Tag: taxes

GOP Bill Seeks $400M for White House Ballroom and Security Infrastructure

As the country is engaged in a costly illegal war abroad, and as prices continue to climb at home, a group of Republicans in Congress has turned its attention toward a $400-million White House construction effort. On Monday, Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Katie Britt of Alabama, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri introduced legislation to authorize and fund the so-called East Wing Modernization Project. That includes a State Ballroom, visitor screening facility, and related “national-security” infrastructure.

The bill arrives in the immediate aftermath of a highly suspicious shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, and as courts continue to weigh whether the administration had authority to move forward with the ballroom project without congressional approval. Legal challenges temporarily blocked parts of the project, making the legislation not only a funding vehicle, but a political and legal rescue effort for one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial White House priorities. Initially touted as a grand venue for high-profile receptions, the plan took on a different tone in late March, when the president described the ballroom as “essentially a shed” for a hardened underground complex.

The Bill

Dubbed the “White House Safety and Security Act of 2026,” the legislation seeks to authorizes $400 million in federal funding for what is formally described as the “East Wing Modernization Project.” The Trump administration kicked off that “modernization” by tearing down the historic East Wing last October.

The appropriation is direct. It draws from the U.S. Treasury and remains available through January 20, 2029. The funds are intended for “design, construction, and other appropriate expenses.”

The legislation also contains a secondary mechanism to offset costs. It extends customs user fees through March 31, 2032. That extension is framed as a way to balance the federal outlay. Critics argue it simply shifts the burden.

The scope is broad. It includes a secure State Ballroom and a visitor-screening facility. It also allows for “any other related national security facility.” That final phrase appears to be vague by design. It leaves room for expansion beyond the ballroom itself. The president himself left little room for ambiguity, posting on Truth Social on April 16 that “future Presidents and World Leaders” would need

… a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place, or Ballroom, one with Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass

That list sounds less like a reception hall and more like a hardened lair. For a proclaimed “Golden Age,” it suggests not confidence, but preparation for doomsday.

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No, The Trump Administration Shouldn’t Bail Out Spirit Airlines

At a time when Republicans in Congress need to generate enthusiasm ahead of the November midterm elections, the Trump administration is contemplating a move that would undermine conservative support. The president’s talk of a potential $500 million bailout for a budget airline struggling to emerge from bankruptcy might preserve Spirit Airlines, but it would deflate conservatives’ spirit (pun intended) at a critical juncture.

The president spoke last Thursday of “helping them [i.e., Spirit] out, meaning bailing them out, or buying it.” But the government took stakes in private-sector companies during the Obama administration. It didn’t work out well then, and it won’t work out well now.

Bad Policy 

The list of reasons not to bail out Spirit stands as long as an airport runway. Start with the federal government’s $39 trillion in debt and counting. With the federal government running deficits approaching $2 trillion every year, and lawmakers not showing any signs of taking the actions needed to resolve Medicare and Social Security’s long-term shortfalls, why on Earth should taxpayers throw good money on top of bad to save an airline?

On top of the argument against bailing out airlines in general, this specific carrier doesn’t represent an economically critical business, let alone a company with national security implications. Last year, Spirit flew 3.5 percent of passenger miles domestically, which ranks it only eighth nationwide.

As it pared back services to stay afloat, Spirit has reportedly reduced its scheduled flights from 19,575 last May to an estimated 9,353 next month. Those numbers raise an obvious point: If Spirit could cut more than 10,000 flights in the past 12 months without causing a national calamity — or indeed without generating much notice at all — then the disappearance of its remaining 9,353 flights should not cause any major incident. 

But Spirit’s liquidation wouldn’t necessarily lead to the disappearance of all its flights, as other airlines can, and likely would, buy its profitable routes and planes. Contra President Trump’s claim that “I’d love to be able to save those jobs,” letting Spirit go into liquidation would allow other companies to purchase and run its usable assets, including its personnel, without injecting taxpayer dollars into a zombie company to keep it afloat.

Awful Politics

Conservatives have equally solid political reasons to oppose a Spirit bailout. We know how Republicans would react if the political roles were reversed. When President Obama gave bailout funds to American automakers, conservatives derided the actions of “Government Motors” for years, and rightly so.

