Tag: taxes

Biden Asks Congress To Authorize $24BN More To Spend On Ukraine

The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve $24 billion in additional spending on Ukraine as it’s working to ramp up the proxy war as much as possible during President Biden’s final weeks in office.

POLITICO Pro obtained a request from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget that asked Congress to include additional Ukraine spending in a continuing resolution that’s expected to be voted on next month. Two congressional aides said Congress received the proposal on Monday.

The request asks for $8 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance initiative, a form of military aid that allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine, and $16 billion to replace US military equipment that’s been sent to Ukraine.

The money to replenish US weapons would allow the Biden administration to use the remaining Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine, which allows the US to ship weapons directly from US military stockpiles. The administration is looking to rush arms shipments to Ukraine throughout the rest of the transition period.

If Congress agrees to the request, it would bring total US spending on the proxy war, according to publicly available data, to about $210 billion.

Earlier this year, President Biden signed a foreign military aid bill into law that included $61 billion for Ukraine. Before that, the US spent at least $125 billion on the conflict.

US officials have told The Washington Post that the Biden administration is trying to put Ukraine in the best position possible before President-elect Donald Trump might push for an end to the war.

US officials acknowledged that within a few months, Ukraine could be pushed into negotiations and could end up ceding territory. “Biden’s reversal of his previous policies on mines and missiles was intended in part to give Ukraine the strongest possible hand as it enters those potential talks,” The Washington Post wrote.

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The $267 Million Price Tag on Censorship Efforts Under Biden

A lot has been said about how the outgoing US administration’s focus on censorship (“combating misinformation“); it negatively affected online speech and now a number of federal spending documents examined by a non-profit show the price of that effort – or at least a part of it.

A new report prepared by OpenTheBooks details the grants the Biden-Harris administration started giving out as it took over in early 2021, and this doesn’t include the taxpayer money spent internally, by various departments and agencies.

The grants figure comes to $267 million – a massive increase (44 times more) compared to the $6.7 million that Trump’s first administration set aside for the same purpose.

The grants went toward researching what the outgoing White House chose to consider misinformation, which in many cases resulted in third parties – organization, academia, etc., – promoting and/or censoring speech, opponents of the practice say, effectively (and unconstitutionally) – as government proxies.

Covid was one of the major topics covered by this type of “research” and here, the report notes, the approach was both to offer monetary incentives, and to pressure companies operating social networks in order to promote government narratives, but also shut down not only criticism, but even skepticism.

To make matters worse – many of these issues whose official explanation was treated as gospel, resulting in people getting deplatformed and demonetized if they questioned these interpretations, shortly after turned out to be anything but “misinformation” – such as the origin of the virus, the efficacy of mask-wearing, social distancing, the safety of vaccines, etc.

But, $127 million of US taxpayers’ money in total was used to enforce those narratives, through pro-vaccine advocacy, studies meant to stop “misinformation” on the internet, and the like.

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Kathy Hochul forces New Yorkers to pay $9 to drive through midtown Manhattan—claims it’s a cost savings because she wanted to charge $15

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced this week that New Yorkers will soon face a $9 congestion charge for driving into Manhattan’s Congestion Relief Zone, CBC News reported. Hochul originally canned the program as the presidential election loomed. Her first proposal was for people to pay a $15 and is now claiming that $9 “will save daily commuters” money.

“State law requires that congestion pricing simultaneously raise money for the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] and drive down traffic congestion. These are important priorities. But I believe that no New Yorker should have to pay a penny more than absolutely necessary to achieve these goals, and $15 was too much,” Hochul said. “I am proud to announce we have found a path to fund the MTA, reduce congestion and keep millions of dollars in the pockets of our commuters.”

“This lower toll will save daily commuters nearly $1,500 annually,” she said, though that “savings” is actually just a lesser increase. “And that kind of money makes a big difference for our families,” Hochul continued, adding that the really good news is that people who own vehicles, belong to the Low-Income Discount Plan and make less than $50,000 a year will be eligible for a 50 percent discount – but only after paying 10 tolls first. Hochul said the rate will be lower during the night when fewer people are driving into the city.

The governor said “the most critical” part of the massive tax is that it will guarantee $15 billion in MTA funding, which she said was the whole purpose of the tax to begin with. “We’re still getting the $15 billion to fund the MTA, and drivers are paying $6 less,” she said. She said that $15 billion will pay for an improved subway signal system, expansion of the Second Ave. subway line and buy electric buses.

