Tag: taxes

Biden-Harris Medicare Plan to Cost Taxpayers $21B

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has issued its fiscal analysis of the Biden-Harris administration’s Medicare Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Program. The CBO estimates that the program—which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched to artificially lower the rising premiums for seniors—could cost taxpayers more than $21 billion over three years if it moves forward as planned.

The CBO conducted its analysis at the request of Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), along with Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri).

“When Democrats made big changes to Medicare two years ago, they set seniors up for more expenses and fewer options. This nonpartisan CBO analysis confirms that CMS’s cost-shifting plan is a dishonest election year trick to cover up those consequences. Rather than addressing its partisan mistakes, the Biden-Harris administration threw taxpayer dollars at the problems it created, putting Americans on the hook for tens of billions more dollars.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

“As predicted, the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act not only reduced investment for new cures but also caused Medicare prescription drug plan premiums to skyrocket. Democrats are now scrambling to cover it up before the election. In July, the Biden-Harris CMS quickly created a new federal program that will send billions of tax dollars to large health insurance companies to hide a major flaw in their so-called Inflation Reduction Act. Today, the CBO confirmed that the administration’s last-minute attempt will cost taxpayers a staggering $7 billion next year alone and $21 billion over the planned three-year demonstration, adding to the more than $2 trillion in Biden-Harris executive spending.”

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)

CBO findings of note:

  • Compared to previous projections, CBO expects federal Medicare Part D spending to rise by $10-$20 billion in 2025 due to the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The demonstration’s temporary subsidies will increase federal spending by another $5 billion and raise net spending on interest by $2 billion.
  • The demonstration program increased plans’ expected benefit payments, which contributed to a large rise in the amount plans bid for 2024-2025. These higher bids result in increased premiums for beneficiaries, as well as higher federal subsidies to Part D plans.
  • The demonstration’s taxpayer-funded payments to Medicare prescription drug plans (PDPs) cover costs that Part D enrollees would otherwise have to pay.

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NYC seeks 14,000 hotel rooms for migrants through 2025 – with each one costing $352 PER NIGHT

Beleaguered New York Mayor Eric Adams has been told to get a grip as the bill for housing the city’s migrants soars towards $2.3 billion.

City Hall is warning that 14,000 hotel rooms will be needed until at least the end of next year when the total cost of providing for the new arrivals will reach a staggering $5.76 billion.

More than 200,000 migrants have arrived in the city since the start of 2022, many bussed north by GOP governors determined to make Democrat cities share the burden of the crisis on the southern border.

And more than 150 hotels are still being used to house the influx at an average cost of $352 a room each night.

‘The taxpayers can’t pay for this indefinitely,’ Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute think tank told the NY Post. ‘We should stop using hotels as shelters by the end of the year.’

The figures emerged as the City began looking for a contractor to ensure it secured the thousands of rooms needed going forward.

‘The New York City Department of Homeless Services is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency,’ the agency announced.

It came after City Comptroller Brad Lander revealed that one contractor, DocGo Inc, had billed the city $1.7 million for 9,874 vacant hotel rooms it had claimed were housing migrants during May and June last year.

The New York City Hotel Association is currently paid $100,000 a month to manage three migrant housing contracts and said it would apply for the new one.

‘We have five full time employees specifically for fulfilling the contractual obligations, besides work done by regular HANYC staff for the contract, in addition to their normal duties,’ said CEO, Vijay Dandapani.

‘We will be filling in the request.’

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A Year of War in the Middle East Cost Americans Nearly $23 Billion

War is not cheap, especially not the past year of Middle Eastern wars. While Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, and others pay with their lives by the tens of thousands, Americans are paying much of the financial cost of keeping the violence going.

A new study by the Costs of War Project at Brown University pinned down exactly what that cost is: at least $22.76 billion from October 7, 2023, to September 30, 2024. The bulk of the money, $17.9 billion, was spent on U.S. aid to the Israeli military—both financial grants given to Israel to purchase weapons, and the cost of replacing munitions such as artillery shells sent directly from American stockpiles to the Israeli army.

“The United States can walk and chew gum at the same time, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters on October 13, 2023. “U.S. security assistance to Israel will flow in at the speed of war.”

But the U.S. military itself has also burned through expensive ammunition dealing with the spillover of the war into Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.

