scale of this funding, coming in a year when the world’s pre-eminent genocide experts all declared Israel was committing a genocide, a year in which entire cities were wiped out and tens of thousands of civilians murdered, is staggering.

In the same year Israel was also the third largest recipient, behind France and Germany, of ‘accelerator’ grants, a separate component of the Horizon program intended to support small and medium-sized companies working to improve life in Europe.

In 2025, the year in which Israel announced its full-scale ethnic cleansing plans and scholars estimated that 434,000 Palestinians in Gaza had been murdered by Israel, EU funding for Israeli tech initiatives still topped 110 million euros.

And this summer, with Gaza being driven officially into famine by Israel’s deliberate starvation campaign and as the Knesset was voting through a final solution, the EU was still dolling out tens of millions to companies run by ex-IDF personnel.

Horizon funding is critical to Israeli science and the Israeli economy. Since the inception of the programme in 1996, the EU has given Israeli companies, some of which have been directly spun out from the Israeli military, €3.4 billion euros. Israel is by far the largest non-EU recipient of Horizon, and its researchers are given an extremely generous, even curious amount of money for a program designed to support European researchers and European society. The president of Israel’s Academy of Sciences and Humanities said in May that cutting Israel off from EU research and innovation funds would be “almost a death sentence for Israeli science.”

Israel’s participation in the Horizon program has drawn attention in the past. Campaigners have argued the program is breaking its purely civilian mandate by giving money to Israeli institutions linked to the security state, and have demanded Israel is cut from the program. Under pressure with the genocide of Gaza moving into its final stages, the European Commission recently proposed a limited, partial ban on Israeli access to Horizon. It’s unclear though if the tepid move will garner enough votes from member states to pass. While Israel’s participation in Horizon has been the subject of controversy, the individuals behind these EU-funded initiatives, many of whom have a significant military background, have not previously been named. I’ve also found clear evidence that the program, which is mandated to support exclusively civilian applications, has funded military technology deployed during the genocide of Gaza.

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HUD Secretary Scott Turner to BOOT ILLEGAL ALIENS from Section 8 Housing — Proof Of Citizenship Now Required For All Tenants

The Trump administration is putting illegal aliens on notice: taxpayer-funded housing is for AMERICANS, not for those who broke the law to come here.

On Friday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced that all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) nationwide have 30 days to conduct audits verifying the legal status of every single tenant in Section 8 housing and other HUD-funded programs.

The first housing authority to face scrutiny is Washington, D.C., where Turner confirmed that the DC Housing Authority has already been put on notice, according to Fox News.

More than 3,000 PHAs across the nation are receiving the same marching orders. If they fail to comply, Turner warned, they risk losing federal funding.

Turner revealed that only 1 out of 4 eligible American families currently receives HUD assistance due to past administrations turning a blind eye to illegal alien abuse.

In a blistering letter to every Public Housing Authority (PHA) in America, Turner laid down the law: within 30 days, all housing agencies must provide a full and complete accounting of every tenant living in HUD-funded housing.

That means names, mailing addresses, number of bedrooms, the cost of each unit, and most importantly, proof of American citizenship or legal immigration status.

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New York City Projected to Spend $42,000 Per Student This School Year – And Their Reading and Math Scores Are Terrible

New York City is poised to spend an eye-popping $42,000 per student this school year, the highest figure in the country.

Some people might think this is a reasonable figure if New York City schools were also the top performing schools in the country, but they are not, not even close in fact. The city’s schools get terrible grades for reading and math.

How many parents in the NYC area do you suppose could do better by taking that $42,000 and spending it on a private school for their children, or even a full time home tutor? Don’t you think many parents would choose one of those options if they were available?

The New York Post reports:

NYC DOE projected to spend $42k per student this school year — the most in the country

The city Department of Education will spend a staggering $42,168 per student this school year, budget experts project, even as enrollment declines and student achievement stalls.

The record sum is nearly $2,000 per student more than the DOE spent last year, according to the nonprofit think tank Citizens Budget Commission. Students report to class Sept. 4.

The stunning figure is 36% more than the $31,119 the city spent per pupil just five years ago…

Despite the vast sums poured into the nation’s largest school system, student proficiency in English language arts and math continues to lag behind the rest of the state and country.

The “Nation’s Report Card” released by the National Center for Education Statistics in January revealed that just 33% of Big Apple fourth graders scored proficiency in math and 28% in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year.

Older students’ results were worse – 23% of city eighth graders met the national standards in math and 29% in reading.

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California Highway Patrol offers Harris security: LA Times

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has offered to provide protection for former Vice President Harris after President Trump canceled her Secret Service protection, according to new reporting from the Los Angeles Times, which cited law enforcement sources.

The Times, in a report published Friday, said the CHP offer came in the wake of discussions between the offices of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D).

The CHP declined to provide further information when reached by The Hill.

“Respectfully, the California Highway Patrol does not comment on security arrangements,” said CHP office of media relations spokesperson Lt. Matt Gutierrez. The office of Newsom, who would need to sign off on the protection, could not be immediately reached for comment by The Hill. Newsom’s office declined to provide further comment to The Times.

