Tag: taxes

President Trump Calls for Mandatory Prison Sentences for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Fraudsters – Says Crooked Politicians Who Cover It Up Must Face Real Consequences

President Donald Trump is calling on Congress to finally put real teeth behind the government’s war on fraud, mandatory prison sentences for criminals caught stealing from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

In a video released Saturday, Trump demanded legislation establishing mandatory minimum sentences for fraudsters who loot the federal programs millions of Americans depend on.

Under Trump’s proposal, probation would no longer be an option for covered fraud offenses.

“Today, I’m calling on Congress to pass legislation to address fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs,” Trump said.

“First, Congress must impose mandatory minimum sentences on fraudsters who steal from critical benefit programs designed to take care of the sick, feed the hungry, care for our children, and protect our senior citizens’ retirements.”

“Under our proposal, probation is no longer an option for the fraudsters. If you steal from the American people, you will go to prison and for a long period of time. And the more you steal, the longer you’ll stay in that prison,” he said. “If you’re a convicted fraudster who gets caught stealing from the American people a second time, your sentence will be doubled.”

Then he went after the politicians.

“Second, Congress must make sure that crooked and corrupt politicians who willfully turn a blind eye to fraud finally face real consequences,” Trump said.

“Under our proposal, if a state or local politician knows about fraud and has the ability to stop it, but does nothing about it, they can be personally liable for the full loss of the American taxpayers’ money that they should have stopped and they should have saved.”

The White House published the president’s announcement Saturday under the title “Minimum Sentences on Fraudsters.”

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Merz Pledges €1.35 Billion More to Ukraine, Vows to Keep Fighting Russia…The War Machine Grinds

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv on 4 October 2026 by special train, as air-raid sirens and explosions sounded over the capital, and used the trip to lock in another round of weapons, money, and industrial cooperation rather than any concrete path to a ceasefire.

Berlin’s package, as described by German officials to Reuters, is straightforward. Germany will release €1 billion in military aid already budgeted and €350 million for repairs to Ukraine’s energy system, while finalising a joint production deal covering drones and related systems. Merz travelled with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche and executives from defence and energy firms, including companies tied to interceptor drones and longer-range weapons.

The visit was not a diplomatic probe. It was an arms-and-industry mission staged under fire.

Merz’s own framing left little room for de-escalation. “If Russia is not stopped, it will turn its war machine against us sooner or later,” he said on arrival, according to German reporting of the trip. He told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine could continue to count on German help. That is the logic of indefinite support: Russian power must be worn down in Ukraine, or it will eventually be turned on Europe, so the flow of interceptors, long-range systems with ranges above 1,000 kilometres, and repair money cannot be allowed to stop.

Winter attacks on power plants are treated as a reason to spend more, not as a reason to force a settlement before the heating season.

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British Government Caught Handing Out Thousands of Hijabs to Illegal Boat Migrants

The British government has handed out more than 1,000 taxpayer-funded hijabs to migrants arriving illegally across the English Channel.

According to internal Home Office figures reported by The Daily Mail, officials distributed 974 of the Islamic head coverings to small-boat migrants, an average of 162 every month between January and June.

At that rate, the total handed out at taxpayer expense is likely in the thousands

“The Government must stop handing out hijabs to illegal immigrants immediately,” Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said.

“It’s an insult to hard-working British taxpayers that they’re funding religious items for people who have broken into our country. It should not be for us to fund someone else’s religious practices.”

Many are also wondering why British taxpayers are paying to promote a symbol of female subservience.

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott recently came out against hijabs forming part of school uniforms.

“I do not believe the state should be party to an instrument of female suppression,” she said.

The taxpayer-funded clothing is being distributed as Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government refuses to stop the boats despite promises to do so.

More than 19,000 migrants have made the journey so far this year, with hundreds, if not thousands, more arriving every week.

Although overall crossings are down from 2025, boats have become increasingly crowded, carrying an average of 67 people per vessel.

The Home Office defended the practice by claiming it has obligations to provide appropriate basic clothing to migrants in short-term holding facilities.

“All arrivals receive a basic dry clothing pack where required,” a spokesman said. “The items available form part of standard welfare arrangements.”

