Tag: taxes

Pelosi to Exit Congress with One of the Largest Pensions on Record

Members of Congress become eligible for a pension after at least five years of service, and the benefit calculation  depends on when they were first elected. Lawmakers first elected in 1984 or later are covered under FERS, and those who entered Congress before 2013 qualify for a higher accrual rate than members elected afterward.

Pelosi began her service in the House of Representatives in June 1987 after winning a special election to fill a vacancy. By the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027, she will have served more than 39 years. Her pension is calculated based on her three highest-earning years of salary, which includes her time as Speaker of the House at $223,500 per year, compared to $174,000 for rank-and-file members. The estimated pension figure—which excludes any spousal set-aside that reduces the member pension so the surviving spouse can collect partial payments—reflects one of the most substantial benefits available to any current or former member of Congress in FERS.

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Taxpayers Asked To Fund A Hospital Takeover They’re Not Allowed To See

When Connecticut lawmakers pushed the UConn Health hospital acquisition bill through the November special session — without a public hearing — it was clear transparency was not the priority.  

Now UConn Health, the state-run hospital system preparing to spend roughly half a billion taxpayer dollars acquiring Waterbury Hospital, has taken that secrecy a step further. Under the legislation rushed through the November special session — which authorizes UConn Health not just to purchase Waterbury Hospital but potentially to acquire additional struggling hospitals in the future — the financial stakes extend far beyond a single transaction. Yet in its Certificate of Need filing, UConn has asked state regulators to seal its cost and market impact review (CMIR) — the central analysis used to evaluate how the deal would affect prices, competition, access, and the financial risks taxpayers may ultimately assume.

The legislature avoided public scrutiny when passing the legislation. UConn Health is now avoiding scrutiny on the financials themselves. 

According to its filing, UConn Health plans to invest $195 million in Waterbury Hospital over the next two years, including $13 million paid directly to Prospect Medical Holdings, the California based, bankrupt for-profit chain that allowed the hospital to deteriorate. But the upfront investment represents only a small portion of the true cost. The bulk will come from $390 million in UConn 2000 bonds, state-backed debt. Once interest is included, taxpayers will ultimately shoulder roughly $500 million. 

The financial risk is not theoretical. It falls squarely on Connecticut residents. 

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Canada spent nearly $1M killing ostriches, but full cost remains hidden

The federal government has now admitted that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the RCMP spent over $900,000 on the agency’s mission to slaughter more than 300 healthy ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C.

The numbers were revealed through an order paper question filed by Conservative MP Scott Anderson after months of stonewalling from Ottawa.

Despite Anderson pointedly requesting a complete accounting of all federal dollars spent, the amount the CFIA and RCMP did disclose is merely a glimpse into what was likely millions of tax dollars spent on lengthy court battles to avoid testing the birds to prove their health, and a nearly 50-day occupation of the farm with RCMP deployed at full force.

Nevertheless, for the farmers whose livelihoods and the healthy prehistoric creatures that were wiped out in the kill mission, the totals that have been revealed only add salt to the wounds.

The CFIA alone admits to $444,000, including $9,000 on feed that the farmers would have been happy to provide had they not been barred from caring for their birds weeks before the “cull.”

More than $72,000 was spent on portable toilets and hand-wash stations, and over $32,000 on unspecified “specialized equipment.”

It also paid $100,000 for private security at three of its offices.

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Turns Out There’s a Massive Loophole in Minnesota’s Paid Leave Program

As Minnesota is set to launch another massive welfare program, this time in the form of paid medical leave, critics have been warning that this is yet another massive fraud scandal waiting to happen. As we told you last week, there are a few actual guardrails in the program that will catch and stop fraud. There is a website portal to report fraud, but that’s contingent on the government following up on said reports.

Now there’s a very real, very obvious loophole that a lifelong Minnesotan is pointing out: people who have jobs, but have extended time off (like teachers) can still get paid leave even if they’re not working.

Incredible. Simply incredible. 

There are roughly 57,000 teachers in Minnesota public schools. If even 10 percent of them applied for this leave, that would be 5,700 teachers per year at $14,589. That alone costs taxpayers more than $83 million per year.

Good luck, taxpayers.

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What a Witch: Dem Congresswoman Delivers a Cold-Hearted Response to Dying Republican Voter After He Blisters Her for Giving Medicare to Illegal Aliens 

A loathsome Democrat congresswoman delivered a textbook example of how her party cares far more about illegal alien invaders than hard-working Americans, even those who are dying.

