Tag: taxes

US Local Governments Helped Chinese Firms With $1.7 Billion in Subsidies: Watchdog

U.S. state and local governments have provided about $1.7 billion in subsidies to Chinese companies since 2010, a trend that must be reversed, said Robert Atkinson, president of Washington-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

“The official U.S. policy is to try to slow down China because they’re playing unfairly, if you will. So here we are trying to slow down China but at the same time, state and local governments are providing subsidies to speed up China,” Atkinson said in a recent interview with NTD.

China is known for engaging in a number of unfair trade practices, such as dumping cheap products in foreign markets, providing excessive government subsidies to Chinese companies helping them to gain market share, and stealing intellectual property (IP) and technologies. The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimated in 2017 that the U.S. economy suffers an annual loss of between $225 to $600 billion from China’s IP theft each year.

The subsidy amount is tabulated by Washington-based watchdog Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that promotes corporate and government accountability. It found that China-based companies received over $1.8 billion in subsidies from U.S. government bodies from 1991 to 2020. The majority of the aid, about $1.7 billion, started flowing out of the United States in 2010.

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Biden asking Congress for $33 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine against Russian invasion

President Biden will ask Congress on Thursday for $33 billion in new funding to support Ukraine as it fights off a renewed Russian assault, while simultaneously pushing a plan to make it easier to seize and sell the assets of Russian oligarchs.

A senior administration official said the funds will ensure Ukraine has the weapons it needs to fight its Russian attackers as well as replenish the U.S.’s own stockpile of weapons that have been rushed to Kyiv.

The amount, which is a combination of U.S. military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, is expected to last through September, which is the end of the government’s fiscal year.

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Biden spends over $150 million to hire cops

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department plans on providing $156.5 million in grants to hire police officers as part of a $320 million package, despite the fact many members of his own party have called to defund the police.

The recruitment grant will go to the COPS Hiring Program, described by the DOJ as “a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing by providing direct funding for the hiring of career law enforcement officers.”

Law enforcement agencies across the United States are encouraged to apply.

The Biden administration expects the funding to help with the “implementation of projects that focus on prioritized crime issues impacting communities [and the] implementation of changes to personnel and agency management in support of community policing,” among other things. 

The remainder of the funding will go toward school safety programs and combating illegal drug distribution.

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Democrat tax scofflaw tells billionaires: ‘Pay your taxes’

A Wisconsin Democrat who ostentatiously told billionaires this week to “Pay your taxes” turns out to be a tax scofflaw, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.

The report identified the Democratic Senate candidate who lectured the ultrawealthy on social media this week and who has “a history of tax delinquency” as Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

He reportedly is a frontrunner in the primary for the Democratic Senate nomination, the report said.

But he “failed to pay his property taxes or file tax returns while running for office in 2018,” the report said. And then he “defended himself at the time by claiming that ‘most people’ don’t fully pay their taxes.”

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Prestigious $30K federal scholarships doled out almost exclusively to progressive students

The 2022 recipients of the prestigious federal Truman Scholarships once again lean heavily toward Democrats and progressives, according to an analysis by The College Fix.

Of the 58 scholarship recipients announced last week, only three have any connection to Republican politics. At the same time, five recipients have connections to Democratic politics, while an additional 35 more list a progressive cause as their primary area of advocacy.

The primary interests of the 35 progressive-leaning students granted the award in 2022 included environmental justice, “menstrual equity,” transgender rights, Latinx political engagement, diversity and inclusion, intersectionality, gun control, and the “gendered impacts of uranium mining.”

One student aims to set up a “safe space” for his school’s “multicultural male students and faculty to receive free food, haircuts, and showcase vulnerability as strength through meaningful conversations.”

Of the remaining awardees, 15 have political leanings that could be considered neutral or non-political.

The highly prestigious $30,000 scholarship is granted each year to a new set of college juniors to help them attend graduate school. The award was established by Congress as a nonpartisan federal program, and recipients must pledge to serve three of their first seven years after graduation in public service. It is granted to “persons who demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service.”

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Baltimore Residents To Get $1,000 Checks In UBI Pilot Test 

Newly elected Mayor Brandon Scott will provide unconditional payments of $1,000 a month for two years to low-income families in Baltimore City’s new guaranteed income pilot program, according to local news WBAL. 

According to a statement released by Scott’s office, the $1,000 monthly checks will be distributed to 200 low-income households across a metro area that struggles with violent crime and a broken economy thanks to decades of Democratic leadership. 

The city allocated $4.8 million in the American Rescue Plan funding to finance the Baltimore Young Families Success Fund. It’s a cover for pilot testing universal basic income (UBI). 

Requirments for free money require that a person be a millennial (18-24), be either the biological or adoptive parents or guardians, and have income at or below the federal poverty level. 

The free money comes with no strings attached, and they can spend it on anything.

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Federal government spent $22M studying invisibility cloaks, anti-gravity, and moon tunnel

The federal government has spent years investing millions into funding research projects straight out of a sci-fi movie.

The projects dating back to 2009 include those focused on invisibility cloaking, traversable wormholes, negative energy, anti-gravity, high-frequency gravitational wave communications, and a proposal to tunnel a hole through the moon. Research into the projects was done to assess the military and defense capabilities of the new technologies.

The Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program, through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, received $10 million in the 2008 Defense Supplemental Appropriation Act and $12 million from the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act for the research, according to documents obtained by Vice‘s Motherboard.

“None of these technologies ever seem to have gotten remotely close to being a reality, as far as we know,” the outlet claimed Tuesday.

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Rhode Island Dems Submit Bill To Double State Income Tax For Parents Of Unvaccinated Minors

Rhode Island Democrats want to punish the parents of children who refused to submit to the COVID vaccine mandates.

If passed, the bill will financially cripple individuals by doubling their personal income tax and requiring them to pay a monthly fine of $50.

State Senator Samuel Bell is the lead legislator backing the bill, which mandates all Rhode Island residents, workers, and taxpayers receive a COVID-19 vaccine as well as any subsequent boosters that the state’s director of the department of health shall require.

The bill’s text can be read here.

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Illinois Offers Free Healthcare to Qualified Illegal Immigrants

Illinois is now offering free health care to some illegal immigrants after state lawmakers approved the program last year. The new program will provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants between the ages of 55 and 64, FOX32 Chicago reported. Migrants over the age of 64 are already entitled to healthcare coverage in the state.

Covered services include doctor and hospital visits, lab tests, physical and occupational therapy, mental health, substance abuse disorder services, dental and vision services, and prescription drugs. In order to qualify, the recipient must be an “undocumented immigrant”, be between the ages of 55 through 64 and have a household income is at or below $18,754 for one person, or $25,268 for two people.

The plan will soon expand further in order to grant free healthcare to illegal immigrants between the ages of 42 through 55.

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