Tag: taxes

Biden to send another $1 billion weapons package to Ukraine

President Biden on Wednesday announced plans to send another $1 billion security assistance package to Ukraine that will include artillery, coastal defense weapons and ammunition to help the country fight off Russian forces.

Biden also said he would send an additional $225 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine to provide drinking water, medical supplies, food and shelter for families inside Ukraine grappling with the impact of the months-long Russian invasion.  

The president said in a written statement that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday to inform him of the additional assistance, which is a sliver of a massive $40 billion aid package passed by Congress last month. The call Wednesday morning between the two leaders lasted about 40 minutes, according to the White House. 

“I reaffirmed my commitment that the United States will stand by Ukraine as it defends its democracy and support its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression,” Biden said.  

The U.S. has sent billions in weaponry, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine to help forces blunt the Russian attack since the start of the war at the end of February. The administration quickly depleted the first $13.6 billion emergency aid package Congress approved for Ukraine in March. 

According to the White House statement, the latest assistance package will include ammunition for artillery and the advanced rocket systems that the U.S. already sent to Ukraine. 

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New York put out over $200K for drag shows in NYC public schools

New York, the state and the city, has paid over $200,000 to drag performers for appearances in New York City public schools since 2018.

The state funds came via its Council on the Arts ($50,000) while the Big Apple’s from its Departments of Education, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Community Development, and Department of Transportation ($157,000), the New York Post reports.

Since January of this year, the group Drag Story Hour NYC (formerly the Drag Queen Story Hour NYC) has made 49 appearances in 34 schools, elementary through senior high. In May, the group made $46,000 for its appearances at schools, festivals and libraries.

New York City Council has allocated $80,000 for Drag Story Hour NYC this year alone, more than triple the 2020 funding.

Drag Story Hour NYC members usually “read aloud from a list of books that teach acceptance and inclusion, including children’s classics like ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘The Rainbow Fish.’” But other books “overtly celebrate” gender fluidity such as “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”

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‘Squad’ Dems spend thousands on airfare while demanding others go ‘green’

Democratic members of the House who pushed “Green New Deal” reforms to overhaul the energy sector spent roughly $13,000 in tax dollars combined on airfare, according to the latest House disbursement records reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Cori Bush of Missouri expensed the “airfare commercial transport” charges between October 2021 and March 2022, according to the records. The new disbursements are intended to be for the months of January and March 2022, and one ethics expert familiar with the situation said lawmakers often report transactions late.

These same members, who are often referred to as the “Squad,” have emphasized that “climate change” is an “existential” or “emergency” crisis.

The “Squad” members notably co-sponsored a bill introduced by Ocasio-Cortez in 2021 calling for the creation of a “Green New Deal.” The bill, which was roundly opposed by Republicans and many Democrats, allocated $8.1 billion to a “climate corps,” among other proposals.

Carbon dioxide emissions from flying are said to increase pollution, according to a study by the left-wing think tank Brookings Institution. Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution in 2019 sought to overhaul “transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and 19 greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible.”

“The hypocrisy of the Green New Deal crowd is endless,” Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told TheDCNF. “They seem to view themselves as part of an elite that is exempt from the energy poverty policies they pursue.”

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Ex high-ranking Seattle cop who displayed Nazi insignia to get $1.5M from city

A suburban Seattle city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the Holocaust.

Former Kent Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell, who had been with the department for nearly three decades, was initially given two weeks of unpaid leave after the 2020 incident. Outraged residents and members of the Jewish community prompted Mayor Dana Ralph to put Kammerzell on paid administrative leave and demand his resignation.

The city’s attempt to essentially discipline Kammerzell a second time led to a dispute between his lawyers and the city that appeared headed for litigation. But interim city Chief Administrative Officer Arthur “Pat” Fiztpatrick, who is also the city attorney, said Friday the city had resolved the matter through negotiation, The Seattle Times reported.

Ralph, in calling for Kammerzell’s resignation in January, acknowledged that the decision to revisit the discipline issue would likely “come at a high cost.” The city said Friday it would pay him $1,520,000 to resign.

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J6 Committee Spent Half of Budget on Salaries. Staffers Earning Almost $16K/month

The House committee that is investigating the mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 appears to be a get-rich scam for the staffers.

The Select Committee, which is trying to criminalize opposition to the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, paid more than $500,000 in salaries in April, with some staffers earning more than $15,000 a month — almost $200,000 annually.

And more than half the committee’s $3.8 million budget has gone to salaries.

April’s report shows 51 staff members who pulled down $528,769, an average of $10,368 per month per employee. Annual salary at that rate would be $124,416.

Timothy Heaphy, a federal prosecutor who exposed the corruption inside Charlottesville, Virginia’s, police department that led to violence at 2017’s Unite the Right Rally, earns $15,666.67 per month, or $188,000 annually.

Two stop staffers earn $15,666, while another earns $15,416.

Another two earn $14,491, two earn $14,166, and so on.

Year to date, the staffers have earned $1.99 million and change. That’s 52 percent of the committee’s $3.8 million budget.

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Says People Charged With Violent Crimes Are Guilty Because Prosecutors Say So

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly blamed bail reforms and local judges for exacerbating gun violence by releasing defendants back onto the streets, but on Monday she took her rhetoric a step further, saying that people charged with violent crime should be kept in jail because only guilty people get charged with violent crimes.

The comments, first reported by the Chicago Tribune, were part of a longer harangue against the Cook County courts and bail reform efforts.

“We shouldn’t be locking up nonviolent individuals just because they can’t afford to pay bail. But, given the exacting standards that the state’s attorney has for charging a case, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, when those charges are brought, these people are guilty,” Lightfoot said. “Of course they’re entitled to a presumption of innocence. Of course they’re entitled to their day in court. But residents in our community are also entitled to safety from dangerous people, so we need to keep pressing the criminal courts to lock up violent dangerous people and not put them out on bail or electronic monitoring back into the very same communities where brave souls are mustering the courage to come forward and say, ‘this is the person who is responsible.'”

The comments outraged civil liberties advocates and public defenders in Chicago, and rightly so. They should offend anyone familiar with the American criminal justice system and why it places such an emphasis on the presumption of innocence: to force the government to prove its case and shield defendants from prejudice and demagoguery. Lightfoot’s statements are particularly absurd, given the enormous amount of taxpayer money Chicago has spent settling wrongful conviction lawsuits.

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House Democrat Floats 1,000% Tax on AR-15-Style Rifles

A key House Democrat is floating a 1,000% tax on AR-15s and similar rifles as part of his party’s latest bid to push gun control in the wake of recent mass shootings.

Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, told Business Insider that increasing the cost of the rifles ten-fold could be a deterrent to mass shootings. The tax could raise the price of the rifles to anywhere from $5,000 to as much as $20,000.

“What it’s intended to do is provide another creative pathway to actually make some sensible gun control happen,” Beyer said. “We think that a 1,000% fee on assault weapons is just the kind of restrictive measure that creates enough fiscal impact to qualify for reconciliation.”

A final draft of Beyer’s bill is not yet complete, and it is still unclear when the tax would take effect and what the added revenue would fund, although one possibility is a restitution program for family members of victims killed in shootings. Beyer said that law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military wouldn’t be subject to the tax. The lawmaker added that he believes his bill can clear the House, where Democrats hold a clear majority, and bypass the filibuster in the Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the deciding vote.

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