Tag: taxes

Total Cost of California High-Speed Rail Line Rises to $126 Billion, With a Big Funding Shortfall

California’s high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco is now estimated to cost $126 billion, a rail authority board member said in an interview released by CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

But the High-Speed Rail Authority, according to its 2026 Business Plan issued in February, forecasts $39.3 billion in capital funding through 2045, a shortfall of around $87 billion.

“It is a big gap to fill,” board member Anthony Williams said, “[but] we have an understanding of how to get there and to fill that gap.”

The project, approved by voters in 2008, was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by high-speed rail for around $33 billion and a completion date of 2020.

“We’re now in 2026,” Republican Congressman Vince Fong of Bakersfield said in the interview. “There are no trains. There’s no track laid. It was a complete bait and switch. The business plan that was put out in 2008 was very theoretical. You know, ‘This is what we think is gonna happen.’ And it became very clear that they didn’t have the specifics worked out.”

Toks Omishakin, who became California’s secretary of transportation in 2022, admitted that mistakes had been made and a lot of the project’s criticism is “very fair.”

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NYC Socialist Mayor Mamdani Openly Declares War on White Taxpayers, DOJ Fires Back

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a “Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan” on Monday, outlining a broad framework aimed at addressing disparities in housing, education, income, and other areas across the city.

According to a press release from the mayor’s office, the report was delivered within the first 100 days of his administration and is intended to reshape how the city measures affordability and evaluates inequality.

Officials said the plan seeks to “establish a new framework for how New York City measures affordability, understands inequity and plans for a more equitable future.”

Mamdani said the report introduces a new cost-of-living analysis designed to reflect the financial realities faced by residents.

“The True Cost of Living Measure offers an honest account of what it actually costs to live in this city — and who is being left behind. It shows that this is not a crisis affecting a small minority of New Yorkers. It is a crisis touching the vast majority of our city, in every borough and every neighborhood,” Mamdani said in the press release.

He added that the impact of rising costs is not evenly distributed among residents.

“But we know this crisis is not felt equally. Black and Latino New Yorkers — who have been pushed out of this city for decades — are bearing the brunt. The Preliminary Racial Equity Plan is where we begin to reverse that pattern. These reports make one thing clear: we cannot tackle systemic racial inequity without confronting the affordability crisis head-on, and we cannot solve the cost-of-living crisis without dismantling systemic racial inequity.”

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O’Keefe Media Group: California’s Top Controller Communications Official Admits Audits “Are Not Getting Done”

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released undercover video of California’s top Controller Communications official admitting that audits “are not getting done” while acknowledging that fraud is rampant in the state.

Bismarck Obando told an undercover O’Keefe Media Group journalist that there is no plan to tackle homelessness.

“Do you feel there’s fraud going on in the state of California?” the OMG journalist asked Obando.

Without skipping a beat he replied, “Everywhere, cities, counties, special districts, hospitals, insurance companies.”

“We just can’t conduct the audits,” Obando told the journalist.

“It’s funny because they haven’t funded us to do those audits…they keep cutting our auditing teams,” he said.

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SoCal: Orange County Man Pleads Guilty to Submitting $270 Million in Fraudulent Claims to Medi-Cal in 11 Months: DOJ

A man in Orange County, California, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a scheme to steal $270 million in bogus Medi-Cal claims in 11 months, the DOJ announced on Tuesday.

“Paul Richard Randall, 66, of Orange, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of wire fraud committed while on release. He has been in federal custody since June 2025,” the DOJ said.

According to federal prosecutors, Randall and others, through a business called Monte Vista Pharmacy, submitted claims for expensive prescription drugs that contained generic ingredients that were “not medically necessary.”

Monte Vista Pharmacy billed Medi-Cal millions of dollars a month after it suspended its requirement that healthcare providers “obtain prior authorization before providing certain health care services or medications as a condition of reimbursement,” the DOJ said.

Medi-Cal suspended the prior authorization as it transitioned to a new payment system.

Of the $270 million that was billed to Medi-Cal, Randall and his co-conspirators received $178 million.

Randall and the other defendants laundered the money by transferring the funds to a third party to pay “kickbacks” to Patricia Anderson, 58, of West Hills.

Randall is facing up to 30 years in federal prison.

“This defendant used a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “This guilty plea should send a message that this administration — consistent with the President’s war on fraud — will not turn a blind eye while criminals fleece taxpayers.”

“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the Department, working closely with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“In one day, the Department prosecuted the theft of a half-billion in taxpayer dollars. All those ripping off the American people are on notice,” Blanche added.

“The defendant was a repeat fraudster who caused Medi-Cal, a program designed to help those in need, to be billed nearly $270 million for expensive and medically unnecessary medications,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“He and his co-schemers stole over $178 million through false and fraudulent claims for these medications, lining their own pockets with public funds. The Criminal Division will aggressively prosecute those who defraud Medicaid and exploit taxpayer-funded benefit programs,” he said.

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NBC Report Drops Truth Bomb: Newsom’s Lies About Gas Prices Are Pure Gaslighting

Rising tensions tied to the war in Iran and its impact on global oil shipping routes are contributing to higher gas prices across the United States, with California drivers facing some of the steepest costs in the country.

The national average price for gasoline has now surpassed $4 per gallon, while California’s statewide average is hovering just below $6.

In several locations across the state, prices have climbed even higher, widening the gap between California and the rest of the nation.