Moreover, the White House appears not to remember the trap that George W. Bush laid for congressional Republicans 18 years ago: the trap of TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Coming in the fall of a presidential election year, the Wall Street bailout helped transform a middling-to-bad election cycle for congressional Republicans into a wipeout. Republicans’ catastrophic defeat in November 2008 gave Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama the margins they needed to ram Obamacare down the throats of Congress and a skeptical American people.

With families still struggling under persistent inflation, using more taxpayer dollars to bail out poor choices by airline executives could engender a similar public outrage as TARP among the electorate. Unless Trump has a political death wish, he would steer well clear of this type of golden giveaway.

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Corn Belt Politicians Are Using High Gas Prices To Push Even More Carveouts for Ethanol

With the average price of gasoline in the U.S. reaching its highest level since the start of the Iran war, lawmakers are thinking about giving energy producers special treatment to supposedly cut costs at the pump.

As part of the negotiations over the Farm Bill, which is expected to be voted on by the House of Representatives this week, a bipartisan group of Corn Belt lawmakers is proposing a measure to authorize the sale of E15—gasoline with an ethanol content up to 15 percent—year-round. This fuel is typically not allowed to be sold in the summer months because it evaporates easily, which contributes to air pollution and smog. (The Trump administration waived requirements last month to allow for E15 to be sold this summer, citing high gas prices.)

The proposed amendment would also limit blending exemptions for small refineries under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—the federal law that requires refiners and fuel importers to ensure that a certain percentage of the transportation fuel sold in the U.S. comes from renewable fuels, the most common of which is ethanol. Compliance with the RFS is estimated to cost refineries about $70 million in both 2026 and 2027, according to the energy consulting firm Turner, Mason & Company.  

“At a time when consumers are acutely sensitive to energy prices, this amendment represents a pragmatic solution that balances energy affordability, rural economic strength, and regulatory certainty,” said a coalition of agricultural and energy groups in a support letter for the measure. Additionally, its reforms to RFS exemptions “will help restore transparency and predictability for all parties subject” to that law. 

It doesn’t seem like “all parties” are on board. 

Last week, the National Corn Growers Association published a press release calling out a group of “oil corporations” for attempting to “derail legislation that lowers fuel prices.” 

“There is a tiny minority of major energy corporations – like Delek U.S. Inc., Cenovus Energy, CVR Energy, HF Sinclair, Parr Pacific Holdings and Suncor Energy Inc. – that are masquerading as small refineries to get Renewable Fuel Standard exemptions they don’t need,” said the association’s president, Jed Bower. “Their greedy actions are holding up legislation that would help farmers who are struggling during tough economic times.”

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Ed-Tech Vendors Fleece Schools Out Of Millions Of Dollars For Software That Makes Kids Dumber

After the teachers in Los Angeles nearly went on yet another strike, they may want to study a recent scandal that reveals where some of the district’s money is going. According to a report in the Westside Current, a former Los Angeles Unified School District employee and technology vendor, Gautham Sampath, just pled “not guilty” to money-laundering charges after allegedly rerouting $3 million to LAUSD technical project manager Hong Peng to land a $22 million contract for his information software.

Assuming Peng is guilty in this instance — and the hilariously illiterate texts between her and Sampath would suggest she is — it is reasonable to conclude she has probably done the same with other tech vendors, paying gargantuan sums of taxpayer money for often shoddy, useless software and pocketing large sums for it. And she is far from the only person doing it. Sampath’s company, Innive, evidently has “government contracts in California and elsewhere in the country.” This means that all over the country, local and state governments are awarding multimillion-dollar bids to conmen with few legal repercussions.

To be clear, this is money that could have gone to teachers, counselors, and administrators. This is money that could have been kept by the homeowners paying extortion-level property taxes. This is money that families could have applied to alternative schooling options. 

But instead, this kind of corruption continues to siphon away taxpayer money without anyone realizing it. Years ago, I wrote about the expenses that consume most of a school district’s budget, namely extracurriculars, special education, and disciplinary programs. What I should have added to this list was technology. 

For the past couple of decades, school districts have raided their rainy day funds, issued bonds, and gone broke paying for iPads and Chromebooks, educational software, and specially trained personnel tasked with helping faculty use these products. And aside from a few district bureaucrats safely hidden in a nondescript office building that the district somehow owns, no one really knows how much any of this costs. Naturally, this lack of transparency makes it all too easy for embezzlement, laundering, and bribery.

