Tag: taxes

Trump to announce huge foreign aid crackdown to protect US interests in Day One executive order

Donald Trump will sign an executive order Monday halting all new foreign aid unless it fits with U.S. strategic goals, according to two incoming senior White House officials.

The aim is to prevent American taxpayers’ cash falling into the hands of groups working against the U.S. or promoting ‘diversity, equity, inclusion’ agendas, for example.

And it will likely immediately halt new U.S. money going to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 

It is the agency that distributes aid in Gaza but it has repeatedly been accused of close ties to the terror group Hamas. The UN admitted that nine of its staff may been involved in the  Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

‘The United States and American citizens have been some of the most generous people in the entire world,’ an incoming White House policy adviser told DailyMail.com. 

‘But at this point, we have to understand that foreign policy is domestic policy, and if this is not aligned with our interests, then Uncle Sam should not be opening up his pocketbook any longer.’

The executive order comes among the first to be signed by Trump after being sworn into office for a second term.

It signals his desire to bring foreign aid spending into line with his America First policy agenda and to sync it with the work of the State Department.

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LA residents whose homes burnt down in wildfires will still have to pay off mortgages, property taxes

As deadly wildfires continue scorching their way through Los Angeles and the surrounding area for the second straight week, homeowners are worried about the prospect of defaulting on their mortgages in the wake of the unprecedented disaster were offered some reprieve from the nation’s major lenders.

On Monday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled mortgage assistance and relief options for customers reeling from the historic Southern California fires.

Both government-backed corporations are offering 12-month forbearance plans, meaning that struggling homeowners could either reduce or suspend their mortgage payments for up to a year without incurring late fees, foreclosure, or other types of legal proceedings.

In cases where a homeowner has failed to reach out to their lender, mortgage servicers are authorized to offer a forbearance plan for up to three months if they believe the home was affected by a disaster.

“We are committed to supporting homeowners, renters, and communities in need during this challenging time,” said Cyndi Danko, Fannie Mae’s single-family senior vice president and chief credit officer, in a statement. “If homeowners have been impacted by the fires, we encourage them to call their mortgage servicer for assistance as soon as possible.”

Even after the forbearance period ends, homeowners can apply for a repayment plan, a payment deferral, or a loan modification to avoid mortgage delinquency, according to the companies.

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Trans City-Councilor Takes Month Off To Recover From Being Misgendered

A trans Massachusetts city councilor is taking a one-month leave of absence, citing feelings of being unsafe after allegedly being “misgendered” by the mayor and another councilor, and being referred to as “it” by a third city official. 

The soap opera starring that councilor, Thu Nguyen, erupted at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Worcester, Massachusetts city council, where members held a public hearing over whether it was appropriate for council members like Nguyen to attend meetings remotely. Once again appearing remotely, Nguyen blamed the mayor and peers for the routine failure to show up in person, saying, “Under your leadership, I have felt unsafe around this council body. I have faced transphobia with being misgendered and recently learned that I have been dehumanized to a point where I’m being referred to as ‘it’ by my colleagues on this council.”

Heralded as the “first openly nonbinary lawmaker” in Massachusetts history — a title we’re sure Paul Revere and Samuel Adams would be totally impressed with — Nguyen has held office on the Worcester city council since 2022. Nguyen’s preferred pronouns are “they/them.” 

The day after the hearing, Nguyen posted a statement saying “I am…sad to announce I will be taking a month to prioritize my mental and emotional safety,” so he could recover from having allegedly been misgendered by Mayor Joseph M. Petty and Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey, and called “it” by Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson. Nguyen filed a complaint with Worcester’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, urging the prompt launch of an investigation, adding that is was unfortunate to do so at the very same time that “we transition under a Trump administration and exponential increase of fear experienced by the LGBTQ+ community.” 

On Thursday, the city clerk confirmed that Nguyen will continue receiving a $2,641 monthly city stipend while providing nothing for Worcester other than melodrama. 

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SNAP recipients may be barred from junk food purchases under new House GOP bill

House Republicans are eyeing new limits on food stamps driven by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., is leading “The Healthy SNAP Act” to bar most junk foods from being eligible for purchase under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), he first told Fox News Digital.

“President Trump has been given a mandate by the majority of Americans to Make America Healthy Again, and those in his administration, like RFK Jr. and Senator Marco Rubio, have directly advocated for eliminating junk food purchases with SNAP,” Brecheen told Fox News Digital.

“If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them. But what we’re saying is, don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.”

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Climate Hustle: EPA Advisor Admits Sending Billions to Climate Groups Before Trump Takes Office

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advisor has been caught on hidden camera admitting that the outgoing Biden administration is funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to climate organizations as a hedge against the incoming Trump administration.

Brent Efron who is a special advisor for implementation for the EPA, was recorded by Project Veritas bragging about sending tens of billions of dollars in grants to climate nonprofits as “an insurance policy” against Trump’s promises to rein in government spending.

Efron exhibits zero shame as he laughingly equates the frantic effort to get as much money as possible to climate-related allies as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”

When asked where that money is going, Efron responds, “Nonprofits, states, tribes,” explaining that the effort would continue, “until the Trump people come in and tell us we cannot give out money.”

