Tag: taxes

Biden to Rush Final ‘Substantial’ Weapons Transfer to Ukraine

Before President Joe Biden exits the White House later this month, he is planning a massive final aid package for Ukraine. The Pentagon will attempt to rush the weapons to Kiev before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Two defense officials said the new package would be announced on Thursday during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at an American military base in Germany, the Associated Press reported. The sources added that the weapons will come directly from US military stockpiles, and will be fast-tracked to Ukraine before Trump’s second term begins in less than two weeks.

The rush to provide Kiev with a “substantial” arms shipment before Trump returns to power appears aimed at undermining the president-elect’s stated goal of bringing the war in Ukraine to an end.

Since the American people voted for Trump to be the next president, the current administration has significantly escalated support for Kiev, even allowing Ukrainian forces to use long-range American missiles against targets inside Russia. Biden has also signed off on billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since the war kicked off in early 2022.

The sources did not tell the AP how large the final package would be, though there is about $4 billion in congressionally authorized funding for Ukraine. The officials indicated that the Trump administration will have “more than a couple billion” in funding to send weapons to Ukraine.

While Trump pledged to bring the war to a close on the campaign trail, some incoming officials have stated that he intends to continue the arms shipments once he returns to power.

Since the start of the war, Washington has approved over $180 billion in aid to Ukraine; however, Kiev insists it has received only a fraction of that sum.

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The Truth About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

Signs that we were once a truly great nation are all around us.  Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most magnificent domestic infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now it is literally falling apart all around us.  Thousands of bridges are structurally deficient and there have already been some very high profile collapses.  Hundreds of thousands of miles of highways and roads in the United States are in very poor shape.  Aging sewer systems are leaking raw sewage all over the place, and children are being slowly poisoned by lead pipes that desperately need to be replaced.  The power grid is hopelessly overloaded and is extremely vulnerable.  Meanwhile, our ports, our dams, our subway systems, our bus terminals and our airports are crumbling right in front of our eyes.  The truth is that our nation’s infrastructure says a lot about who we are.  

So what does America’s crumbling infrastructure say about us?  Sadly, it says that we are a rusting, crumbling, decaying leftover from a better, more prosperous time.

When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration told us that “investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s”…

Public investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The World Economic Forum now ranks the United States 13th when it comes to the overall quality of infrastructure.

So Congress passed a bill that gave the Biden administration more than $100,000,000,000 to spend on fixing our infrastructure.

Honestly, I have no idea what they did with all that money.

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Genocidal President, Genocidal Politics

When news broke over the weekend that President Biden just approved an $8 billion deal for shipping weapons to Israel, a nameless official vowed that “we will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel’s defense.” Following the reports last month from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluding that Israeli actions in Gaza are genocide, Biden’s decision was a new low for his presidency.

It’s logical to focus on Biden as an individual. His choices to keep sending huge quantities of weaponry to Israel have been pivotal and calamitous. But the presidential genocide and the active acquiescence of the vast majority of Congress are matched by the dominant media and overall politics of the United States.

Forty days after the Gaza war began, Anne Boyer announced her resignation as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. More than a year later, her statement illuminates why the moral credibility of so many liberal institutions has collapsed in the wake of Gaza’s destruction.

While Boyer denounced “the Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza,” she emphatically chose to disassociate herself from the nation’s leading liberal news organization: “I can’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more verbally sanitized hellscapes. No more warmongering lies.”

The acclimatizing process soon became routine. It was most crucially abetted by President Biden and his loyalists, who were especially motivated to pretend that he wasn’t really doing what he was really doing.

For mainline journalists, the process required the willing suspension of belief in a consistent standard of language and humanity. When Boyer acutely grasped the dire significance of its Gaza coverage, she withdrew from “the newspaper of record.”

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Department Of Duh… 2nd Paper Shows UBI Results In Less Actual Work

In October, I reported on the release of the largest research project ever on universal basic income (UBI). The study’s results were disappointing for advocates of the idea. In short, the research showed that many people who received the income reduced their hours working and increased leisure time. Furthermore, people didn’t use their leisure time in any of the productive activities advocates often claim (e.g., self-improvement, entrepreneurship, time with family).

In December, a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study on UBI authored by economists Sidhya Balakrishnan, Sewin Chan, Sara Constantino, Johannes Haushofer, and Jonathan Morduch was released.