The study only counts the direct burden on the U.S. military budget. It doesn’t include indirect costs, “such as increased U.S. security assistance to Egypt, Saudi Arabia or any other countries, and costs to the commercial airline industry and to U.S. consumers.” Nor does it count the $1 billion in U.S. humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

And the study’s time frame doesn’t include the ongoing Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon, which prompted even more U.S. military deployments to the region, or Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israeli military bases. During the latter incident, the U.S. Navy says it fired “about a dozen interceptors” at the Iranian missiles. “Assuming they were SM-3 interceptors, that represents the production run for an entire year, at a cost of about $400 million total,” Middlebury Institute professor Jeffrey Lewis noted on social media.

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Inside the State Department’s Weapons Pipeline to Israel

In late January, as the death toll in Gaza climbed to 25,000 and droves of Palestinians fled their razed cities in search of safety, Israel’s military asked for 3,000 more bombs from the American government. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, along with other top diplomats in the Jerusalem embassy, sent a cable to Washington urging State Department leaders to approve the sale, saying there was no potential the Israel Defense Forces would misuse the weapons.

The cable did not mention the Biden administration’s public concerns over the growing civilian casualties, nor did it address well-documented reports that Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs on crowded areas of Gaza weeks earlier, collapsing apartment buildings and killing hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom were children.

Lew was aware of the issues. Officials say his own staff had repeatedly highlighted attacks where large numbers of civilians died. Homes of the embassy’s own Palestinian employees had been targeted by Israeli airstrikes.

Still, Lew and his senior leadership argued that Israel could be trusted with this new shipment of bombs, known as GBU-39s, which are smaller and more precise. Israel’s air force, they asserted, had a “decades-long proven track record” of avoiding killing civilians when using the American-made bomb and had “demonstrated an ability and willingness to employ it in [a] manner that minimizes collateral damage.”

While that request was pending, the Israelis proved those assertions wrong. In the months that followed, the Israeli military repeatedly dropped GBU-39s it already possessed on shelters and refugee camps that it said were being occupied by Hamas soldiers, killing scores of Palestinians. Then, in early August, the IDF bombed a school and mosque where civilians were sheltering. At least 93 died. Children’s bodies were so mutilated their parents had trouble identifying them.

Weapons analysts identified shrapnel from GBU-39 bombs among the rubble.

In the months before and since, an array of State Department officials urged that Israel be completely or partially cut off from weapons sales under laws that prohibit arming countries with a pattern or clear risk of violations. Top State Department political appointees repeatedly rejected those appeals.

Government experts have for years unsuccessfully tried to withhold or place conditions on arms sales to Israel because of credible allegations that the country had violated Palestinians’ human rights using American-made weapons.

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How FEMA got into the illegal immigrant business, and who is covering it up

In the midst of the last major budget crisis in Washington, Democrats diverted money and the legal authority to put the nation’s disaster relief agency into the business of caring for the millions of illegal immigrants who crossed the border on the Biden-Harris administration’s watch. And now both parties seem to be trying to obfuscate the truth.

White House spokeswoman Karine-Jean Pierre took the lead in trying to suggest it was a “conspiracy theory” to suggest the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was using its resources to aid illegal aliens. Republicans countered with surprise and shock that FEMA had routed $640.9 million in grants to nonprofits aiding immigrants, many of whom have crossed into the U.S. illegally. 

But the truth is both parties signed off on a budget deal earlier this year that increased funding for the new mission authorized in 2023 for FEMA, which is now reeling from a double-barreled hurricane crisis that has led to frustration over alleged missteps by the agency as millions of stranded and needy Americans in the Southeast await help. 

“FEMA, as well as this whole Biden administration has is here to protect Americans, our citizens, and hurricane Helene has put a tremendous burden on us, but, get this, follow these funds that have been directed at anything but Americans: $110 million in FEMA funds went to the emergency food and shelter program to assist migrants,” Congressman Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told the “Just the News, No Noise“ TV show Monday. 

Norman partly blamed the broken budget process in Congress for giving funds to FEMA  for immigrants rather than American citizens suffering from a disaster. 

“If we don’t get back to regular order, John, then there’s no hope for ever having a fiscal sanity plan in place,” he said. “They, the Democrats, play us like a drum waiting to the end of the year.”

FEMA has disputed the Republican characterizations in recent days that disaster relief money was diverted to fund illegal immigrants, instead pointing out that Congress appropriated funding for the immigrant programs separately during the budget process. 

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Watchdog found $7B in untapped FEMA funds — even though DHS Secretary Mayorkas said none available for future disasters

A Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report from August reveals more than $7 billion remain in emergency funding that could be used for natural disasters — even though DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week none was available after Hurricane Helene.