Harris’s protection was revoked through a letter titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security” dated Thursday. Her protections are set to end Sept. 1, according to CNN.

“You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

Harris’s security protections ran for six months following the end of the Biden administration, as is standard for vice presidents; however, former President Biden extended the deadline for protection by a year before leaving office, per CNN. Presidents receive lifetime Secret Service protection.

Bass denounced Trump’s decision to revoke Harris’s Secret Service protection in a statement to The Hill, saying she will work with Newsom to ensure Harris’s safety.

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Americans Shouldn’t Have To Pay For Secret Service To Follow Kamala Around On Her Book Tour

You won’t hear it from the corporate media, but former Vice President Kamala Harris has already had a longer Secret Service detail than other former vice presidents. President Donald Trump ended that on Friday before she could leech more American taxpayer dollars on a multi-city book tour to talk about her failed presidential campaign.

Former vice presidents are entitled to six months of Secret Service protection after they leave office. For Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, that ended July 21 just like hers was supposed to. But former President Joe Biden (or an autopen) quietly signed an order extending Harris’ detail to 18 months, for reasons unknown.

“You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris,” Trump’s directive states.

Trump reestablished the statutory norm under the Former Vice Presidents Act of 2008, more than a month after her detail should have stopped, but Democrats and their accomplices in the propaganda press want Americans to believe it was done out of vengeance.

“This is another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation in the form of firings, the revoking of security clearances and more,” communist Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNN. “This puts the former Vice President in danger and I look forward to working with the Governor to make sure Vice President Harris is safe in Los Angeles.”

Clearly no more danger than former vice presidents Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, or, yes, even Joe Biden were in after their terms expired. She, like them, will no longer receive 24/7 personal security, security at her home, or threat analysis for online threats from the Secret Service.

But according to one MSNBC commentator, “It is retributive,” and Trump made the move “just because he doesn’t like Vice President Kamala Harris.”

“It speaks to how Donald Trump operates. He use the government to deal with his own personal animosity with people,” the commentator said.

But the thrust of Trump’s move is that Harris is not some select, special former vice president. And although CNN is worried “the cost of mounting any similar level of protection privately would be expensive, possibly going into the millions of dollars annually,” perhaps she can hire private security, if she needs it, like everyone else in her position has the opportunity to do — paid for by book proceeds or her substantial net worth, not the American people.

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Yanks Almost $700 Million in Funding for Twelve Offshore Wind Projects

President Trump has made it clear on multiple occasions that he is not a fan of wind as a power source. It’s not reliable and it is an affront to the natural beauty of the country.

Trump recently cancelled a major wind project in Idaho that was approved by Biden. Now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pulled almost $700 million in funding for twelve planned offshore wind projects.

Green energy activists on the left are sure to lose their minds over this.

The New York Post reports:

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy withdraws $679M in funding for ‘doomed’ offshore wind projects – including three in NY, NJ and CT

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Friday that $679 million in federal funding has been withdrawn for 12 “doomed” offshore wind projects – including three in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The scrapped funding includes $10.5 million for Connecticut’s Bridgeport Port Authority Operations and Maintenance Wind Port project, $20.5 million for New Jersey’s Wind Port at Paulsboro and $48 million for Staten Island’s Arthur Kill Terminal.

The Trump administration plans to spend the withdrawn funds on “real infrastructure” and “restoring American maritime dominance.”

“Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” Duffy said in a statement…

“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg bent over backwards to use transportation dollars for their Green New Scam agenda while ignoring the dire needs of our shipbuilding industry,” Duffy said. “Thanks to President Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects.”

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Double-dip: Senator demands crackdown on feds pocketing unemployment checks and salaries

A Labor Department employee is the latest federal worker to be accused of claiming unemployment benefits while holding down a full-time job with Uncle Sam, highlighting what one leading senator said has become a persistent problem of double-dipping.

Mo Yuong Kang, who worked as an industrial hygienist for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2020 and 2021, was paid a $90,000 annual salary as millions of other Americans were being laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

Federal prosecutors said he also applied for and received pandemic unemployment benefits from April 2020 through September 2021. According to the federal indictment, he collected nearly $46,000 in extra cash.

Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, said thousands more who held government jobs may have collected unemployment benefits on the side.

She asked the Labor Department inspector general, who helped investigate Mr. Kang, to review the government’s lists of employees and unemployment beneficiaries and see where they overlap.

“Hundreds, even thousands, of government employees appear to have been ripping off the unemployment system by claiming to be unemployed,” she said.

She said the problem extends beyond federal workers.

In Ohio, an inspector general this week reported on a contract employee at the state’s unemployment benefits agency who was found to be collecting benefits for eight months while she held her government job.

The inspector general said Sandra Schnieders, a customer service assistant, also manipulated eight claims, leading to higher payouts for friends and associates. In one case, she boosted the weekly payout from $189 to a maximum of $480. In another case, she approved a file that had been halted, leading to $21,323 in bogus payouts.

Investigators said she was responsible for $112,240 in fraudulent payments, nearly $19,000 of which went to her own pocket.

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