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Dem Sen. Mark Kelly Says His Solution to Cost of Living Crisis is Raising Taxes

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that Democrats plan to lower costs for Americans in part by raising taxes on people earning more than $1 million a year.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, the Arizona senator was pressed by host Margaret Brennan to explain his party’s plan for tackling the cost of living.

“Well, we’re going to lower costs for the American people,” Kelly said.

“How?” Brennan asked.

Kelly responded by pointing to legislation he introduced with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

“We’ve got to win the House and, or the Senate. Well- well, how will we do this? I have legislation with Chris Van Hollen. We’ve got to get Republicans on board.”

”It raises taxes for people who make over a million dollars a year in income, and it provides tax cuts for people, individuals, and even couples who make up to about $160,000 a year, that’s some relief.”

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Stockpiling Begins: Neros Awarded $100 Million Pentagon Contract For Kamikaze Drones

US defense company Neros Technologies, which focuses on Category 1 one-way attack drones, was awarded a $100 million contract under the Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads.

The award, under the Drone Dominance Program’s Gauntlet II, prioritizes Archer AI, the Category 1 FPV attack drone. Its automated kill chain lets the FPV fly to an operator-selected target, a huge advantage in battle zones where electronic warfare jammers, such as those targeting radio frequencies and GPS signals, dominate.

Neros CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson stated:

“We’ve developed our Archer FPV system to be highly modular and easily adapted to end user needs. Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally different mission sets, deep strike and close quarters battle, with the same drone platform.

Ultimately, Drone Dominance is a test of two things: can competitors build high-performance drones? And can they produce them in massive quantities with short notice? We’re the only manufacturer to receive multiple bonus awards for Gauntlet I based on our delivery speed. We’re ready to fulfill this next batch of 14,000 drones, and more whenever the Department of War signals need for them.”

The announcement comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that Autonomous Warfare Command, dubbed “AutoWarCom,” will become operational in the fall of next year and will accelerate the DoW’s purchases across all drone categories. 

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Taxpayer-Funded Cat Pipeline Exposes Animal Dealer That Supplied Animals for COVID and Virus Experiments at Cornell and Colorado State

A little-known lab animal dealer has been quietly feeding cats into taxpayer-funded virus experiments at major universities, according to records obtained by the watchdog White Coat Waste Project.

White Coat Waste’s latest investigation identifies Clinvet as a Class B dealer and research facility with ties to Marshall BioResources, one of the country’s largest commercial breeders of dogs and cats for laboratories.

Shipping and donation records show Clinvet has supplied cats that ended up in COVID and feline immunodeficiency virus studies paid for by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At Cornell University, Clinvet donated cats for experiments in which researchers infected healthy animals with COVID, isolated them, and monitored them as they became sick.

Some cats used as controls were killed without ever being infected.

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RTX’s Raytheon Awarded $24.4B Missile Contract as Trump Finally Admits Stockpiles “A Little Bit Lower”

The Pentagon on Thursday announced a massive new defense contract at a moment many Congressional members are concerned over America’s dwindling arsenal of both defensive and offensive missiles and weapons systems.

Raytheon, an RTX unit, has been awarded a $24.4 billion contract for the accelerated production of SM-6 missiles, amid the scramble to replace them in the wake of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury bombing campaign of Iran.

A Pentagon statement described the missiles as “critical anti-air and anti-surface warfare munition” and previewed that “this five-year agreement, with two additional option years, will drive faster production.”

The announcement further described that the deal “provides the defense industry with the long-term predictability needed to expand workforce capacity and secure critical supply chains.”

Additionally, “The Navy said the multiyear contract is meant to provide a steady and reliable supply of the Standard Missile-6 interceptors, which can carry out both offensive strikes and missile defense missions.”

President Trump has stretching back over weeks and months consistently denied that the Pentagon is suffering a weapons shortage due to the Iran war. Instead, he has blamed any shortfall or stockpile concerns on his predecessor Biden and his Ukraine war policies.

But certainly the Pentagon is acting like there’s a problem, given it is quickly handing out these large contracts in order to establish “faster production” and greater “long-term predictability”. This after a mid-July report from the Pentagon’s inspector general did point to a serious and growing problem.