Mayorkas, 64, told reporters following the devastation of Helene in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “does not have the funds” to endure more hurricanes this fall.

“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” the DHS chief said Oct. 2, days before Hurricane Milton began picking up speed in the Gulf of Mexico. “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent.”

But DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari found in his Aug. 14 report that as of October 2022, FEMA had $8.3 billion in unliquidated funds meant to relieve declared disasters from 2012 or earlier.

More than $7 billion of that “could potentially be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund,” the report notes, referring to FEMA’s dedicated fund for natural calamities.

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Florida Senator Sues State Over Anti-Marijuana Ad, Alleging Unconstitutional Use Of Taxpayer Dollars Ahead Of Legalization Vote

A Florida Democratic senator is suing the state for using taxpayer dollars to fund a recent ad that he says unconstitutionally attempts to influence voters to oppose a marijuana legalization initiative that will be on the ballot next month.

Sen. Jason Pizzo (D), who is expected to run for governor in 2026, announced on Friday that he would be seeking an injunction against the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) over the ad, which warns against driving under the influence of cannabis and then makes a contested claim that “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.”

Making such an assertion in an ad supported by tax dollars amounts to “political messaging” and therefore represents an unconstitutional use of appropriations authority, the senator says. The campaign behind the Florida legalization initiative has also sent cease and desist letters to 54 TV stations that have aired the public service announcement.

“For years, our state has wasted precious time, and many millions, peddling divisive and unproductive nonsense, while flouting practical solutions for critical needs,” Pizzo said.

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FEMA broke, impotent, or disgustingly biased?

If you thought the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was specifically and exclusively tasked with providing relief and succor to American citizens who have been the victims of natural disasters, you probably also believe in the tooth fairy—or that Epstein killed himself.

Au contraire.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently admitted that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.” This begs a question.

Why? I was keen to guess.

One reason is that FEMA spent more than $650 million this fiscal year providing housing and services to illegal aliens.

I did guess. Correctly! That’s right, FEMA spent the better part of a billion dollars so far this year providing non-emergency aid to non-citizens via the Shelter and Services program.

Sorry, western North Carolinians! Too bad you don’t have a house, belongings, or a pot to tinkle in anymore! Hope you find the rest of your family members! We’d love to help, really, but we’re just tapped out at the moment! Had to put a bunch of border-crossers up at the Hilton in New York City, don’t ya’ know! And then there were the cell phones—and pre-loaded VISA cards—and some other stuff! Adds up quicker than one might think!

And it’s not just the Biden-Harris administration’s FEMA that is spurning citizens in favor of aliens. Recent reports indicate that police in turmoil-stricken Springfield, Ohio have turned off their radios, allegedly to prevent others from learning of their actions in covering for Haitian refugees. Police in nearby Tremont City say that reckless driving and lawlessness is rampant in Springfield and has started to bleed over into their town.

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Untapped Relief: FEMA Is Sitting on Billions of Unused Disaster Funds

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the Fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades. 

An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.” 

Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.

Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the DRF (Disaster Relief Fund).”

These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters.

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Report: US To Give Israel ‘Compensation’ If It Hits Only US-Approved Targets in Iran

The US has offered Israel a “compensation package” if it avoids hitting certain targets in its planned attack on Iran, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, citing the Israeli TV channel Kan 11.

Amichai Stein, a correspondent for Kan 11, said the package would include military aid and a guarantee that the US would provide total diplomatic support.

“An American official said, ‘If you don’t hit targets A, B, C, we will provide you with diplomatic protection and an arms package,” Chair said. “Israeli officials responded saying, ‘We consider the United States and listen to them. But we will do anything and everything we can to protect the citizens and the security of the State of Israel.’”

The US is coordinating with Israel on its plans to respond to the Iranian missile barrage that hit Israel last week, which came in response to several Israeli escalations throughout the region, including the July 31 assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.

The US has said it will ensure Iran faces “severe consequences” but has warned against certain types of attacks, including attacks on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities. President Biden said the US and Israel were discussing the idea of strikes on Iranian oil sites, but later said if he was in Israel’s shoes, he would be thinking about “other alternatives than striking oil fields.”

Other attacks Israel is considering include strikes on Iran’s air defense systems or more targeted assassinations inside Iran. The US is expected to support the attack in some way, whether by providing intelligence or more direct support and is vowing to defend Israel from any Iranian retaliation.

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