Tag: taxes

Hundreds of Millions in Tax Dollars Meant for COVID Supplies Went to Private Defense Contractors Instead

Instead of adhering to congressional intent by building up the nation’s inadequate supply of N95 masks and other equipment to combat the Covid-19 crisis, the Pentagon has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in appropriated taxpayer funds to private defense contractors for drone technology, jet engine parts, Army uniform material, body armor, and other purposes not directly related to the pandemic.

As the Washington Post reported Tuesday morning, the Department of Defense—headed by former Raytheon lobbyist Mark Esper—”began reshaping how it would award the money” just weeks after Congress in March approved a $1 billion fund under the Defense Production Act to help the nation “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.”

“The Trump administration has done little to limit the defense firms from accessing multiple bailout funds at once and is not requiring the companies to refrain from layoffs as a condition of receiving the awards,” the Post noted. “Some defense contractors were given the Pentagon money even though they had already dipped into another pot of bailout funds, the Paycheck Protection Program.”

As the U.S. still faces major shortages of testing supplies and N95 masks six months into the pandemic, the Post reported that the Pentagon has used congressionally approved funds to dish out $183 million to luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce and other companies to help “maintain the shipbuilding industry,” tens of millions for “drone and space surveillance technology,” and $80 million to “a Kansas aircraft parts business.”

A subsidiary of Rolls-Royce also received $22 million from the Pentagon “to upgrade a Mississippi plant,” according to the Post.

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Covid-19 origins, the Wuhan lab, US funding, and vaccine connection

Starting in 2014, the National Institutes of Health granted millions of dollars in U.S. tax money to a “global environmental health nonprofit” called EcoHealth Alliance based in New York City.

The grant was for an eleven-year-long project entitled: “Understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence.” It aimed to study coronavirus in bats in China to determine which strains had the greatest risk of spillover to humans. (In other words, in hopes of preventing something like the Covid-19 pandemic and/or providing quick mitigation.)

A total of  $3,748,715 was given for the project from 2014-2019.

EcoHealth Alliance’s partners on the taxpayer-funded project included scientist at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology also “received assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and other U.S. organizations.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is located in the area of China where scientists believe the Covid-19 outbreak originated. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the virus was somehow released from the lab, either by accident or intentionally.

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San Francisco mayor announces city will pay some pregnant women $1,000 a month — but only if they’re black or Pacific Islander

The mayor of San Francisco wants to help pregnant women with the financial burden of having and caring for an infant — but only certain pregnant women.

White, Asian, and Hispanic expectant mothers need not concern themselves with applying for help from the city’s new program: It’s only for black and Pacific Islander women.

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NJ’s property tax and it’s collectors are ruthless pigs

An 89-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s nearly lost her Ocean Twp house over six cents. SIX F&$#ING CENTS! She had mistakenly underpaid her 2019 property taxes by six cents. September 9th, she received noticed that the township put her house up for sheriff’s sale, according to a report on NBC New York.  Of course the interest grew at a far faster rate than any of us could hope to gain in savings and the bill quickly grew to $300.

The woman is Glen Kristi Goldenthal and her daughter, Lisa Suhay, who lives in Virginia, spent a whole day on the phone with township officials trying to save her mother’s house from being sold out from under her. Thankfully she was successful and Ocean Twp Mayor Chris Siciliano was quick to apologize and admitted something must be done to change the system.
Even when the tax collector called Mrs. Goldenthal to tell her of the delinquent tax, he knew something wasn’t right. But that didn’t stop the machinery of New Jersey government from rolling full steam ahead to try and take the poor old woman’s home.

Shameful doesn’t even begin to describe, not only this incident, but the entire property tax situation in our state. It’s disgusting! It’s also not the first time it’s happened here. Luckily Lisa Suhay was able to stop the confiscation. Some other elderly residents were not as lucky. At the time, 90-year-old Gloria Turano of Lawrence Twp lost her home in 2017, after the loan she took out to pay the property taxes ran out. Her husband had built the home with his own hands in 1953. It almost happened to 107-year-old Rose Eastwick of Cranford until generous strangers stepped in to save her from losing her home last year.

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