The study examined 2,097 households in Compton, California. They gave around one-third of the households a guaranteed monthly income of an average of $487 and examined how recipient households acted relative to the non-recipients.

Employment and Guaranteed Income

The most obvious impact of a guaranteed income is going to be on a recipient’s work decisions. Predictably, many people who received the guaranteed income reduced their working hours.

The researchers found that part-time workers (those who worked less than 20 hours per week) reduced their time working by 13 percent. Less time working means less money. How much less? The paper states:

The negative impacts on labor market participation translate into negative impacts on household income. While the average monthly cash transfer amount for the treatment group is $487… the net impact on total monthly household income over the past 30 days including the cash transfer was just $92 and not significantly different from zero.

This means that these part-time worker households who received a nearly $500 transfer ended up only being $100 richer overall, because they reduced their working hours. Furthermore, this $100 difference was not statistically significant, which means it’s unclear whether the transfer really leaves people with more income than before!

It should be noted that full-time employees did not significantly change their working habits. This fact also does not bode well for UBI advocates. Why?

Ask yourself, why would part-time employees work less, but full-time employees work the same amount? One explanation is that it is generally easier to pick up part-time work than it is to find a full-time job. As such, full-time workers were likely reluctant to leave behind their stable full-time jobs for a temporary guaranteed income. Additionally, an income of $500 per month is likely not enough to make up for the loss of a full-time job. So it’s unsurprising that this program didn’t affect the decisions of full-time employees.

However, if this program were a permanent government program, I would expect that some full-time employees would also leave their jobs or cut back hours. If you expect to get a guaranteed monthly stipend for two years, you aren’t going to quit your job, because you’re going to have to take on the cost of finding a new full-time job when it ends. However, if you’re going to get it forever, you’re more likely to do so.

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Democrats Screw Over Working-Class Americans, and You Better Thank Them for It

I regret to inform you that left-wing governance has struck again. In New York City, sky-high, around-the-clock “congestion pricing” has been put into effect for a large portion of Manhattan. That means working-class individuals will now be forced to shell out $9.00 every single time they cross 60th Street, with even higher fees for commercial vehicles. 

No worries, though. This is all for their good because this is supposedly going to raise $15,000,000,000 for “mass transit improvements.” In other words, you’ll ride the subway, and you’ll like it.

What blows my mind about this is how openly manipulative it is. New York City has taken multiple lanes of almost every road in Manhattan and turned them into inefficient, little-used bike lanes. That is certainly a major factor in the increase in congestion. Yet, instead of just getting rid of the bike lanes as any sane person would do, Democrats have decided the best way forward is to gouge drivers to force them onto their garbage subway system. 

That would be the same system where a woman was burned alive recently. Never mind what happened to Daniel Penny, who was thankfully acquitted after he was charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide for protecting people from a threatening vagrant.

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Biden Commits over $300 Million to Bird Flu Prevention

President Biden has committed $306 million to increase monitoring, testing and response to H5N1 bird flu across the United States.

According to a press release, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would award $306 million dollars to continue its H5N1 Avian Flu response. While CDC’s assessment of the risk of avian influenza to the general public remains low, USDA and HHS continue to closely collaborate with Federal, State, local, industry and other stakeholders to protect human health, animal health, and food safety.”

“While the risk to humans remains low, we are always preparing for any possible scenario that could arise. These investments are critical to continuing our disease surveillance, laboratory testing, and monitoring efforts alongside our partners at USDA,” said Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Preparedness is the key to keeping Americans healthy and our country safe. We will continue to ensure our response is strong, well equipped, and ready for whatever is needed.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed the first “severe” case of bird flu in the US.

The CDC tested samples from the sufferer, a 65-year-old man from Louisiana, and confirmed worrying new mutations.

The mutations affect the virus’s hemagglutinin gene and could make the virus more transmissible in humans.

In particular, the mutations “may result in increased virus binding to α2-6 cell receptors found in the upper respiratory tract of humans.”

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Biden regime rushes $21 Billion in aid to Ukraine, escalating conflict

In a desperate last-minute push to escalate a proxy war against Russia, the Biden administration has announced a massive 21 billion aid package to Ukraine, with just weeks left before President?elect Donald Trump takes office. This latest package includes 21 billion aid packages to Ukraine, with just weeks left before President?elect Donald Trump takes office. This latest package includes 1.22 billion for new weapons procurement, 1.25 billion in weapons from U.S. stockpiles, 1.25 billion in weapons from U.S. stockpiles, 3.4 billion in direct budgetary support, and $15 billion secured from frozen Russian assets.