Trump had slammed the report as “mostly fake news” at the time; however, just this week he finally did acknowledge that some munitions “are a little bit lower” in the wake of the seven-month long Iran conflict. Trump’s new remark this week is as follows:

“Some forms of ammunition are a little bit lower than other forms,” the president said in an interview with TIME magazine published Thursday, adding: “We’re stocking up at levels we’ve never done before.“

Some critics among MAGA have underscored that the munitions crisis reveals an abandonment of ‘America First’ policy, also given the immense amounts of interceptors expected on Israel and Gulf allies of late.

Ultimately the only winners in all of this are Israel and the major defense contractors, who will continue to see huge returns with the help of the US taxpayer.

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Trump Says Inflation Will Pay Off The $40 Trillion Debt “Very Rapidly”

President Trump thinks ‘certain levels’ of inflation could take care of the $40 trillion national debt. 

“You know, inflation. Certain levels of inflation will also pay off that debt very rapidly. Very rapidly,” he told TIME in an interview published Thursday, after the outlet pointed out has grown by about $11 trillion over his five years in office. In response, Trump first blamed Joe Biden, then the Fed, then hinted at a plan he wouldn’t share.

“I know I’m the best in the world,” Trump said. “The best – I don’t want to tell you what those means are, but you can pay off the debt through other means. But the one thing that you can do is pay it off through growth, and we’ve never had growth like this.”

Later he circled back, saying “the growth is going to pay off the debt” and that the Fed’s hikes were “hurting our country more than inflation is hurting our country.”

He didn’t say what level of inflation he had in mind, or whether he wants the Fed to tolerate more of it. Earlier in the same interview, though, he blamed Biden for “the biggest inflation in history” and said he “inherited the greatest inflation in history,” adding that “the only thing I have to get down now is the gas.”

Headline CPI rose 3.4% in the 12 months through August, with core at 2.4%, according to the BLS. On Sept. 16 the Fed raised rates for the first time since July 2023 – a unanimous quarter-point hike to 3.75%-4% that included Trump’s own pick for chair, Kevin Warsh – and penciled in another before year-end. Trump told TIME he “probably would have voted against the board” if he were Warsh, and has called for rates of 1% “or less.”

On Thursday, the day TIME published the interview, the 10-year Treasury yield touched 5.34%, its highest since 2002. It closed at 5.24%.

He’s Floated This Before

None of this is new for the self-described “king of debt.” In May 2016 he told CNBC the US could buy back its own bonds at a discount if rates went up. That was widely read as a default threat, so a few days later he went on CNN to walk it back. “You never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?” he said.

A month before that, he told the Washington Post he could wipe out what was then a $19 trillion debt “over a period of eight years” – a debt that has since more than doubled.

Buybacks are back, too. After the debt crossed $40 trillion and long-dated yields kept climbing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tripled the cap on the first expanded buyback to $6 billion. As we noted at the time, yields surged anyway, since $6 billion barely registers against more than $2 trillion in gross issuance a year.

Bessent, for his part, prefers to talk about growth. In June 2025 he told CBS’s Margaret Brennan that “everything has been alarmist” on inflation and that the US would never default. And the day after Treasury reported the $40 trillion milestone, he went on CNBC to say there was “nothing magic” about the number and “we can grow our way out of that.”

The Part He Left Out

Last year we ran a piece arguing Bessent was effectively putting the national debt on an adjustable-rate mortgage by leaning on floating-rate financing, which also projected the debt would top $40 trillion by the end of fiscal 2026 – it got there in mid-August, about six weeks ahead of schedule.

Back in April 2025, Bloomberg’s Simon White made the case that higher inflation and a weaker dollar – where US policy seemed to be headed – were consistent with a falling debt burden. But he warned that unlike Britain’s post-WWII “beautiful deleveraging,” erratic policymaking could wreck trust in the dollar system, spark capital flight and end up adding to the debt.

Nick Giambruno spelled out the mechanics in July: financial repression, where the government keeps interest rates below inflation and the difference quietly moves wealth from savers to the Treasury. With 9% inflation and 4% rates, he noted, that’s a 5% transfer every year, and it compounds.

It has worked before. A 2011 BIS paper estimated negative real rates wiped out debt worth 2-3% of GDP a year in the US and UK between the late 1940s and the 1970s. But that was under Bretton Woods, with interest-rate caps, captive domestic buyers and capital controls – and the paper found financial repression works best “when accompanied by a steady dose of inflation.”