On Thursday, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal for an interview and to take questions from viewers.

A Republican voter from New York called in and let Titus know that he had been trying to get blood pressure medication under the Biden regime and was unable to do so because of illegal aliens leeching off the system.

He noted that when he went to the Medicare office, it was filled with illegal migrants coming in and out.

He then revealed that one month ago, he was rushed to the hospital and was diagnosed with kidney failure and congestive heart failure. Now, he is dying thanks to the Democrats and illegals.

After feigning sympathy, Titus went on to give a cruel, cold-hearted response that blamed him for his horrific medical situation.

She also scolded him for rightfully slamming illegals for taking advantage of America’s medical system and told him to stop blaming other people.

What a nasty person.

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House passes $900B defense bill with pay hike for troops, Golden Dome tech and more

The US House of Representatives passed the annual defense bill Wednesday, outlining a $900 billion budget that would give troops a 4% pay bump, help counter China and Russia, support new technologies like the Golden Dome missile defense system and promote military readiness, among other provisions.

The House voted 312-112 to adopt the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026.

The Senate will have to approve the bill before sending it to President Trump’s desk for a signature, though an earlier version cleared the upper chamber in October.

It’s expected to take it up next week.

Before the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had touted that the more than 3,000-page bill was aimed at “codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos.”

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Minnesota: ‘Nearly Every’ Somali Household with Children Is on Welfare

More than 8-in-10 households headed by Somali refugees in the state of Minnesota are on one or more forms of American taxpayer-funded welfare, new data published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals.

The data, based on 10 years of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), shows drastic disparities between native-born American households and Somali-born households in Minnesota, where nearly 80,000 residents have Somali ancestry compared to zero who had Somali ancestry in 1990.

In particular, the data shows that 81 percent of Minnesota households headed by Somali refugees are on one or more forms of welfare, including 27 percent who are on cash welfare, 54 percent who are on food stamps, and 73 percent who are on Medicaid.

Compare this massive welfare use to native-born Americans residing in Minnesota, only 21 percent of whom are on one or more forms of welfare, including just 6 percent who are on cash welfare, 7 percent who are on food stamps, and 18 percent who are on Medicaid.

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At the end of the climate change illusion lies the poverty trap

The German government has shifted into hyper-mode to defend its green patronage economy. To pay for it, heirs, high performers and savers are being drafted into service. The end of the eco-socialist nightmare will be convulsive and chaotic.

On Friday, the federal cabinet agreed to introduce a new EV subsidy. Roughly three billion euros are set to flow into this bloodless market segment over the coming years – a drop in the bucket compared to the vast sums used to artificially keep the green patronage complex alive. But it is a signal.

A Negatively Sloped Learning Curve

The decision joins a long list of political misfires in recent months – a list unlikely to end with subsidised industrial electricity, heat pumps or refinancing packages for wind turbines. The state simply has too much money at its disposal to be forced to abandon its wasteful, destructive project.

For Bavaria’s minister-president Markus Söder, the revival of this failed subsidy instrument was cause for a small celebration. He promised a “huge boost” for the domestic market, claiming state intervention would secure value creation and jobs – a thoroughly “Söderized” view of reality.

Once again, Söder proved that his personal learning curve has flattened into a downward-sloping line – a phenomenon broadly visible across European politics.

Debt Union And Professional Manipulators

Germany’s EV subsidy stands pars pro toto for the broader European situation. Public debt is exploding across nearly all EU member states. Next year, Germany will post net new debt of around 5.6% of GDP – placing it among Europe’s top debt creators.

This figure is honest – and shows the true fiscal position once the government’s accounting tricks, exemptions, “special funds” and skyrocketing municipal debts are properly added back in.

France and the UK look equally grim. Even once-disciplined Finland is stumbling toward 90% debt-to-GDP with a similarly large deficit. It can no longer be denied: Europe is trapped in a debt spiral.

Schäuble and the Troika

How times have changed. Some may recall the theatrically staged visits of former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble and the Troika, who – with maximal media firepower – pinned the sovereign debt crisis squarely on Greece.

In reality, it was perfect camouflage – designed to divert attention from the bailout of Germany’s banking and insurance sector, which had sailed into heavy waters due to political mismanagement.

The public was never meant to see what is now obvious: the EU has degenerated into a debt club trying to execute its ideological mega-projects – like the green transition – through a credit pump, with taxes and inflation serving as the extraction mechanism from ordinary citizens.

