Tag: taxes

Dear DOGE: Here’s How To Cut the Pentagon Budget by $100 Billion in 6 Easy Steps

America’s military budget is more than just numbers on a page – it’s a reflection of the priorities that shape our society. Right now, that nearly trillion dollar budget is bloated, inefficient, and far removed from the needs of everyday Americans. We’ve identified six simple yet effective ways to cut at least $100 billion from the Pentagon’s budget – without sacrificing even the most hawkish of war hawk’s sense of national security. Ready to take the scissors to that excess spending? Here’s how we can do it.

1. Halt the F-35 Program (Save $12B+ per year)

The F-35 is the poster child for military mismanagement. It’s a fighter jet that was supposed to revolutionize our military – except it’s plagued by cost overruns, delays, and underperformance. Despite a projected lifetime cost of over $2 trillion, this aircraft only meets mission requirements about 30% of the time. If we ended or paused the F-35 program now, we’d free up $12 billion annually. The military-industrial complex can afford a few less fancy jets that destroy land and lives, especially when they don’t even do their job right.

2. Reassess Long-Range Missile Defense (Save $9.3B+ per year)

For over half a century, we’ve sunk an eye-watering $400 billion into long-range missile defense systems that have never delivered. The cold, hard truth is these systems are ineffective against real-world threats. In fact, no missile defense technology has ever proven capable of neutralizing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack. Cutting back on these programs would save us $9.3 billion per year – money that could be better spent on diplomacy initiatives that actually work.

3. Cut the Sentinel ICBM Program (Save $3.7B+ per year)

ICBMs were once the crown jewels of our nuclear deterrence strategy, but they’re outdated in today’s geopolitical climate. With more reliable and flexible platforms like submarines, bombers, and emerging hypersonic technologies, maintaining an expensive, high-risk ICBM arsenal makes little sense. Ending the Sentinel ICBM program would save taxpayers $3.7 billion annually, and even more in the long run, with total savings over its lifespan estimated at $310 billion. It’s time to face facts: we don’t need to keep pouring money into a strategy that no longer aligns with modern defense needs. Especially when the best nuclear deterrence system is ending nuclear weapons programs to begin with.

4. Cease Procurement of Aircraft Carriers (Save $2.3B+ per year)

Aircraft carriers are relics of a bygone era, costing billions to build and maintain, while becoming increasingly vulnerable to modern missile technology. These floating cities are no longer the symbols of naval power they once were. By halting new aircraft carrier procurements, we can save $2.3 billion a year – money that could be better allocated to ways that actually keep us safe in the 21st century like housing, healthcare or climate justice.

5. Cut Redundant Contracts by 15% (Save $26B per year)

The Pentagon’s bureaucracy is a cash cow for contractors – more than 500,000 private sector workers are paid to do redundant and often wasteful work. Many contracts overlap or go toward projects that are, frankly, unnecessary. Cutting back just 15% on these contracts would save $26 billion annually. That’s a massive chunk of change that could be reallocated to more efficient and effective defense projects. Want a starting point? Look no further than SpaceX’s lucrative contracts – it’s time we hold these companies accountable.Maybe DOGE knows a guy there?

6. Prioritize Diplomacy (Save $50B+ per year)

The best way to avoid unnecessary military spending is to prevent conflicts from happening in the first place. By focusing on diplomatic solutions instead of military interventions, we can scale back expensive overseas bases, reduce troop deployments, and use reserves and National Guard units more effectively. This shift could save up to $50 billion a year – and possibly as much as $100 billion in the long term. It’s about time we put our resources into creating peaceful solutions rather than preparing for endless wars.

What Could We Do with the $100 Billion in Savings?

The possibilities are endless when we take a more practical approach to national security spending. What could we do with the $100 billion we save? Here’s a snapshot of just some of the incredible investments we could make in American society:

  • 787,255 Registered Nurses: Filling critical healthcare gaps nationwide.
  • 10.39 million Public Housing Units: Making affordable housing a reality for families across the country.
  • 2.29 million Jobs at $15/hour: Providing good jobs with benefits, boosting the economy.
  • 1.03 million Elementary School Teachers: Giving our children the education they deserve.
  • 579,999 Clean Energy Jobs: Building a sustainable, green future for the next generation.
  • 7.81 million Head Start Slots: Giving young children a foundation for lifelong success.
  • 5.88 million Military Veterans receiving VA medical care: Ensuring those who served our country receive the care they earned.

