Tag: taxes

Joe Biden Requesting $13.7 Billion More in Aid to Ukraine as $40 Billion Package Running Dry

President Joe Biden wants to spend $13.7 billion more in aid to Ukraine as his massive slush fund already approved by Congress earlier this year is running dry.

Biden’s request to Congress is part of an overall $47.1 billion emergency spending package of more funds to fight the coronavirus and monkeypox, according to the Associated Press, citing anonymous sources.

Biden has spent roughly three-quarters of the $40 billion approved by Congress in May, officials told the Associated Press, and he wants to spend $13.7 billion more.

The additional funds would not only fund equipment and intelligence support but “direct budgetary support for Ukraine,” the report notes.

Using the existing $40 billion, Biden continues announcing multi-billion dollar packages to fund weapons and ammo, surface-to-air missile systems, counter-drone technology, and drones.

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82-Year-Old Grandma Hand-Filed Taxes for Years – 1 Small Mistake Has the IRS Demanding $2.1M

The Internal Revenue Service is going after an 82-year-old woman for an outrageous $2.1 million in “penalties” because she didn’t use the right form to file her taxes.

The grandmother from the Boston area had spent decades going to her local library and diligently filling out her IRS forms by hand and sending them in. But eventually she made a serious error, though it was one she had no way of knowing that she was making, according to Reason Magazine.

After Monica Toth’s family left Germany in the 1930s to escape Hitler’s fascist empire, they landed in Argentina, where Monica was born in 1940. By age 22, she had moved to the U.S. to start a family. Ultimately, in the 80s she became a naturalized American citizen.

In 1999, Toth’s father left her $4.2 million in a Swiss Bank account. Not being a tax accountant or tax preparer, Monica was not aware of the arcane rule that Americans who own bank accounts in foreign countries must file an annual one-page form known as the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts report (FBAR). This form basically alerts the federal government to the existence of the bank account and lists the assets therein, the New York Post reported.

Toth had no clue that this form even existed and so, she spent years neglecting to file the form.

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FAUCI RESIGNS: In Retirement, He’ll Collect $350,000 a Year… From You.

Anthony Fauci is set to receive an annual retirement package exceeding $350,000 following his controversial tenure as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The staggering, taxpayer-funded figure comes amidst Fauci – who sent U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund risky bat coronavirus research at a Chinese Communist Party-controlled lab in Wuhan – announcing he’d step down from his National Institutes of Health (NIH) position in addition to the role of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden in December.

“I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” Fauci added.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges,” he said, glossing past the long-standing allegations of impropriety in his career that saw him labelled a “murderer” by the LGBT community, as well as seeing his wife take a role as Head of Bioethics in the U.S. government.

But Fauci will have to wait on his government checks for a while, as he also announced, “I am not retiring. After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field. I want to use what I have learned as NIAID Director to continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats.”

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Los Angeles Public Health Offers Free COVID-19 Testing for Pets After City Records Zero Pet Cases

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is giving free COVID-19 tests to animals that are thought to have the virus even though there have been no COVID positives among tested animals.

Los Angeles health officials announced the program on Saturday, citing new funding for free COVID-19 testing for pets from the CDC.

“Veterinary Public Health has received funding from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in animals in Los Angeles County,” a statement on LA Public Health read.

“SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.  This project will help us to learn more about COVID-19 from a One Health perspective, meaning that we can learn more about the significance of COVID-19 in human, animal, and environmental relationships.

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These Are The 10 Biggest Military Spending Nations In The World

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has continued, military spending and technology has come under the spotlight as the world tracked Western arms shipments and watched how HIMAR rocket launchers and other weaponry affected the conflict.

But, as Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte details below, developing, exporting, and deploying military personnel and weaponry costs nations hundreds of billions every year. In 2021, global military spending reached $2.1 trillion, rising for its seventh year in a row.

Using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), this visualization shows which countries spent the most on their military in 2021, along with their overall share of global military spending.

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Pentagon announces extra $775M in weapons to Ukraine

The United States will send another $775 million in missiles, drones, vehicles and mine clearing equipment to Ukraine to help in its war with Russia as the conflict enters a near standstill, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The new assistance package will include 16 howitzers and ammunition, AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM), ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 15 Scan Eagle reconnaissance drones, and armored vehicles, among other armaments, a senior Defense official told reporters. 

The package comes at a critical time as Ukraine and Russia battle for control of the eastern part of Ukraine.  

Nearly six months into the war, the two sides are locked in a near operational standstill, with neither Kyiv nor Moscow able to drum up enough ground troops and weapons to turn the course of the conflict, Western officials assess.  

The extra shot of lethal aid could help Ukrainian forces gain the upper hand as Russian troops struggle with losses inflicted by U.S.-made missile systems.  

“I would say that you are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield,” the senior Defense official said, adding that it’s important to both sustain Ukrainian battlefield successes and enable them to be make gains as the conflict shifts.   

“We want to make sure that Ukraine has a steady stream of ammunition to meet its needs, and that’s what we’re doing with this package.” 

The latest lethal aid follows the $1 billion in weapons and equipment given to the embattled country earlier this month, the largest such tranche pledged since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. 

The package also pushes the United States past the $10 billion mark for military assistance for Ukraine under the Biden administration, spread out over 19 packages since August 2021. 

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