President-elect Donald Trump told The New York Post on Thursday that he is against Hochul’s congestion pricing plan calling it the “most regressive tax known to womankind.”

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State Department Held Taxpayer-Funded “Therapy and Listening Sessions” for Grieving Employees After Trump Stomped Kamala on Election Night

Your tax dollars at work…

The State Department held taxpayer-funded “therapy and listening sessions” for grieving employees after Donald Trump curb-stomped Kamala Harris on Election Night.

The fragile daisies were having a hard time coping with a second Trump term.

Maybe Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy should start their downsizing with the employees at State.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) fired off a letter to Secretary of State Blinken demanding answers about this prime example of government waste.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, at least two therapy sessions were held at the State Department in the wake of this month’s landslide Republican victory.

One of the sessions was described as a “cry session” over Donald Trump’s win and Kamala’s predictable loss.

Darrell Issa questioned SOS Blinken on the delicate flowers at State.

“It is disturbing that ostensibly nonpartisan government officials would suffer a personal meltdown over the results of a free and fair election, something the United States champions around the world,” Issa wrote to outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “It is unacceptable that the Department accommodates this behavior and subsidizes it with taxpayer dollars.”

“The mental health of our foreign service personnel is important,” he continued, “but the Department has no obligation to indulge and promote the leftist political predilections of its employees and soothe their frayed nerves because of the good-faith votes of—and at the personal expense of—the American taxpayers.”

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Colorado Agrees to Settlement in First Amendment Case Where Designer Was Coerced into Same-Sex Wedding Website Design

Colorado’s government has consented to a settlement requiring it to disburse more than $1.5 million in attorney fees to Lorie Smith, a graphic designer who won in a First Amendment challenge against the state’s anti-discrimination law.

This legal resolution, announced on Tuesday, follows a definitive Supreme Court verdict that Colorado’s attempt to coerce Smith into designing wedding websites for same-sex couples violated her free speech rights, in conflict with her religious beliefs.

We obtained a copy of the final judgement for you here.

The case, known as 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which we first covered back in 2022, was decisively settled earlier this year when a federal district court ruled that Colorado must stop mandating Smith to engage in speech that contradicts her convictions. “After enduring Colorado’s censorship for nearly seven years, I’m incredibly grateful for the work of my attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to bring my case to victory,” Smith stated, in a press release sent to Reclaim The Net, appreciating the efforts of her legal team. She added, “As the Supreme Court said, I’m free to create art consistent with my beliefs without fear of Colorado punishing me anymore.”

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After World Bank “Misplaces” Up to $41 Billion in Funds, Biden Pledges Record $4 Billion More in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars

In just a few weeks, Joe Biden will fade into obscurity and will no longer have access to America’s checkbook. He is making sure that, before that happens, he is spreading American taxpayer’s dollars all over the world.

Although Biden wandered aimlessly at the G20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, causing concern when he missed the “family picture” with world leaders, he had enough of a hold on his faculties to pledge a record $4 billion dollars to the World Bank.

The pledge is a 14.3% increase from 2021. However, approval will depend on Congress after President Trump returns to the White House.

The announcement comes despite the fact that the DC-based international lender’s “poor recording keeping” has resulted in anywhere between $24 billion and $41 billion in misplaced funds.

During his remarks, Biden said, “It seems to me there are certain key steps.  First, we need to invest at a large scale. Now, we need to make sure the World Bank can continue its work in the most vulnerable countries.”

“I’m proud to announce the United States is pledging $4 billion over the next three years to the World Bank International Development Association.

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UK government to fund geoengineering experiments to cool the Earth

ARIA, the UK’s answer to ARPA, is an innovation lab that was the brainchild of Dominic Cummings, the former No. 10 adviser to Boris Johnson. Armed with £800 million, it is tasked with pursuing scientific research to unlock “breakthroughs at the edge of the possible.”

According to The Telegraph, ARIA is “a nondescript office tucked in a corner of the British Library” with big ambitions with projects that include engineering the climate, replacing physical labour with robots and merging human brains with computers to turn us into cyborgs.  It was established by an Act of Parliament in 2022 and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”).  The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Act 2022 exempts the agency from coming under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.

ARIA said it was pursuing geoengineering research because “even under the most aggressive scenarios” of cutting greenhouse gasses, it may not be possible to reduce those emissions fast enough to prevent dangerous increases in global temperatures.

Without conducting physical tests of those strategies, the agency said, “there is no prospect of being able to make proper judgments” about whether any type of geoengineering is “feasible, scalable, and controllable.”

