Tag: taxes

Hilton Mocks Becerra for Saying Tax Breaks for Those Earning Under $150K Benefit ‘the Wealthiest’

Democrat California gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra started his CNN debate by claiming that his Republican opponent, Steve Hilton, supports tax breaks for the “wealthiest” Californians. Hilton immediately pointed out that the tax breaks will actually benefit people who earn under $150,000 a year.

One of the key points to take away from the debate interchange below, besides the fact that Democrats are going to have to cheat egregiously to boost an obviously sour and disconnected Becerra, is that Democrats are never content with targeting billionaires. All those deluded taxpayers who think they will vote for higher taxes on the wealthy should remember that Democrats’ definition of “the wealthy” is pretty much anyone who earns a good enough salary to be independent of government assistance and government programs.

Becerra lectured at the Wednesday debate, “If you start making tax breaks for the wealthiest, you damage our working families like my parents, Mr. Hilton.” Grinning, Hilton shot back, “I love the way that Xavier says the wealthiest are people who are earning less than $150,000 a year, struggling. But first of all, I just want to say thank you to CNN for bringing Xavier out of hiding. He’s barely been seen in public since the primary, four months ago.”

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Trump’s Horrific, Illegal Iran War Has ‘Costs Us Billions While Making Us Less Safe’

A group of experts says that President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran, which has been massively expensive and has made Americans less safe, shows the need for a radical overhaul of US foreign policy.

Scholars at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts on Wednesday are holding a webinar to present ideas for reducing the US military footprint and using the savings to invest in programs that will directly benefit working-class Americans.

In a video posted on social media ahead of the webinar, PERI experts advocated for making major changes to US foreign policy, which they argued has left the country overstretched.

“The Iran War costs us billions while making us less safe,” says a message accompanying the video on PERI’s social media account. “By reining in military spending and taxing the wealthy to pay their fair share, we can fund critical services like universal preschool, infrastructure investments, and Medicare for All.”

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Trump Maps Out $200 Billion in Korean Investment, but the Biggest Deals Aren’t Done Yet

President Donald Trump put some yuge numbers on the table Wednesday: up to $200 billion in South Korean investment for American energy projects, including Alaska LNG, eight nuclear power plants, and a massive natural gas power project in Texas.

The announcement finally gives shape to part of the $350 billion investment package South Korea agreed to as part of last year’s trade deal with Washington. Of that total, $150 billion was set aside for shipbuilding and another $200 billion for strategic investments selected in cooperation with the United States.

From Reuters:

“Thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republic of Korea, they will invest up to $200 billion,” Trump said.

He said that the investment would include the construction of eight large-scale nuclear power plants, a liquefied natural gas pipeline in Alaska and a 6-gigawatt power generation facility in Texas.

The announcement is part of a series of economic and investment deals Trump is highlighting ⁠ahead of November’s midterm elections, as he seeks to reinforce his economic record amid voter concerns over the Iran war and high gasoline prices. The Alaska LNG project also comes as Republicans seek to retain incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan who faces Democrat Mary Peltola. Sullivan was in the Oval Office for the Wednesday announcement.

The Alaska LNG project includes an 807-mile (1,299-km) pipeline carrying natural gas from the North Slope to a liquefaction facility on Alaska’s southern coast, allowing the fuel to be shipped to Asian markets. The project is designed to transport about 3.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and produce up to 20 million metric tons of LNG annually, according to the White House.

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Filing Taxes Will Cost Americans $544 Billion This Year

The process of paying taxes manages to add insult to injury by making it burdensome to comply as you cough up the money the government steals from you. The time lost keeping up on tax rules, filing paperwork, and calculating our own mugging is stolen from the rewarding areas of life, and the costs are diverted from productive activities. How much do we lose in satisfying government’s demands? A new report answers that question in painful detail, just in time for the October 15 extended filing deadline.

The High Cost of Paying High Taxes

“The federal tax code imposes many costs on the US economy. The most direct costs, of course, are the roughly $5.2 trillion in federal taxes (as of fiscal year 2025) that consume 17.3 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP),” the Tax Foundation’s Alex Muresianu and Guy Cardwell wrote last week. “A less direct cost is the time taken out of our lives to comply with a Byzantine tax code that requires billions of hours to complete IRS paperwork and file tax returns.”