The Biden administration’s relentless focus on Ukraine has now surpassed 66 billion in security assistance since taking office. This latest move empties the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) account, leaving no funds for new weapons procurement before the Trump administration takes over. While billions remain in the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) account, it is unclear whether the Biden team will spend the remaining 4.33 billion before January 20.

The weapons being sent to Ukraine include advanced air defense systems, anti-tank missiles, artillery ammunition, and unmanned aerial systems, among others. While the Pentagon claims these donations are necessary to counter Russian aggression, critics argue that this endless flow of taxpayer dollars is fueling a war with no clear endgame.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed gratitude for the aid, calling it a “critical” lifeline as Russia intensifies its assaults. However, the Biden administration’s approach raises serious questions about accountability and oversight. With billions being spent on weapons and direct budgetary support, there is little transparency about how these funds are being used or whether they are effectively addressing the conflict.

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Homeless crisis in America GETTING WORSE as government continues to spend hundreds of billions on foreign aid

Homelessness in the United States has hit a record high, with over 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, according to the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

This represents an alarming 18 percent increase from the previous year, and the actual number may be even higher because the report undercounts the true number of homeless individuals.

This crisis is particularly devastating for families with children, who saw a staggering 39 percent increase in homelessness, leaving nearly 150,000 children without stable housing. In contrast, the report shows a 55 percent reduction in veteran homelessness since 2009, with an eight percent decrease from 2023. (Related: Study finds home ownership in California has become increasingly unattainable due to disparities between wages and housing prices.)

This development is notable because of how it is contrasted with how much the United States has spent on other programs, such as foreign aid.

To date, the U.S. has provided about $310 billion in economic and military support to Israel and another $106 billion in assistance to Ukraine. These staggering numbers raise serious questions about the government’s priorities and its ability to address domestic issues like homelessness.

The report highlights that certain demographics are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Black people make up around 32 percent of the homeless population, despite comprising only 12 percent of the U.S. population. Veterans, who have seen the most progress in reducing homelessness, are a notable exception. The decline in veteran homelessness is attributed to targeted programs and efforts to quickly house homeless veterans.

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Massive healthcare breaches prompt US cybersecurity rules overhaul

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed updates to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to secure patients’ health data following a surge in massive healthcare data leaks.

These stricter cybersecurity rules, proposed by the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and expected to be published as a final rule within 60 days, would require healthcare organizations to encrypt protected health information (PHI), implement multifactor authentication, and segment their networks to make it harder for attackers to move laterally through them.

“In recent years, there has been an alarming growth in the number of breaches affecting 500 or more individuals reported to the Department, the overall number of individuals affected by such breaches, and the rampant escalation of cyberattacks using hacking and ransomware,” the HHS’ proposal says.

“The Department is concerned by the increasing numbers of breaches and other cybersecurity incidents experienced by regulated entities. We are also increasingly concerned by the upward trend in the numbers of individuals affected by such incidents and the magnitude of the potential harms from such incidents.”

Reuters reports that Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, also told reporters that the HIPAA cybersecurity rule updates were prompted by the ransomware attacks and massive breaches that have affected hospitals and Americans in recent years.

Neuberger added that implementing these rules would cost roughly $9 billion in the first year and over $6 billion during the following four years.

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Washington State Democrats Accidentally Leak Their ‘Radical’ Tax Plan

Washington State Democrats accidentally leaked their radical tax plan to the entire upper chamber in Olympia on Thursday.

According to Seattle-based radio host Jason Rantz, Washington state Democrats accidentally emailed their radical tax plan to the entire senate.

The tax plan, which includes major property tax hikes and a new 11% tax on firearms, directly contradicts the state Democrats’ campaign promises, Jason Rantz said.

Fox News reported:

Washington state Democrats appeared to have accidentally emailed their sweeping revenue plans and internal talking points on tax hikes to the entirety of the upper chamber’s members in Olympia, Fox News has learned.

Property tax hikes and a new double-digit tax on firearms are among proposals Washington state Democrats are considering, according to materials originally disseminated to all members by Washington Senate Deputy Floor Leader Noel Frame, D-Seattle, in late December and later obtained by Fox News Digital.

A document titled “2025 Revenue Options” and a PowerPoint presentation describing how to talk to constituents in defense of the plan were included in the messages.

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