Heirs, asset holders, small business owners and the productive middle will pay the bill. The emotionally charged debate over inheritance taxes – and the faux rhetoric about “fairness” – reveals that the political class is now openly planning the confiscation of accumulated private capital.

Inflation as a Hidden Tax

The permanent crisis will inevitably lead to a growing state apparatus – a debt-financed Leviathan that accelerates the inflation spiral with every intervention. No one is supposed to notice how quickly money loses value in this environment. The seigniorage – the hidden gain – goes to the biggest debtor of all: the state.

With every new green initiative, every EV subsidy, every publicly funded wind turbine, the bill rises. Only the delayed price effect helps politicians obscure cause and effect and decontextualise the economic damage of their intervention.

Von der Leyen, Merz, Macron & Co. rely heavily on this effect. They hope the majority of voters never add one and one together – and never question the soft-edged tax squeeze and deliberate erosion of their savings.

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The Hidden Subsidy for Renewable Energy

Renewable energy really means anti-establishment energy, or politically correct energy.  The energy is usually electricity that is distributed via the electric grid.  The source of energy has to be “natural.”

Solar and wind are the most popular types of renewable energy.  Hydroelectric energy derived from a big dam on a river might seem ideal, except that the promoters of renewable energy don’t like dams.  If you can figure out how to generate hydroelectricity without a dam, you can call it renewable.  Nuclear energy might seem like a good candidate except that nuclear energy is too scary and too good a fundraising tool to accept as renewable.

Solar energy costs about seven times as much as electricity from coal or natural gas.  Most of the cost is hidden in subsidies.  If that truth were not obscured by massive propaganda, hardly anyone would build solar energy or wind energy farms.

The renewable energy promoters are politically successful.  About half the U.S. states have renewable portfolio laws that mandate the amount of renewable electricity they use.  For example, California requires that 60% of its electricity be renewable by 2030.  That has increased and will increase the cost of electricity in California.  Many electric customers pay more than 50 cents per kilowatt-hour.

According to the promoters of renewable energy, it is well-suited for solving a multitude of imaginary problems.  The number-one imaginary problem is global warming, rechristened “climate change” when the globe failed to warm.

The Sierra Club is a leading promoter of renewable energy.  This is the pitch on one of their websites promoting renewable energy:

We are facing monumental threats to our planet’s future. We are fighting back with every tool at our disposal — but to face these challenges, we need your support. Make your gift today.

Even the New York Times has become critical of the Sierra Club, for reasons described in this video.

Solar and wind are erratically intermittent sources of electricity.  Solar quits at night and whenever a cloud obscures the sun.  Wind quits when the wind slows or stops.

When solar or wind electricity is introduced, it is supplementary to the existing electric infrastructure.  Solar or wind cannot replace existing generating plants because solar and wind  are intermittent sources of electricity.  The existing grid generating plants must be retained so they can supply electricity when solar or wind fails.  In order to compare the cost of solar and wind with the traditional fossil fuels, we need only to compare expenditure when the traditional plants are powering the grid with the expenditure when solar or wind is engaged.

When solar or wind is working backup, coal and gas plants are idling.  Every megawatt-hour of electricity not produced by a coal or gas plant reduces the cost of fuel by about $20.  Every megawatt-hour of electricity produced by a solar plant costs about $150, mostly amortization of the original cost of the plant.  The cost for wind is similar.  A spreadsheet showing a detailed calculation of the cost of solar energy can be downloaded here.

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Hypersonics, AI, Space Weapons, & Directed Energy: Lawmakers Release Defense Bill As Expiring Obamacare Subsidies Marinate On Back-Burner

With Congress in its second-to-last week in session for this year, lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee released the final bill text of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Sunday night, which allocates a topline of roughly $8 billion over the $892.6 billion the Department of Defense had requested, and what the House version of the NDAA provided which stuck to the Pentagon’s request. 

The NDAA is the annual law passed by Congress that sets the budget, policies, and legal authorities for the U.S. military and national defense programs. It shapes everything from troop pay to weapons development and foreign military aid.

“This year’s National Defense Authorization Act helps advance President Trump and Republicans’ Peace Through Strength Agenda by codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a Sunday statement. 

The $8B increase is a ‘compromise‘ – as the Senate tried to jack the budget up by $32 billion over the department’s request. According to Breaking Defense, Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, noted that appropriators would have the last word on the final budget, but was optimistic that the $8 bullion figure was in the ballpark.

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