Tag: taxes

US SNAP Payment-Error-Rate Hits High Of 10.62%

The national payment error rate for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) hit 10.62 percent for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, far exceeding the 6 percent threshold set by Congress.

“While this is a modest decrease from FY 2024, the FY 2025 rate still shows significant waste at the state level,“ the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a June 24 statement.

”Including both overpayments and underpayments, this year’s rate represents a collective $10.1 billion in improper payments nationwide.”

The payment error rate measures how accurately states calculate SNAP eligibility and the amounts that beneficiaries receive.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump last year, established a State Quality Control Incentive provision under which states must pay a percentage of SNAP program bills if their payment error rate exceeds a certain limit.

A state with an error rate of 6 percent to 8 percent will be required to fund 5 percent of the benefits. This scales up as error rates get higher. States with error rates of 10 percent or more must fund 15 percent of benefits.

“[This has instituted] real financial consequences for states that mismanage taxpayer dollars,” the USDA stated, noting that these rules could come into effect as soon as Oct. 1, 2027.

States with error rates exceeding 6 percent are also required to submit a Corrective Action Plan to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, explaining how they intend to address the root causes of the high error rates. Some states may end up getting financially penalized.

“These payment error rates are further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said.

“USDA has taken historic action to help interested states curb SNAP waste, and I hope other states, regardless of political leadership, prioritize needy families and the American taxpayer over politics.”

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Leader of Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme Arrested in Somalia

The leader of the largest Minnesota pandemic-era fraud scheme was arrested in Mogadishu, Somalia, this week.

Abdikerm Eidleh, 43, was finally taken into custody this week, more than three years after he was indicted in the ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud probe.

A total of 78 people were indicted or charged by the DOJ in connection with the $350 million Feeding Our Future scheme.

CBS News reported:

An alleged leader of the largest pandemic-era fraud scheme in the country was arrested overseas after being on the run for more than four years, according to federal officials.

Abdikerm Eidleh, 43, was arrested in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this week in a daytime raid coordinated by both the FBI and Somali intelligence agencies. He was indicted in September 2022 as part of the sweeping $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud investigation.

“This is a big fish,” Daniel Rosen, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, told CBS News. “Eidleh was a key leader and was responsible for bribing and recruiting business to steal from the American taxpayer.”

Rosen said Eidleh was “second in command” to Aimee Bock, the convicted ringleader of the scheme, who was just sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

Investigators allege Eidleh personally collected $5 million in bribes and kickbacks after instructing restaurants and catering businesses to inflate receipts submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education for reimbursement.

Earlier this month, one of the FBI’s most wanted fraud suspects in the massive Feeding Our Future scandal was finally returned to face justice.

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Newsom urges a national ‘billionaires’ tax’ while fighting one in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a run for president as he approaches the end of his term, called for a national “billionaires’ tax” on Friday even as he fights another proposal targeting the wealthy in his home state.

Newsom also said the U.S. government should own a stake in artificial intelligence companies. His proposals, outlined in a Substack post, aligns him with the Democratic Party’s populist left, and he argued that urgent changes are needed to prevent the elite concentration of wealth and power from undermining democracy.

“It’s time for an economic reset for America,” Newsom wrote.

The governor announced his agenda a day after an influential health care union in California pledged to go forward with a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026.

Newsom opposes that measure, as do many of the liberal interest groups that typically favor higher taxes. They fear it would drive billionaires out of California, eroding the state’s tax base over the long term for a one-time influx of cash. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other state — a few hundred, by some estimates.

“You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” Newsom wrote. “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”

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Governments Are Coming for Your Retirement Savings

We’ve warned more times than I care to count that governments are likely to steal from citizens’ pension funds.

Why?

Because it’s a big pool of cash just sitting there — and when the parasite class sees money within their reach, they simply can’t help themselves.

Perhaps most importantly, governments have control over most pension funds in the world.

Sure, most people think it’s their money sitting in the pension plan, but when you look at the fine print there’s a lot that you as an investor can’t do with ‘your money’.

First up. The “lucky country,” Australia.

“The Albanese government will tap private investors and Australia’s $4.5 trillion superannuation sector to push more defence spending off budget, prompting analysts to accuse Labor of using accounting tricks to help fund a $53 billion military build-up.”

Next up for a shafting are the Brits.

“Labour’s ‘feckless and dangerous’ pension reforms backed by MPs despite ‘socialists run out of money’ fears.”

Here’s the breakdown of what these parasites are looking to do.

  • IHT on pension pots (from 2027). Defined contribution pensions will be pulled into the estate for inheritance tax purposes. Previously exempt. Effective 40% tax on anything passed to heirs above the nil-rate band. Kills the pension-as-wealth-transfer strategy entirely.
  • “Productive finance” mandates. Pension funds — particularly local government schemes — are being pressured and directed to invest in UK infrastructure, housing, and ‘growth assets’. Classic regulatory capture: your retirement savings redirected to fund government priorities, not yours.
  • DB scheme surplus extraction. Defined benefit schemes sitting on surpluses — built up by employers overpaying — are being eyed for redistribution. Proposals to let companies extract surpluses more easily, taxing them en route. Members take the risk; someone else gets the upside.
  • Consolidation/megafund push. Forcing smaller pension schemes to merge into large ‘megafunds’ under government-friendly management — fewer decision makers, easier to lean on, easier to redirect capital flows.