Drawing on data from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Muresianu and Cardwell note that “Americans will spend almost 6.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing and reporting requirements in 2026. This is equal to 3.32 million full-time workers—more than the population of Chicago and nearly 35 times the workforce the IRS employed in FY 2025—doing nothing but tax return paperwork for a full year.”

That’s an enormous amount of time and energy diverted from Americans’ own priorities—like working, running businesses, and raising families—to satisfy federal paperwork requirements so we can cough up the money the government extorts from us under threats of fines and imprisonment. Few of us want to pay that money to begin with, but we have to surrender part of our lives to calculate the amount owed and satisfy tax rules.

As you might expect, all that tax-consumed time comes attached to a hefty price tag.

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Waste Of The Day: Trips To Tiki Bar, Nightclubs

It’s no wonder that California’s infamous high-speed rail line has more than tripled in cost and been delayed by 20 years. The consultants working on the project have been killing time at a tiki bar, a nightclub, an escape room, a gym and more.

The consultants are allowed to bill taxpayers for legitimate business expenses, but the state “routinely” allowed them to travel without advance approval, as required. State officials admitted they sometimes had no idea the consultants had taken trips until the invoices arrived.

Many travel expenses had no written justification, or had vague explanations like “typical travel” or “meetings.”

Consultants booked first-class flights and premium services like Uber Black, which picks up riders in a luxury car. One consultant booked a premium Uber to travel 25 miles to a steakhouse, and another used the service for “repeated” trips to Planet Fitness gym locations around Sacramento. Another took a ride to a nightclub at 9:40 p.m. and booked his return trip at 2:30 a.m.

State employees said the absurd expenses were approved due to “the volume of travel expense claims, limited time to review them, and errors.”

One legal consulting firm’s contract allows employees to earn $570 per hour while traveling on a plane, plus the price of airfare. The consulting firm billed for more than 30 trips. Only three were approved in advance, and even those contained no “adequate explanations for why the travel was necessary.”

When state officials tried to enforce their authority over travel approvals, they were “resisted or overridden,” according to the report. Consultants argued that Ian Choudri, CEO of the California High Speed Rail Authority, had asked them to travel for in-person meetings, and so all their expenses were justified. Choudri has no authority to approve travel for consultants, according to the audit.

The audit reviewed four consulting firms, which are not identified by name.

The Rail Authority said it would only make some changes to its travel expense procedures, arguing that “state regulations do not require justification for each consultant trip.”

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Grammy-winning pastor’s half-time side job that pays $540,000 is with taxpayer-funded nonprofit

A Detroit pastor who last year admonished a parishioner for her inadequate church donation of $1,235 was paid a salary of $538,955 that year by a taxpayer-funded nonprofit he leads that is separate from the church, according to federal records.

That salary for Marvin Winans Sr. — the pastor of Perfecting Church and a Grammy-winning gospel singer — accounted for about 61% of what the nonprofit spent toward its stated mission of “community development,” its recent report to the Internal Revenue Service shows.

His role as president for the nonprofit — Perfecting Community Development Corporation — is a half-time job, the report says, which means he was paid about $518 per hour.

Winans’ salary has increased substantially in recent years and coincided with a $500,000 government grant the state awarded the nonprofit. Grant application guidance indicates the award was funded with federal pandemic relief money.

“I don’t know whether there were better recipients for this cash, but it doesn’t look like it was supposed to go to pay for the salaries of an organization’s director,” said James Hohman, director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a prominent conservative think tank in Michigan.

Winans did not respond to repeated requests from The Center Square, including a visit to his church, to comment for this article. The Center Square also sent him an email that summarized the article’s findings.

The salary Winans receives from the church itself, separate from the nonprofit, is not publicly disclosed because churches are generally not required to report their spending to the federal government.

His salary increases also come amid his vigorous fundraising campaign to finish work on an enormous church that has been under construction for more than 20 years.