Moreover, in my own experience of teaching high school English, most of these programs are usually worthless. I have no clue how much local districts are paying for so many research databases, note-taking apps, informational organizers, or AI tools, but I do know I never use them, nor do any of the teachers I’ve known.

Ironically, what’s worse than this useless software is the software we actually do have to use. Whether it involves recording grades, taking attendance, referring misbehavior, or compiling standardized assessment data for each student, these programs are, as a rule, terrible. They are poorly designed, convoluted, and frequently glitch and crash. Added to this are our online textbooks, which force users to click two dozen times through two dozen dropdown menus to open a particular text — and usually require a few periodic reboots afterward. 

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Anti-ICE Group Received Millions From Taxpayers In A Year — Here’s What We Got In Return

A pro-illegal immigrant group received more than $8.7 million from taxpayers in the year that it helped spark destructive protests, but despite outcry and probes from Washington, it faces no consequences.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) reported the government grants in its latest tax filing covering July 2024 through June 2025, the month that Los Angeles, California, was set ablaze by anti-deportation rioters. The chaos kicked off in June 2025 after CHIRLA created an anti-ICE network that led to a union leader’s arrest and encouraged supporters to arrive at a federal building for a rally that turned violent, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. CHIRLA defended the mob as rioting against deportations spread across central California for days and caused damages somewhere between $32 million and $1 billion, according to local and federal agencies.

House and Senate lawmakers responded by announcing investigations into CHIRLA that have produced no findings or legislative reforms as leftists use the tax-exempt nonprofit system to fund radical causes. The House Judiciary Committee and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri sent CHIRLA letters in June demanding records of its finances and internal communications.

There have been no reports of CHIRLA handing over the information, and lawmakers have announced no further action. The House Judiciary Committee did not threaten a subpoena if CHIRLA ignored its requests, while Hawley threatened “potential referral for criminal investigation.” The IRS and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli did not respond to the requests for comment about a probe they announced last year into the anti-ICE riots, while the FBI’s Los Angeles office declined to comment.

CHIRLA’s $8,726,683 from taxpayers in fiscal year 2024 made up 35% of its total revenue, according to its records. CHIRLA has received more than $80.6 million in government grants since former President Joe Biden took office and opened the U.S. border to historic illegal immigration, tax filings show.

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Biden Admin Used Code Word “Benghazi” to Hide Illegal Covid Loans to Planned Parenthood

Documents newly obtained by the Oversight Project from the Small Business Administration show the Biden-Harris administration labeled communications about Covid-era loans to Planned Parenthood under the code word “Benghazi” in order to thwart Freedom of Information Act requests, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Joni Ernst (R-IA) revealed today.

Planned Parenthood – America’s largest abortion business – collected approximately $90 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans meant to provide emergency relief for small businesses shut down, even though they were ineligible by law. In January 2026 under the leadership of Administrator Kelly Loeffler, the Small Business Administration opened a review of loans forgiven under Biden, requiring Planned Parenthood affiliates to provide documentation or be disqualified.

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report shows they ended the lives of more than 434,000 unborn babies in 2023-24, an increase of more than 32,000 from the previous year, while their taxpayer funding hit $832 million or nearly $2.3 million per day.

“Just when we think the Democrats’ extremism can’t get more shocking, we see the lengths they’ll go to in protecting the Big Abortion industry. They knew letting Planned Parenthood help itself to taxpayer-funded Covid loans was illegal – so they tried to cover their tracks using, of all things, the national horror of Benghazi,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “We thank Senator Joni Ernst, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and our allies in Congress for tirelessly pursuing truth, justice and restitution.

“As the clear Big Abortion industry leader, Planned Parenthood continues to break records for the number of unborn children’s lives taken in a single year, while real health care services like cancer screenings plummet. Women looking for help related to their pregnancy at Planned Parenthood are overwhelmingly sold an abortion instead of given prenatal care, miscarriage care, or help making an adoption plan. They have even been exposed by The New York Times for injuring women and providing horrifyingly substandard so-called ‘care’ while funneling tens of millions into political activism and endless lawfare.