The Bottom Line?

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Trump Admin Ends Taxpayer-Funded Housing For Illegal Immigrants

The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would be ending taxpayer-funded housing for illegal immigrants.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed a joint partnership to curtail what they describe as an “exploitation” of the country’s housing programs.

As Rachel Acenas reports for The Epoch Times, Turner and Noem together signed the “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” memorandum of understanding (MOU).

“We’re here signing a partnership to ensure that the wasteful misappropriations that have been going to assist the illegal aliens in our country will no longer go to assist them but instead to assist the American people,” Turner said in a video statement on X.

American citizens have taken a back seat to illegal immigrants for too long, according to Turner, who said that American tax dollars should be used to benefit only U.S. citizens, especially when it comes to an issue as pressing as the nation’s housing crisis.

As part of the new memorandum, HUD will provide a full-time staff member to assist in operations at the Incident Command Center (ICC) to facilitate data-sharing and ensure taxpayer-funded housing programs are not used to benefit or harbor illegal immigrants.

Noem accused the Biden administration of failing to prioritize Americans.

“This memorandum is going to be a partnership that we will form to make sure that these housing programs are going to only people who deserve it, people who are in this country who need assistance, who want a better life for their family,” Noem said in the video.

The HUD and DHS partnership comes after Trump signed an executive order in February to direct federal agencies and departments to identify all federally-funded programs that provide financial benefits to illegal immigrants and to take corrective action.

The order seeks to “ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration,” according to a fact sheet on the order.

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DEA Promotes ‘Anti-420 Day’ Contest For Young People To ‘Flood’ Instagram With Marijuana Warnings

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is promoting an “Anti-420 Day” campaign that’s recruiting students to send short videos warning their peers about marijuana use.

In a bulletin that was distributed on Tuesday, DEA’s JustThinkTwice.com site shared details about the campaign, which is being run by the anti-cannabis nonprofit organization Johnny’s Ambassadors.

“Be an Instagram Influencer for Anti-420 Day,” the message says. “Johnny’s Ambassadors is hiring teens and young adults (high school and college students) to create original videos about the harms of youth THC use for Anti-420 Day.”

The plan is to “flood” Instagram with the short-form videos that would feature students talking about “why young people should not use THC.”

Students would be eligible for a $25 Amazon gift card for a personal video, $35 for a group video and $50 for a “professionally produced educational video or skit with adult sponsor supervision.”

“Your video should either be an educational Youth THC Prevention video on why young people shouldn’t use THC products (vapes, dabs, weed, edibles, gummies) OR a personal story of how you have been impacted by THC use (yourself, a friend, a family member, or a loved one),” the organization said.

It also provided examples of potential prompts, including explainers on “why THC impacts athletic performance on a team” and busting “commonly-held but incorrect myth about THC.”

“Tell a personal story about how you’ve been negatively impacted by THC use” or perform a “skit or drama to educate other teens why using products with THC is bad for you,” the description from Johnny’s Ambassadors—which was founded the parents of a child who died by suicide after consuming high potency marijuana concentrates—says.

There are some restrictions on the content, including a ban on “swearing” in the videos. And no content is allowed that “depicts, imitates, or promotes the possession or consumption of any THC product.”

“DO NOT IMITATE THE USE OF THC/MARIJUANA OR PARAPHERNALIA OF ANY KIND, EVEN AS A JOKE,” it emphasizes.

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German Socialists Want to Use Citizen’s Own Money to Propagandize Them

The German socialists (SPD) are desperately seeking new ways to improve their standing after the electorate roundly rejected their political agenda—especially relating to mass migration—in the February elections.

An outright ban on the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) opposition is, of course, one option. Another is funnelling taxpayer cash into the coffers of media organisations that can be trusted to put a positive spin on the SPD’s flaws.

Such considerations appear now to have made their way into ongoing coalition talks, in which Friedrich Merz’s CDU has already proved happy to ‘cede ground’ further to the left.

Die Stimme Berlins reports that the SPD is calling for a new “media innovation fund” which would provide state support to what the paper described as “reliable” and “trustworthy” publications. That is, reliable and trustworthy according to the state.

AfD Bundestag member Götz Frömming said this, in effect, would mean papers that are “loyal to the [governing] party line,” while journalist Henning Rosenbusch added that ‘reliable’ translated in this case to “preemptively obedient government propaganda.”