Bottom line: a sovereign wealth fund built by stealth, taken from private savings by conscripted allocations into “public priorities,” with IHT as the kicker to ensure anything left behind gets clipped on the way out too.

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Liberals’ 10% tariff on canned vegetables will hurt low-income Canadians: Kris Sims

On this week’s episode of The Gunn Show, Kris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation discussed the Liberal government’s recent imposition of a 10% tariff on certain imported canned vegetables.

Sims slammed the move as another tax on food that will hit low-income families the hardest, noting canned vegetables are a pantry staple for many Canadians trying to stretch their budgets, especially as grocery prices continue to climb.

The tariff, announced June 19 and effective immediately, applies to imports from most countries but conveniently exempts the United States, Mexico, and several others.

“Canned tomatoes, a big chunk of them come from Italy, because those folks are really good at working with tomatoes,” Sims explained.

“And what’s super upsetting about this is that anyone whose ever pinched a penny knows that canned tomatoes are you’re go-to staple in your pantry if you’re trying to stretch your dollar, if you’re making chili, you’re making spaghetti sauce, food banks just really count on stuff like this,” she continued.

“And [the government] is making it more expensive on purpose,” Sims added.

The tariff was described by the federal government as a provisional safeguard measure that can last up to 200 days while the Canadian International Trade Tribunal completes its inquiry into surging imports. Imports of canned vegetables have risen sharply in recent years, with notable increases from countries like Thailand, Turkey, and Peru.

The government says the tariff is needed to protect Canadian processors facing “immediate challenges,” but critics point out it comes from the same Liberals who repeatedly promised to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

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Politicians Never Spend Their Own Money

The Canadian government has quietly expanded the clothing allowances available to the Governor General, and the timing could not be more tone-deaf. While Canadians struggle with inflation, housing costs, and rising taxes, Ottawa has decided that the person already living in Rideau Hall requires even more taxpayer-funded support for wardrobes and official appearances. The Governor General currently earns a salary of roughly C$378,000 per year, lives in an official residence maintained at public expense, travels at taxpayer expense, receives staff support, security, transportation, and a lengthy list of other publicly funded benefits. Yet somehow that was not enough.

According to the revised guidelines, the annual clothing allowance for the Governor General has increased from C$100,000 to C$130,000. The maximum amount that can be spent on ceremonial attire has also increased substantially, while clothing purchased with public funds remains government property. Think about that for a moment. The average Canadian household is trying to figure out how to pay for groceries, rent, mortgages, insurance, and utility bills while government officials are debating whether C$100,000 a year is enough for clothing. The political class truly lives in a different universe.

What makes this even more absurd is that the Governor General’s office already receives millions of dollars annually to operate. Rideau Hall employs dozens of staff members, maintains extensive grounds, hosts official events, and receives funding for travel and hospitality.

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Chicago Teachers Seek Billions In Special Session For “What We Are Owed”

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has long been one of the most radical labor organizations in the country from its insistence on teachers being subsidized in political protests to members praising the former Communist regime in Venezuela. Now, with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the CTU is demanding yet another massive public infusion of money despite the dismal performance of its members in actually improving scores for Chicago children. They are calling for a special session and billions in more funding.

We have previously discussed how teacher unions have become virtual slush funds for Democratic Party operations, spending over a billion dollars on Democratic candidates and campaigns. In return, Democratic politicians have agreed to bloated pension and compensation packages that have driven cities and states into the red, particularly in Illinois.

It is a closed loop of influence and excess. The teacher unions funded Democratic campaigns and Democratic politicians then sign off on windfall union contracts without forcing any improvements for the actual students.

For these students, the system borders on the criminal. Rather than actually improve their educational results, the Chicago teachers (like unions and administrators in other cities) have lowered their proficiency standards. Even with that lowering, just 2 out of 5 children meet the lower proficiency standards. Forty percent of Chicago students are “chronically absent” from class.

According to the latest Illinois Report Card, 38% of the state’s public school students demonstrated proficiency in math last year. 52% showed ELA proficiency.

Nevertheless, teachers demanded the right to join May Day protests during work hours to speak against immigration enforcement, billionaires, and oligarchs. They called on citizens to boycott stores to oppose the super-wealthy and billionaires.

They are now demanding a special session to fund what “we are owed.”

Chicago Board of Education member Jitu Brown demanded “The $2 billion that we are owed just adequately funds, but when you are repairing harm you have to fund above and beyond.” Brown called on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was previously a Chicago teacher and is generally viewed as owing his election to the unions, to repeat his December 2025 $1 billion tax-increment-financing push for the Chicago Public Schools.

As always, the CTU and IFT President Stacy Davis Gates framed the demand in class-warfare terms, calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to convene a special legislative session to raise revenue from the “ultra-wealthy.”