The agency, which is publicly funded but has a degree of independence from the British government, is soliciting proposals to be submitted before 9 December from researchers around the world and expects to announce the recipients in the first half of next year.

“This programme,” ARIA’s website states, “will explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible scalable, and safe.”

As you can see for yourself in the video below presented by Programme Director Mark Symes, they are completely immersed in the climate change crisis scam, or at least completely dedicated to propagating the false narrative surrounding it.

Symes is an electrochemist, with a 15-year career developing sustainable fuels in the drive towards “net zero.”

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Pentagon Fails 7th Audit In Row, Aims For Clean Audit In 2028

For the seventh year in a row, the Department of Defense (DOD) has failed its annual financial statement audit, a massive undertaking meant to ensure accountability for its $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities.

Despite the setback, Pentagon officials highlighted incremental progress and reaffirmed their commitment to securing a clean audit opinion by 2028.

The latest results, released on Nov. 15, confirmed that the DOD, once again received a disclaimer of opinion, meaning auditors could not provide assurance over the completeness and accuracy of the Pentagon’s financial records.

This year’s audit, like the six before it, exposed persistent challenges in the DOD’s financial management systems.

Teams of auditors conducted hundreds of site visits, assessing how the DOD manages taxpayer dollars across its operations, which span more than 4,000 sites in more than 160 countries.

Of the 28 sub-audits conducted across Pentagon entities that undergo standalone financial statement audits, only nine received unmodified (clean) opinions. Another entity received a qualified opinion, while 15 entities were issued disclaimers. Three audit opinions remain pending.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that, while some progress was made in this year’s annual audit, challenges remain.

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Biden and Harris Raided Medicare to Fund Green New Deal: Premiums Are Now Set to Spike

When Democrats rammed through the Inflation Reduction Act during the days they controlled all of Washington, D.C., it ignited a chain reaction that led to higher Medicare costs for America’s senior citizens.

“Nearly two years after its passage, the IRA has diverted nearly $260 billion from the projected Medicare ‘savings’  to pay for special interest handouts like large tax credits for costly electric vehicles, enormous subsidies paid to big health insurer-PBM corporations, and funding health care programs for illegal immigrants,” Ron Fitzwater, Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, wrote in an Op-Ed in the Missouri Times.

“The Biden-Harris administration is not protecting Medicare; they’re stealing from it,” he wrote.

According to Politico, the chain reaction began when the act shifted the burden of paying for prescription medicine from seniors to insurance companies.

Then came what could have been predicted: Insurance companies hiked their premiums for 2025.

Fitwater, in his Op-Ed, said increases were coming in at 179 percent.

But since that was going to hit right before the election, there was one more step – a federal bailout that has the taxpayer-funded federal treasury taking the hit for what the IRA caused.

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The U.S. Disease Epidemic and MAHA

Despite the huge amount of appropriated funds and the strenuous efforts of many individuals working in healthcare, Americans have increasingly suffered from a range of acute and chronic conditions over recent decades. As an influential member of the Trump administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have the opportunity to begin a reversal of this trend. He is developing plans to revamp the Federal agencies that regulate the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Mr. Kennedy has presented incontrovertible data about the state of our health. He says the first step towards change is reforming policies and restoring compromised government oversight.   

It will take a concerted effort to convert a system that has allowed an array of degrading health conditions and an avalanche of human suffering. The statistics compiled by reliable scientific sources reveal details of this staggering crisis.

~ Six out of ten adults in America are living with a chronic illness. Seventy-four percent of American adults are overweight or obese. Rates of kidney disease and autoimmune conditions are going up. Cancer rates among young people are rising.

~ One-third of American teens are taking a prescription drug and nearly 30% are pre-diabetic. More than 18% of adolescents have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In 2020, 77% of young adults didn’t qualify for the military based on their health scores, forcing the military to lower its standards.

~ Health problems of young Americans begin at an early age even as they receive vaccines to protect them from illness. The CDC currently recommends at least 70 doses of 18 different vaccines from infancy until age eighteen, yet children have never had more acute and chronic ailments. These vaccination protocols urgently need re-evaluation.

The increasing use of prescription drugs by all Americans presents a dire warning. However, due to the unprecedented influence of lobbyists, elected representatives have allowed the pharmaceutical industry rampant freedom to sell questionable products.

Washington has not solved the problem of the revolving doors between Big Pharma and government regulators. This is the primary reason federal agencies are paralyzed by corporate interests and remain negligent in their protective roles. 

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