Reports also note that the fund would be intended to support these selected media companies while they improve their digital arms—which, of course, is where influencing can today take place most effectively—as well as to combat ‘disinformation.’

This closely follows a slew of criticism surrounding accusations that the main U.S. aid agency’s (USAID) funds were used to deliver particular political outcomes in Europe, as well as calls by leftist Brussels officials for taxpayers to fund, effectively, pro-European Union propaganda.

Apollo News claims that the SPD demand is currently being met with “displeasure” from CDU negotiators. But with Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting, hoping to forge a coalition by April 20th, it is not at all difficult to imagine the ‘conservatives’ backing down.

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Red States Are Paying For California’s Illegal Aliens’ Health Care

In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom proudly made California the first state to offer medical care for people who entered the country illegally and reside in the Golden State. However, the cost, estimated at almost $8 billion, is being paid by all taxpayers, not just Californians.

Do people in Texas, North Carolina, and hyper-taxed Illinois want to fund California’s 700,000 illegal immigrants? They don’t have a choice. Newsom is using Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid safety net program, and the federal government matches the state’s funding, using American taxpayers’ money. Yet illegal immigrants are prohibited by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act from enrolling in Medicaid.

Federal Funding of States’ Medicaid

All state Medicaid programs are funded jointly by the state and federal government using a formula called Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). Poorer states such as New Mexico and Mississippi get as much as three federal dollars for every one they budget, while rich states like California get one federal dollar for every state dollar.  

The FMAP formula provides an incentive for states to increase spending because as they spend more state dollars, they get more dollars from taxpayers nationally.  

Newsom is budgeting $42 billion for Medi-Cal in 2025-26.

In Newsom’s budget estimate last year, the cost of insuring illegal immigrants was estimated at $6.5 billion, but it has been revised to $9.5 billion “and is expected to grow even higher,” according to the L.A. Times. In fact, Newsom is now seeking a loan of an additional $3.4 billion to cover the increased costs.

Newsom’s Fraud

By law and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules, illegal immigrants are prohibited from enrolling in Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). By allowing illegal immigrants to enroll, Newsom directly contravenes federal rules and takes matching Medicaid funds that he should not. He acquires the money in several fraudulent ways. 

Paul Winfree of Economic Policy Innovation Center and Brian Blase of Paragon Health Institute recently exposed a money laundering scheme that Newsom uses. California put a tax on insurers that increases “costs” to Medi-Cal. This forced Washington to contribute more taxpayer dollars to California. The state then approves higher rates for the insurance companies, which compensates them for the additional tax. California gains federal dollars. The only losers are taxpayers and the rule of law. 

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Montana Senate Approves Bill To Shift Marijuana Revenue From Conservation Programs To Police And Addiction Treatment

The Montana Senate on Thursday advanced a measure to change what programs receive more than $60 million in funding from recreational marijuana tax revenue.

Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, is carrying Senate Bill 307 to shift marijuana tax revenue away from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks programs, and bolster marijuana prevention and enforcement operations.

McGillvray framed the bill as a “simple” policy choice, and asked legislators whether they care more about children and those impacted by marijuana, or wildlife habitat.

“I would submit to you that the deer, the elk, the ducks, the geese are all doing pretty good in Montana,” McGillvray said, adding that FWP has “buckets” of money they could spend.

“I’m asking [us] to prioritize the babies, the moms, the teenagers, the children, the adults that are addicted to this and need a way out,” he said.

But opponents said that the funding was allocated for FWP programs for a reason, and that if the Legislature wants to address prevention efforts, they should tackle that separately.

Sen. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, served on the Business and Labor Committee during the 2021 session, when recreational marijuana was legalized with support from conservation groups counting on some of the revenue.

“We worked very hard on a big piece of legislation that put all the guiderails around the legalization of marijuana, and it included the allocation of revenue sources,” Novak said. “I do wholeheartedly think we need to take a hard look at prevention, education, treatment, the crime that goes along with all of that and the whole trickle effect, I just don’t think that this bill is the way to go about doing that.”

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Hunter’s Secret Service boondoggle

President Donald Trump just signed an executive order to terminate Secret Service protection for Hunter Biden, 55, and his half-sister, Ashley, 43. It marks the end of an era of bitter irony for U.S. taxpayers and the Secret Service — both of which a shameless presidential son took advantage.

Secret Service protection for former presidents is detailed under the Former Presidents Act (FPA). The Act did not take effect until 1958, benefitting the only two living former presidents at the time — Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to benefit from it immediately upon leaving the Oval Office.