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Cherokee Nation receives $10.7M grant for electric vehicle charging ports

The Cherokee Nation is receiving a $10.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install 112 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging ports across 12 community locations. 

The project will place chargers in prominent destinations like parks and health centers. The initiative supports the Cherokee Nation’s clean energy goals and President Biden’s Justice 40 initiative, ensuring that nearly the entire reservation is within 25 miles of charging infrastructure.

“Our goal at the Cherokee Nation is to reduce our carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2027, and we continue to make these strides,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “This latest federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will help us continue to add even more electric vehicle charging stations across the Cherokee Nation Reservation as more consumers purchase electric vehicles and need places to charge.”

Proposed sites for EV Charging stations include properties owned by the Cherokee Nation in Ochelata, Jay, South Coffeyville, Nowata, Tahlequah, Stilwell, Grove, Salina, Vinita and Tulsa.

EV charging stations now exist throughout the tribe’s reservation including Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, Cherokee Casino Tahlequah, Ann Mitchell Cultural & Welcome Center in Vinita and Cherokee Nation’s W.W. Keeler Tribal Complex government office.

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Stay-at-Home Bureaucrats: Congressional probe exposes billions in waste from federal telework gigs

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee found Wednesday that vast numbers of federal employees telework from home, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars spent on office space, and the Biden administration has enabled such accommodations to continue during President-elect Donald Trump’s next administration.

“The Biden-Harris administration has ceded too much authority to the federal union bosses, allowing their preference to work from home to take precedence over fulfilling agencies’ missions and serving the American people,” the committee declared in a report decrying the continued widespread use of telework  since the COVID-19 pandemic ended.

The report’s release came ahead of a hearing held by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday called “The Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Legacy,” at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

File

011525_Telework Staff Report_FINAL.pdf

Telework findings

The committee found the Biden administration appears to exaggerate the number of federal employees working in-office. The administration’s own data shows that as of last May, among “the 2.28 million federal civilian employees, approximately 228,000 are never required to show up to the office, and nearly all of the other 1.1 million employees technically-eligible for telework are engaged in telework.” The employees eligible for telework “were in the office an average of three days a week.”

Additionally, several agencies have telework-eligible employees who “collectively spend less than half their work hours in the office.” Employees who telework “must report to the office on occasion,” whereas, “remote employees never need to show up to work.”

Teleworking employees have roughly doubled since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and remote workers have jumped from 2% to 10% since fiscal year 2019.

“[B]etween September 2019 and May 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) went from 2 percent remote to 29 percent; OPM went from 7 percent remote to 40 percent remote; the General Services Administration (GSA) went from 6 percent remote to 50 percent remote; and the Department of Education (ED) workforce went from 2 percent remote to 55 percent remote,” the report reads.

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“Absolutely Disgusting”: Biden Announces Victims Of Fires To Get $770 Each

Americans have reacted with utter disgust after Joe Biden announced that victims of the California fires are to receive a one time paltry payment of $770 if they apply for it.

Biden’s announcement came during a White House meeting with other federal officials on Monday, where he stated “I want to be clear, we’re not waiting until those fires are over to start helping the victims. We’re getting them help right now.”

“People impacted by these fires are going to receive a one-time payment of $770, one-time payment, so they can quickly purchase things like water, baby formula, and prescriptions,” Biden continued, adding “So far, nearly 6,000 survivors have registered to do just that, and $5.1 million has gone out.”

The people of LA and the surrounding areas impacted by the fires will enjoy $20 more than the victims of last year’s Hurricane Helene, who received $750, and a whopping $70 more than victims of the August 2023 Maui wildfires.

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Karen Bass: Part-Time Mayor

It’s said that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did no such thing — she just took a taxpayer-funded trip to the Paris Olympics while cutting $17 million from the fire department’s budget and ignoring the cries of her fire chief. 

Three, actually. Three taxpayer-funded trips to the Paris Olympics that lasted two weeks. But just think of the miles she earned.

Sure, Bass was in Ghana on a White House junket when the fires broke out last week, but that was sheer dumb luck. A New York Times report today indicates that Bass views her position as part-time at best.

“A review of her public daily schedule for the past year shows that Ms. Bass has traveled out of the country at city expense at least four other times in recent months before the Ghana visit,” the NYT reported. “Once to Mexico for the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum and three times to France for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.”

It gets worse. Bass had explicitly promised during the 2022 mayoral race to reduce her foreign travel, even though she didn’t want to.

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Biden signs RFK Stadium land bill into law, a step toward potential Commanders stadium in Washington

President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a bill that transfers the land that includes the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to city control, the next step to potentially pave the way for the NFL’s Washington Commanders to return to the nation’s capital.

Giving the District of Columbia control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise’s former home.

Owners Josh Harris, Mitch Rales and Mark Ein and Mayor Muriel Bowser stood behind Biden at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office when he signed the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act. The Commanders in a statement said it was a big win for the city and its residents.

“Washington can finally move forward on a new vision for the RFK site,” they said. “We look forward to being a part of that conversation as we evaluate a future home for the Washington Commanders.”

Bowser called this moment “the results of years of tireless and strategic advocacy, extraordinary collaboration and bipartisan leadership.”

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