“For the first time last year, under the exceptional leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Congress defunded Big Abortion businesses of over half a billion in Medicaid dollars in the Working Families Tax Cuts. But absent further action, that defunding measure expires this July 4. This is now a basic pro-life policy expectation and the GOP base overwhelmingly supports it. We urge Congress to stand strong and do everything in its power to pass a reconciliation bill that keeps Big Abortion defunded. Taxpayers should never be forced to fund the brutality of abortion.”

Three in four Republican primary voters support defunding Planned Parenthood, a Cygnal poll earlier this year found, and one-third would be less enthusiastic about voting in November and less willing to volunteer if GOP leaders abandon pro-life policies.

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FBI Raids 22 Minnesota Child Care Centers and Businesses, Including the Infamous ‘Quality Learing Center,’ as Part of Fraud Investigation Linked to the Somali Community

The FBI, along with federal, state, and local law enforcement, executed 22 search warrants across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area in Minnesota early Tuesday morning.

The targets included multiple childcare centers and other businesses, most reportedly tied to the Somali community, as part of the ongoing investigation into social services fraud that has allegedly cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the operation in a statement to NBC News.

“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” the spokesperson said.

The raids were not related to immigration enforcement, officials stressed repeatedly.

Instead, they focused on alleged fraud in programs such as childcare assistance, Medicaid-funded services including autism support, and pandemic-era initiatives.

One high-profile location hit was the “Quality Learing Center” in Minneapolis, a day care that gained national attention after a viral video by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley showed no children present despite receiving millions in public funds.

The center was later reported to be closed.

Minnesota has been the center of repeated, large-scale fraud schemes involving federally funded social services.

The Feeding Our Future case alone involved over $250 million in fraudulent claims for meals that were never served.

The Department of Justice charged 47 defendants in that scheme in 2022, with dozens pleading guilty and additional convictions continuing to be secured.

Separate investigations have targeted fake autism services that allegedly defrauded taxpayers of $14 million, with multiple defendants indicted since September and at least one guilty plea.

The Trump administration has estimated total fraud losses in Minnesota social services programs at up to $19 billion.

The raids come just months after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead a dedicated task force to root out waste in federal programs.

Vance commented on the raids in a post on X.

“The task force and the DOJ will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding,” Vance wrote.

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Fury as NYC on course to join Detroit, Chicago and Puerto Rico with woke mayor Mamdani’s latest reckless plan

Fury is mounting as New York City drifts closer toward the same fiscal traps that have crippled Detroit, Chicago and even Puerto Rico.

It comes after Mayor Zohran Mamdani began exploring a controversial plan to delay billions in pension payments as City Hall scrambles to plug a growing budget hole.

The proposal – now under discussion with state officials – would allow the city to push back retirement contributions into its vast municipal pension system, freeing up at least $1 billion in the next fiscal year.

But critics warn the move amounts to little more than kicking the can down the road. It would swap short-term relief for a far bigger bill later, and risk problems that have pushed big cities to crisis in the past.

The city currently faces a $7.1 billion budget gap. As Mamdani resists significant spending cuts, he is considering delaying required payments to city pension funds as a temporary fix. 

For now, the city remains on track to meet its long-term pension funding obligations by its 2032 deadline. 

Mamdani’s team said in a statement to the New York Times that it has not started ironing out the details of the proposal and that any changes would likely push the deadline beyond 2032.

Any delay to the pension plan would require the approval of New York Governor Kathy Hochul. 

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America: Land of the (Not Really) Free

Last week, President Donald Trump commemorated income tax payments being due by having DoorDash deliver food from McDonald’s to the White House. The delivery was intended to highlight the first year of tax-free tips. Removing tax on tips was part of the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill (BBB).

As the sponsor of the first No Tax on Tips legislation introduced in Congress, I was obviously pleased to see this change in tax laws included in the BBB. The bill also included other good tax changes such as removing tax on overtime and extending the 2017 tax cuts. Unfortunately, the bill also increased federal spending and debt.

Supporters of the income tax implicitly endorse the idea that our rights are gifts from government and, thus, can be revoked by government at the will of our rulers. Adoption of the income tax signified the abandonment of the belief that individuals have inalienable rights granted them by the Creator.

Therefore, those who believe in natural rights must reject income taxation. It is also a violation of the people’s rights when the central bank reduces the value of the dollar, and thus the people’s purchasing power, via the hidden inflation tax.