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Ottawa spent $1.8 million on DEI in one year, including paying the Anti-Hate Network to train Environment Canada staff

Federal departments and agencies spent $1,812,162.60 on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) contracts in a single year. That’s according to the government’s response to an order paper question from Conservative MP Vincent Neil Ho.

Ho, the MP for Richmond Hill South, filed question Q-1252 on June 2, 2026. He asked every department to list its DEI contracts from June 1, 2025 to June 1, 2026, including the vendor, date, amount, service and how each contract was awarded. The government tabled its answer on Sept. 21.

Thirty-two institutions responded. Rebel News went through every table and added up the totals, then checked them against the itemized contracts. The final bill came to $1,812,162.60.

The Anti-Hate Network, on the taxpayer’s dime

On March 18, 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada paid the Canadian Anti-Hate Network $2,260 for a workshop titled “State of Hate – Understanding the Landscape.” It was sole-sourced, with no competition.

The group has been chaired by Bernie Farber. Ottawa’s own officials had already flagged concerns about it.

Public Safety Canada officials warned that the Canadian Anti-Hate Network “has been accused of creating products that were not free from bias.” Blacklock’s Reporter obtained that warning through an access to information request. But the Liberals went ahead and approved another $200,000 grant anyway, for research on the “far-right landscape in Canada.”

That brought the group’s federal funding to about $908,000 since 2020.

A 2025 Canadian Heritage memo also cited complaints about “anti-Catholic messages.” It noted that the allegations were “about spreading hate regarding religion and beliefs and further polarization.”

Heritage investigated and cleared the group, but it did the review in-house. It used no outside experts or independent reviewer, only public information and internal consultations.

The group’s federal grant expired on March 31, 2026, just 13 days after Environment Canada paid it to train staff.

Paying the CBC twice

On Dec. 16, 2025, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada paid CBC/Radio-Canada $350 to screen “The Elders,” a CBC Gem documentary. The screening was for its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s Indigenous Elders event. That contract was sole-sourced too.

Canadians already give the CBC more than a billion dollars a year. Ottawa then paid the CBC again so bureaucrats could watch something taxpayers had already funded.

Svend Robinson’s panel fee

The National Film Board paid former NDP MP Svend Robinson $250 on Aug. 28, 2025 to sit on a panel after a documentary screening. It paid Syrus Marcus Ware, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, the same amount for the same thing.

National Defence leads the pack

National Defence spent $628,091.43, more than a third of the total.

The single largest item was $451,202.31 to Calian Ltd. for an “Inclusion and Respect in Defence” training workshop. Calian got another $11,618.40 for a literature review on equity, diversity and inclusion.

National Defence also paid:

  • $22,600 to the Michaëlle Jean Foundation for a speaker at the Canadian Armed Forces apology for racial discrimination
  • $5,650 to Pride at Work Canada for a 2SLGBTQI+ e-learning portal
  • $10,500 for a membership in the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion

Pins, menopause and critical minerals

Other departments listed these as DEI spending:

  • The Canada Border Services Agency spent $11,793 on 10,500 pins with themes like “Positive Space,” gender equity, disability and anti-racism.
  • The Treasury Board Secretariat spent $8,475 on a Menopause Foundation education series.
  • Prairies Economic Development Canada included a $37,800 critical-minerals procurement study.
  • The CRTC included an audience-measurement database ($19,507.87) and a $28,250 sponsorship for Women in Communications and Technology.
  • The Immigration and Refugee Board paid Egale Canada $6,000 for a diversity workshop.

The real number is higher

But that $1.8 million is the floor, not the ceiling.

Several big departments gave no figure at all. They said the information isn’t tracked centrally. They include Global Affairs Canada, Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the RCMP, Correctional Service Canada, Parks Canada and Statistics Canada.

CSIS and the Communications Security Establishment refused to answer, citing security. The Canada Border Services Agency and Crown-Indigenous Relations reported only part of their spending.

So the government is spending your money on DEI, and many departments either don’t know how much or won’t say.