The catch is that it only works if the Treasury can borrow below the inflation rate. Right now it can’t: the 10-year yields nearly two points more than headline CPI, interest on the debt already runs over $1 trillion a year, and everything that matures gets rolled at today’s rates.

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President Trump Announces Surprise Nearly $100 Medicare Payments for More Than 20 Million Seniors — Money Coming Within Days from Democrat “Slush Fund” That Sat Unused for Years

President Donald Trump dropped a late-night bombshell Friday for America’s seniors, announcing that his administration will immediately begin sending “checks” of nearly $100 to more than 20 million Medicare beneficiaries to help cover their Part B premiums.

The payments are expected to begin arriving within days.

Trump also separated this payment from another round of refunds already in motion. As The Gateway Pundit reported last month, the administration is sending $500 “Working Families Obamacare Refund” checks to nearly one million Americans in 30 states who were overcharged on Affordable Care Act plans, overcharges the Biden team studied and then kept. Those checks were also scheduled to start going out in October.

Trump closed the post by reminding voters of the larger promise still on the table: the $5,000 “Trump Dividend” for U.S. citizens if Republicans hold Congress in the November midterms.

According to a White House fact sheet released the same night, the one-time payments are $90 per person and will go to more than 20 million Part B enrollees. Most eligible seniors will see a direct deposit in early October. Those without direct deposit will get a paper check mailed to the address on file with Medicare, also in early October.

The money is coming out of the Medicare Improvement Fund, created in 2008 and stocked with $2 billion by Congress for fee-for-service improvements. No administration had ever used it.

The White House says Trump is the first president to tap the fund to put cash directly back in seniors’ pockets instead of leaving it for special interests.

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Abdul El-Sayed Billed County Taxpayers $9,000 a Month in ‘Consulting’ Fees While Running for Senate

Michigan’s left-wing Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed billed county taxpayers $ 9,000 per month in consulting fees while running for Senate, according to public records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services approved a contract to hire El-Sayed for “consulting services” on April 23, 2025, six days after El-Sayed announced he was running for Senate.

El-Sayed had previously served as director of the county health services department for two years, a post he resigned from on April 3, 2025.

The contract, which extended through the end of the calendar year, stipulated that El-Sayed would be paid at a monthly rate of $9,000 for 30 hours of work—which amounts to around $ 300 per hour. Wayne County is run by county executive Warren Evans, a Democrat.

Under the agreement, El-Sayed was approved to receive up to $72,000 for eight months of consulting work, in which he would “provide strategic support to the County in efforts to ensure smooth and effective leadership transition and aligning operational priorities with the County’s broader vision for public health and human services.”

The payments were routed through “AME Higher LLC,” an entity created by El-Sayed as a pass-through for his consulting and speaking fees, according to the contract.

The news comes as El-Sayed has faced questions over his use of a tax loophole to avoid payroll and income taxes on payments he received through AME Higher LLC. “While Abdul was improving services and making government more efficient for Michigan taxpayers, Mike Rogers was spinning through the revolving door, cashing checks from the same industries he used to regulate in Congress. Mike Rogers repeatedly voted to increase his own salary in Congress before retiring to his Florida mansion as a multimillionaire,” El-Sayed spokeswoman Roxie Richner told the Free Beacon.

El-Sayed’s latest financial disclosure, which covers all of 2025 and the first seven months of 2026, shows that he paid himself a “salary” of $64,000 and took an additional $103,000 as a “member draw” from AME Higher. This is a common strategy used to avoid payroll taxes, because “member draws” from S corporations are not taxed as regular income, accountants told the Free Beacon.

The Wayne County contract wasn’t El-Sayed’s only consulting gig during his senatorial campaign. He has also collected over $82,000 in consulting fees from One Health Partners, a Chicago-area nonprofit health care company that former employees called a “scam.” It focuses on buying medical practices and “exploiting Medicare” to increase revenue, the Free Beacon reported. The company is run by one of El-Sayed’s largest campaign donors, Ali Karim, who was sanctioned by Wisconsin regulators for defrauding an investor and has been accused of fraudulent business practices in multiple lawsuits.

El-Sayed served as director of the Wayne County health department for two years beginning in March 2023. He has touted his work for the Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services on the campaign trail, claiming he “led the rebuild from the studs” of the county’s troubled juvenile prison.

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