The income tax system’s rejection of natural rights is exemplified by withholding that gives government first claim on an individual’s earnings. The government then may return, via what it calls a refund, some of what was taken. However, a normal refund is when a business returns a customer’s payment because the customer is dissatisfied with the good or service he received, not when a thief returns some of what the thief stole.

Withholding was implemented during World War Two as a “temporary” wartime measure. Yet, it is still with us decades later.

Milton Friedman, as a young economist, played a role in the US government’s development of withholding. Of course, Friedman went on to become a leading advocate for free markets. He also redeemed himself for his work on withholding by becoming a prominent advocate for ending the military draft.

The draft is the worst example of how the government has rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The draft gives government power to force young men (and possibly young women) to join the military and kill or be killed in a war. Contrary to the beliefs of some progressives, support for the draft is not justified by allowing individuals to choose between serving in the military or performing some other form of mandated “service.”

While the US does not have a military draft, the infrastructure for the draft remains in place via Selective Service registration. A provision in this year ‘s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows Selective Service to automatically register all men between the ages of 18 and 25. This makes it easier than ever for government to reinstate a draft.

Income taxes, along with the military draft and other types of mandated “service,” are incompatible with a free society and should be opposed by all who value liberty and peace. As Ronald Reagan said in a statement that could be modified to apply to income taxes, the draft “rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state…. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”

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Louisiana Democrat Mayor Indicted on Medicaid Fraud Charges

A Louisiana Democrat Mayor was indicted on Medicaid fraud charges.

Winnsboro Mayor Alice Wallace was indicted for Medicaid fraud in a $75,00 benefits scheme.

Wallace said she will be “vindicated” in a lengthy social media post.

“The devil is trying to embarrass and discredit leadership to possess power again through those who know nothing,,that way they can run it!!” Wallace wrote in a Facebook post.

The Shreveport Times reported:

Winnsboro Mayor Alice Wallace said that she will be “vindicated” of Medicaid fraud charges in a Facebook post following her arrest April 21 by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill with the town’s mayor’s election three weeks away.

Wallace is charged with six counts of government benefits fraud in what Murrill described as a Medicaid fraud scheme in which the mayor is accused of illegally securing $75,000 in benefits from 2021 through 2026.

Wallace declined to comment when reached by USA Today Network by phone April 22, but an April 21 post on her Facebook page said, “They just energized Team Wallace…”

“It’s election time; what else you got! I’m still standing!!” the post said.

Per the Louisiana Attorney General’s office:

LBI found that Wallace fraudulently received Medicaid benefits for herself and a dependent between 2021 and 2026. Wallace did not report to LDH a change in household income, failed to disclose her marital status, and intentionally misrepresented the availability of health insurance provided through her employers.

Agents found that Wallace failed to notify LDH that she was employed from 2021 through 2022, where she received a salary and was offered health coverage insurance. From 2022 through 2026, Wallace was employed by the Town of Winnsboro, Louisiana, as the elected Mayor, and did not report to LDH that employment, income, or availability of medical health coverage as required.

LBI’s investigation revealed that Wallace and her dependent continuously utilized Medicaid program benefits from 2021 through 2026, while she received a salary that would have made her ineligible to receive benefits from the State of Louisiana and the LDH programs. The LDH Medicaid Fraud Division found that Wallace fraudulently received benefits for a combined loss of claims of approximately $75,000.00.

LBI obtained an arrest warrant for Alice Wallace through the 19th Judicial District Court of Louisiana, in that she intentionally committed:

6 Counts – LA.R.S. 14:70.9 – Government Benefits Fraud

Wallace was arrested for knowingly concealing and failing to disclose material facts affecting her and her dependents’ continued eligibility to receive benefits from the Louisiana Department of Health Medicaid program. Those six counts pertain to the years of 2021 through 2026, in which Wallace was known to be employed, received an income, failed to disclose that income as required, and continued to receive benefits.

“Our Louisiana Bureau of Investigation has arrested Winnsboro Mayor Alice Wallace for 6 counts of Medicaid fraud in a $75,000 benefits scheme,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.

“It doesn’t matter who you are—if you defraud the hardworking taxpayers of Louisiana, you’re going to jail,” she said.

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