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AOC Pushes ‘Free’ College as Only Way to Rein in Runaway Cost of College Tuition

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed the idea of ‘free’ college during a recent event at Cornell University, saying that this is the only way to rein in the ridiculous cost of tuition these days.

It is worth mentioning that this event was called ‘Students vs. Billionaires Town Hall’ so even the name of the event sets up an adversarial relationship between students and wealthy people. The message is clear. Rich people are the bad guys.

It’s also important to point out that there is no such thing as ‘free’ college. Someone is going to pay for it, usually taxpayers.

Breitbart News reports:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested “tuition-free public colleges and universities” as part of an effort to “rein in” the increased costs at private institutions.

While speaking at a “Students vs. Billionaires Town Hall” event on Sunday, hosted by the More Perfect Union, Ocasio-Cortez was asked what her team and the Democratic Party are “doing to ensure that middle and low-income families can continue to afford a quality, higher education.” The question came as Cornell University “recently broke $100,000 a year for tuition.”

Ocasio-Cortez responded by expressing shock at the tuition number, stating that it was “far more than what many households make in a year in this country.”

The congresswoman explained that what a lot of colleges and universities “do with their funds is more of a real estate investment strategy, than an educational strategy.” Ocasio-Cortez continued to state that colleges and universities put a lot of the funds toward “new buildings, and facilities that are often marketed as luxury,” while the adjunct faculty is “barely paid a living wage” and the quality of education is going downhill.

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CHAMPAGNE SOCIALISM: Zohran Mamdani Now Pushing Free Opera Tickets for Some Reason

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani must have run out of things to offer to residents of the city for free, because now he is pushing free opera tickets.

Move over limousine liberals, it’s time to make way for champagne socialists.

It’s at times like this that you remember Mamdani grew up as a rich kid of privilege, just like many of today’s far left socialists.

FOX News reports:

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a plan last week to give away 70,000 free tickets to the Metropolitan Opera House, firing up critics on social media who argue there are more pressing issues facing New Yorkers.

“Opera for All,” a partnership between the city and the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, will allow New Yorkers who have never attended a performance to enter a monthly lottery for tickets to productions ranging from Macbeth to La Bohème, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.

A spokesperson for Mamdani’s office told Fox News Digital the city is not paying for the program. The Metropolitan Opera is donating tickets from its pool of unsold seats, representing about 10% of its seasonal capacity, while the city will help promote and distribute them.

In a video announcing the latest giveaway, Mamdani appeared alongside the cast of La Bohème, telling viewers that “every New Yorker should have the opportunity to see this no matter how much money is in their pocket.”

He also highlighted former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s “People’s Opera,” which was founded in 1943 to offer affordable tickets before filing for bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunching in 2016.

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USDA Says It Reviewed Biden’s Billions, but GAO Couldn’t Tell What Survived.

President Donald Trump asked federal agencies a fairly basic question when he returned to office: What exactly are taxpayers still paying for? For billions of dollars flowing from two of the Biden administration’s signature spending laws, the Department of Energy came back with an answer.

The Department of Agriculture came back with something closer to, “We reviewed it.”

Great! What survived?

Well, about that.

Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, “Unleashing American Energy” order directed agencies to pause certain disbursements under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act while they reviewed whether the spending aligned with his administration’s policies. 

It was a sweeping order, but the assignment itself wasn’t complicated: Review the money and determine what should continue.

The GAO recently examined how the USDA and Energy handled those reviews. Together, the two departments received about $164 billion in budget authority from the laws for programs covered by the GAO’s examination, so this wasn’t an exercise involving loose change found under Washington’s couch cushions.

Energy’s paperwork allows us to follow what happened. By the end of its review, Energy reported that 381 awards totaling about $19.6 billion would continue, while another 155 awards totaling approximately $9.1 billion were terminated.

Whatever you think about those decisions, there’s a scorecard.

The USDA is where things get interesting. The department received approximately $37 billion for the programs the GAO examined and obligated $32.2 billion during fiscal years 2022 through 2025. The USDA officials said their reviews were completed by June 30, 2025, and reported terminating 34 contracts worth approximately $67 million.

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