As consumers question why California continues to pay significantly more at the pump, analysts point to a combination of long-standing state policies and factors that remain less clearly understood.

Dr. Severin Borenstein, faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas at the University of California, Berkeley, said California’s higher fuel taxes, environmental fees, and unique gasoline blend account for roughly half of the price difference compared to the national average.

However, he said those factors alone do not fully explain the current price gap.

“The difference is what I call the mystery gasoline surcharge,” Borenstein said.

According to Borenstein, prior to 2015, California gas prices generally tracked closer to the national average, with an additional 90 cents to $1 per gallon attributed to the state’s taxes and environmental requirements.

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Saudi Prince Reveals Obama Gave Iranian Regime $150 Billion – And Iran Did Not Build a Single Street

This past week, Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman revealed that President Obama gave Iran $150 billion when Obama was in office, and the regime did not even build a single street with that money.

Instead, they used the money to make missiles and drones and to fortify their proxy armies in the region like Hamas, Ansar Allah, and Hezbollah. With these funds, Iran offers a safe harbor to the leaders of Al Qaeda, including one of Osama Bin Laden’s sons, who was indoctrinated into jihadism.

This was Barack Obama’s way of destabilizing the Middle East. And Obama did this all in public view. Well, most of it.

This was a direct threat against Israel and American allies in the region. Obama always brought chaos with him and left a trail of destruction. He took actions to spread this chaos and evil across the Middle East.

The Gateway Pundit readers know that we have reported on Barack Obama’s pallets of cash sent to Iran in the dead of night.

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‘The Deck Might Melt’: The USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier Can’t Fly New F-35C Stealth Fighters

The USS Gerald R. Ford was meant to mark a new chapter in naval aviation for the United States Navy, but the lead ship of its new class of American aircraft carriers still lacks the full modifications necessary for consistent F-35C operations. 

The issue, of course, is larger than just hot exhaust. 

It reveals the Navy’s tendency to introduce impressive platforms before the supporting system around them is fully ready.

Just think about what it took to build the Gerald R. Ford. It is the largest aircraft carrier ever constructed. The Navy integrated a host of new technologies to support the carrier and ensure it stayed ahead of American rivals. 

Everything from the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) to the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), and even the ship’s onboard plumbing, was reimagined in a way that the Pentagon believed would make the Ford-class the dominant class of carriers—unmatched, really—for decades to come.  

After high cost and schedule overruns, the Ford was finally launched. It cost taxpayers $13 billion to build, and many of the new onboard systems—including the EMALS and AAG—did not function correctly.

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19 GOP Lawmakers Demand NIH Defund Transgender Animal Experiments After White Coat Waste Exposes Disturbing New $584K Taxpayer Grant

Nineteen Republican House members, led by Rep. Paul Gosar and including GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, have sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee urging the complete elimination of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for transgender animal testing in the fiscal year 2027 spending bill.

The letter cites investigations by the White Coat Waste Project, which recently revealed that the NIH allocated $584,117 of new taxpayer funding in January to a University of California–San Diego grant involving transgendering mice, according to a new report from Red Press Wire.

“Investigations by the non-profit White Coat Waste…have uncovered dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants issued under the Biden Administration by Dr. Anthony Fauci. These grants have funded disturbing experiments to create ‘transfeminine’ and ‘transmasculine’ lab mice, rats, and monkeys to mimic transgender human children and adults. The animals subjected to invasive surgeries and hormone therapies were subsequently wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccinations, and endured other disturbing procedures,” the letter states.

The project involves thousands of female mice subjected to invasive surgeries, including ovary removal and testosterone injections, to “model transgender men.”

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White House Proposes 12.5 Percent Cut in Budget for Health and Human Services

The White House on April 3 floated a reduction in spending for health agencies, including nearly $7 billion less for an agency that runs a program for young children.

The White House in its budget proposal to Congress asked for $111.1 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its divisions for fiscal year 2027.

If accepted, that funding would be a 12.5 percent decrease from the $126.9 billion lawmakers approved for HHS in fiscal year 2026.

Fiscal year 2027 begins on Oct. 1 and will run through Sept. 30, 2027.

President Donald Trump has asked for $441 billion more for defense and is proposing $73 billion in cuts across non-defense areas.

“The 2027 Budget builds on the President’s vision by continuing to constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote to Congress.

HHS cuts would primarily be made to the Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, which runs the Head Start child care program for young children from poorer families. The $6.9 billion in savings would be realized by ending grant programs, including some for preschools and some that help certain households pay for utilities.

The White House said in its proposal that the energy assistance program is not necessary “because States have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households, effectively making [the program] a passthrough benefiting utility companies, particularly in the Northeast.”

The administration also wants less money for caring for illegal immigrant minors who arrive at the border without a responsible adult. The reduction in funding “reflects the Administration’s successful efforts to secure the border and minimize the number of” those minors entering the country, HHS said in its budget proposal justification.

Another major cut would apply to the National Institutes of Health, which the administration said should receive $41.2 billion, a decrease of nearly $5 billion from the current fiscal year.

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US Loses 12 Aircraft in Single Operation — Report

Twelve US military aircraft lost in a single operation inside Iran.

Iranian military analysts say the US lost 12 military aircraft in its “rescue” operation, including two C-130 transport planes, four Little Bird helicopters, four Black Hawks, and two MQ-9 drones, Tasnim News Agency reported.

“A staggering US military failure,” the agency stressed.

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