Of course, Pritzker did not respond by raising concerns about the dismal educational record for students, but by promising more money. While he acknowledged that they have increased spending every year, with the budget hitting $3 billion, he said the unions are right that they need even more money.

Notably, both the IFT and CTU are demanding that Pritzker reject a federal tax credit scholarship program that would provide tax credits for donations to scholarship organizations that fund education-related expenses for students in public, private, and homeschool settings.

The unions oppose any voucher system that would give poor families a real choice in seeking better education for their children. Both AFT president Randi Weingarten and NEA president Rebecca S. Pringle opposed voucher options.

Some of us have changed our views of vouchers in light of the stranglehold these unions have on public education.

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CDC Awards Pfizer $1.24 Billion for COVID Vaccines for Kids and Adults

The roughly $735 million pediatric and $505 million adult COVID-19 vaccine grants cover 2026 and 2027, according to federal records. The monetary infusion has revived debate among critics and public health experts around the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and reliance on mRNA technology.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent decision to award Pfizer $1.24 billion for COVID-19 vaccines has renewed debate over the government’s continued investment in mRNA technology.

The contracts, awarded on June 1, include about $735.7 million for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines and nearly $505.3 million for adult doses for fiscal year 2026-2027.

Critics say the funding reflects a continued commitment to vaccines associated with high rates of serious injuries and deaths, and a lack of adequate safety testing and monitoring.

Public health experts argue the investment is necessary to protect vulnerable populations and prepare for future outbreaks.

The latest contracts come as mRNA technology expands beyond COVID-19.

A recent review in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics found that mRNA-based therapeutics were identified in more than 550 registered clinical trials. The authors reported that more than 90% of the projects involved mRNA vaccines and that most products remain in early-stage testing before broader adoption.

‘Unnecessary and often harmful injections’

The procurement of monetary resources signals that federal officials intend to continue investing heavily in mRNA technology despite declining public demand and ongoing controversy over vaccine safety monitoring, critics say.

Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, told The Defender there was “no scientific justification” or “market demand” for the latest mRNA vaccine funding.

“This raises a serious question concerning how these captured agencies really work,” Tucker said. “We are talking about vast amounts of tax dollars flowing to support unnecessary and often harmful injections.”

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NO PENSIONS, NO WARSHIPS: Broken Germany To Raise Retirement Age to 70, as Plans Are Scrapped for Its Frigate Program That Already Cost Taxpayers $2.6 Billion

Germany is down and out.

13 months into his Chancellorship, Friedrich Merz is polling as the most unpopular German head of government in modern times.

That apparently does nothing to tamp down his cocky self-confidence and sense of self-importance, which so annoy the public.

And things may be about to take a turn for the worse as the German financial reality is biting.

To begin with, Germany is considering raising its pension age from 67 to 70 – the kind of move that set France ablaze for months while Emmanuel Macron tried to pretend all was great.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy, but it is stagnant, and the public finances are collapsing, so a ‘government-appointed commission’ has recommended a ‘radical overhaul of the pension system’.

The Telegraph reported:

“The commission, whose proposals are set to be presented to Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, on Tuesday, has suggested incremental increases to the pension age every decade according to ‌life ‌expectancy, rising to 70 by 2092 under its current calculations.

They propose a 2:1 ratio formula. For every additional year of statistical life expectancy gained by the population, eight months must be spent working and four months can be spent in retirement.”

Currently, Germany takes the contributions taken from current workers to fund the pensions of current retirees, but the former keeps shrinking, while the latter keeps growing.

“We want to reform our country in such a way that future generations, young generations, also have the opportunity to live in freedom, in peace and in prosperity,” said Mr Merz last week.

[…] The commission also wants to reduce the number of gold-plated civil servant pensioners who receive an average of more than €40,000 (£35,000) a year. A recent calculation by Welt newspaper found the annual cost of these pensions, which teachers in many states can access, to be €67bn (£58bn).”

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British Cop Banned from Policing for Having Christian Book in Work Locker Wins Settlement

A former British police officer who was banned from serving after asking questions about Islam has reached a settlement with the police force that banned him.

“I am pleased to have now reached a settlement, I want to move on with my life but believe radical national change is needed in our police force,” former officer Luke Salmons said, according to the BBC.

Salmons ran afoul of the rules when during an October 2024 training session he asked some hard questions about Islam.

“The whole day was pretty much about Islam. At one point the trainers walked up and down the room for several minutes saying ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ over and over again. It was bizarre,” he said.

A Muslim sergeant invited him to a discussion over coffee after a private lunch conversation. To be prepared, Salmons brought a copy of “Answering Jihad — A Better Way Forward” by Nabeel Qureshi, an ex-Muslim turned Christian, to work with him.

Two officers photographed the book, and the next day, the hammer fell when an inspector took him aside.

“She took me in a room, deliberately said to me, ‘I don’t like your beliefs,’ which indicates to me that she was meaning my Christian beliefs, which is discrimination towards me and my faith, which in itself is gross misconduct,” he said, according to Fox News.

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