The FPA originally provided for lifetime Secret Service protection for former presidents. But, in 1994, it was amended to provide only ten years protection for those inaugurated after January 1, 1997. Perhaps recognizing we were living in more dangerous times, effective in 2013, the Act returned to the lifelong protection commitment. 

The spouse of a former president is also entitled to lifelong Secret Service protection unless she remarries. Any child of a former president is entitled to protection “until they become 16 years of age.” 

While Hunter and Ashley were still receiving such protection two months after Joe Biden left office, it was due to his executing an executive order before stepping down to extend protection to older children for no more than six additional months. This was something other presidents had done before him.

But here is a bitter irony tied to the Hunter Biden boondoggle. 

Keeping in mind Hunter’s 24/7 security probably involved about 18 agents, necessitating they go wherever he went and that Hunter was making numerous international trips to collect paychecks for virtually no reason other than being the son of the vice president and later president, taxpayers were taking a major hit in financing his Secret Service force. This was true too when Biden was living a life of luxury in Malibu that mandated his security team rent very expensive property nearby.

Meanwhile, as taxpayers were footing Hunter’s tremendous Secret Service costs, he was receiving millions of dollars, it is estimated, which included $3.8 million from CEFC China Energy — an oil and gas company linked to the Chinese Communist Party that ultimately went belly up — and from Burisma Holdings. Hunter had begun working with CEFC when his father was vice president.

It presented the worst possible image for someone in Hunter’s position to open doors for China — a country with national security interests far different from our own. 

After Biden became president, Hunter worked with another Chinese company linked to CEFC that sent $5 million to a joint venture created by the First Son and an associate. Joint ventures became a common feature used by Hunter to launder foreign funding. But, with Secret Service agents in tow, it was as if Hunter were in a room counting his money as they stood guard outside, providing him protection for which he was not even having to pay.

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Scorch Marks in the Sand

Javelin, Stinger, M-777 howitzer, HIMARS, Excalibur, Switchblade, all manner of electronic warfare gizmos and counter-battery radars, Bradley IFVs, Stryker, Leopard, Challenger, Abrams, Patriot, JDAMs, HARMS, Storm Shadow, ATACMS … I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

Oh, yeah … remember in early 2022 when the unveiling of the Bayraktar strike drones was hailed with great fanfare? They were predicted to be the bane of the Russian army. Instead, it was a major embarrassment for the Turks.

That said, over the past year or so, those “savage barbarians” down in Yemen have shot-down a baker’s dozen of the once-vaunted US MQ-9 Reaper drones – supposedly vastly superior to the Bayraktar TB2.

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Rolls-Royce Planning to Shift Production to United States to Avoid Trump Tariffs: Report

British engineering giant Rolls-Royce is reportedly preparing to increase manufacturing production in the United States to avoid tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

London’s Daily Telegraph reported that Rolls-Royce is currently drafting contingency plans to avoid the impact of trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. The plans are said to include ramping up production in America and hiring more workers in the United States.

According to the report, the aerospace and defence company is considering shifting production from countries impacted by the trade war, such as China, Canada, and Mexico, where it currently has around 6,000 workers.

A source told the British broadsheet, “If you are making something in countries like China, then you’ll be looking at whether you can do it in the US instead.”

Additionally, Rolls is also considering potentially shifting production from the UK and Europe should tariffs threaten its manufacturing sites in the regions.

In a message to shareholders, the firm said that trade restrictions “could lead to increased costs and consequently realign the global supply chain”.

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Documents Reveal Government-Backed Censorship Network Involving GEC, USAID, and Private Media Firms

America First Legal (AFL) has unveiled a trove of revealing documents obtained through litigation against the US Department of State’s now-defunct Global Engagement Center (GEC).

These documents expose a sweeping censorship network orchestrated by government agencies under the guise of combating “misinformation” and “disinformation.” The findings implicate not only the GEC but also the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and various media monitoring organizations in a coordinated effort to control public discourse and suppress speech.

We make the documents searchable for you here.

The GEC was initially established to counteract foreign disinformation, yet recently released documents demonstrate that it became a vehicle for state-sponsored propaganda. AFL’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have uncovered evidence of the GEC’s collaboration with private media firms, leveraging their influence to censor narratives deemed unfavorable. The lawsuit against the GEC further revealed that USAID developed an internal “Disinformation Primer,” endorsing censorship strategies employed by private companies and advocating for their expansion.

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