Tag: taxes

Doug Ford’s $29-million taxpayer funded gravy plane

Doug Ford did not rise to power as a champagne-sipping man of luxury. He rose to power off the back of a family brand built on resentment of the political class — the insiders, the freeloaders, the entitled crowd riding what Rob Ford memorably called the gravy train.

That was the whole point. The Fords were supposed to be the ones who hated the perks, hated the waste, hated the fancy nonsense that politicians always seem to justify for themselves and deny to everyone else.

And that is why this latest move lands with such force.

Ontario has now confirmed the purchase of a pre-owned 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 for $28.9 million, a jet the government says is needed to provide the premier with more certain, flexible, secure and confidential travel.

And let’s be honest about what makes this so politically toxic: it is not merely the cost. It is the class signal.

No serious person denies that aircraft can be useful tools for executives or government leaders. A small working plane for getting around a massive province on a tight schedule is one thing. A luxury intercontinental jet is something else entirely.

The Ford government says this purchase is about travel. But a Challenger 650 does not look like fiscal restraint. It looks like a politician who has been in power too long, surrounded by too many people telling him he deserves the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

That is a far cry from the Doug Ford who once boasted, in 2019, that he refused to use the premier’s plane. As reported by CHCH News and highlighted again by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Ford used to present himself as the rare politician who did not need that kind of pampered treatment.

What changed?

Not the average Ontarian’s finances. Those have only gotten worse. Housing is brutal. Debt is crushing. The cost of living has done real social damage, especially to younger people trying to start families and build anything resembling a middle-class life.

And Ontario is hardly swimming in prosperity. The province’s industrial base has been weakening for years. The auto sector is under pressure. Manufacturing has been hollowed out over decades. Yet somehow, amid all that economic anxiety, the province has found room in the budget for a premier’s luxury aircraft.

That is why the issue cuts deeper than an aviation procurement story. This is about transformation. Doug Ford was elected as a blunt instrument against elite entitlement. But after years in office, he increasingly looks like another politician who has learned to love the comforts of power.

There is also the simple common-sense test. If the purpose were purely practical — quick regional travel, security, efficiency — a smaller working aircraft would be easier to defend. Ontarians can understand the case for a tool. What they are being asked to accept here is a status symbol.

And once governments buy status symbols, taxpayers are expected to suspend all instincts and trust that the thing will never be abused, never become normalized, never be folded into the culture of insiders, handlers, entourages and political vanity. That requires more faith than this government has earned.

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US to Create 4000-Acre High-Tech Economic Security Zone in the Philippines

The United States and the Philippines are set to build a 4,000-acre industrial hub after Manila became the latest government to sign up to a Washington-led initiative to secure semiconductor supply chains needed for artificial intelligence, the U.S. State Department announced on April 17.

The move makes the Philippines the 13th country to join “Pax Silica,” an international program that aims to secure the full technology supply chain, including critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, computing, and data infrastructure.

The initiative is a key aspect of President Donald Trump’s economic strategy aimed at reducing the United States’ dependence on rival nations and strengthening cooperation among allied partners, with the State Department describing it as “a positive-sum partnership of nations who want to remain competitive and prosperous.”

Other signatories to Pax Silica include Australia, Finland, India, Israel, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK.

The new hub will be erected in New Clark City, the Philippines’ planned metropolis north of Manila, which is owned and developed by the government through the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

New Clark City sits within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a strategic hub that includes Manila and neighboring regions to the capital.

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Florida officials warned to avoid reparations-style effort as state gears up to restrict DEI even further

Leon County, Florida, wants to address “historical harms” like many other local municipalities, cities and states, but was warned against it.

The Leon County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday in Tallahassee to revive a measure that would address historical harms by conducting a study of the past and providing some sort of compensation.

However, county leaders must also comply with the new incoming state law, SB 1134, banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across public institutions and local governments. The Florida House in March approved legislation to ban local governments from funding, promoting, or taking official actions related to DEI initiatives.

Commissioners changed the language of the county’s initiative to avoid any state or federal law violations by slashing all references to slavery, DEI and reparations.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Leon County government staff asked commissioners to avoid the measure as they risk losing $16.8 million in grant money and potentially being removed from the board.

“SB 1134, in part, prohibits the County from funding, promoting, or taking any official action related to DEI and creates a cause of action that may be brought by a resident against a county that violates the bill,” staff reportedly wrote in the agenda.

“The bill also provides that a member of a county commission acting in his or her official capacity who violates the prohibitions commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office and is subject to removal.”

Beyond Florida, reparations have been a growing trend by lawmakers at the local to state level. Similar to Leon County, local municipalities and states have adopted or are considering adopting task forces to study historical harms of slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining policies that led to housing discrimination. 

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Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy SLAPS New York with $73 MILLION Federal Funding Cut for REFUSING to Revoke Illegally Issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses to Illegals

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is withholding a staggering $73,502,543 in federal highway funds from the state of New York.

Because far-left New York Democrats under Governor Kathy Hochul have flat-out refused to revoke thousands of illegally issued nondomiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) handed out in violation of federal law.

Back in December 2025, The Gateway Pundit reported on the FMCSA audit that flagged New York as one of the worst offenders in the nation for rubber-stamping CDLs to non-domiciled drivers, many of them illegal aliens or migrants whose temporary work authorizations had lapsed.

“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership. Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy at the time. “This administration will never stop fighting to keep you and your family safe on our roads.”

On Thursday, the Trump administration stripped the state of New York of more than $73 million in federal highway funding after it failed to revoke thousands of improperly issued commercial learner’s permits and CDLs.

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Spanberger awards $5 MILLION to husband’s firm for Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities project

It has been revealed that Democrat Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed off on grants totaling $18 million to help a company where her husband works in expanding its operations in Orange County, $5 million of which will be awarded to the company directly. The grants will help build the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities in Orange County.

L3Harris, an aerospace technology company as well as a defense contractor, had announced an over $1 billion expansion for solid rocket motor production capacity at the company’s site in Orange County. The grants are part of the project expansion.

“Governor Spanberger approved two grants of $12.5 million and $500,000 from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Orange County with the projects. The Governor also approved a performance-based grant of $5 million from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies. Funding and services to support L3Harris’ employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program,” a press release from Spanberger’s office said.

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‘Happy Tax Day’: NYC Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani Posts Menacing Message to New Yorkers

No one loves April 15th more than Democrats as they dream and plan how to spend your money.

On tax day, radical communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a menacing message to New Yorkers, reminding them that he is coming for them.

The video starts out with Mamdani telling viewers, “When I ran for mayor, I said I was gonna tax the rich.”

Then, with a grin and an attempt at a bit of Hollywood flair (which translated into creepiness), he leaned menacingly into the camera, tapped the lens and declared, “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”

“I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.”

“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich, those who store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here.”

“But even so, they’re able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world. And most of the time, these units are sitting empty since, again, they don’t actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.”

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The ‘Minnesota Millionaire’ Exposed A ‘Fully Weaponized’ Welfare Loophole

They call him the “Minnesota Millionaire,” a wealthy retiree who helped expose how a loophole in the food stamp program is being abused and screwing taxpayers out of billions of dollars. 

“I like to say I audited the program. And what better way to audit the program than to be a part of it?” Rob Undersander told The Federalist in a phone interview this week. 

Over the past decade, the retired engineer has been a crusader against the federal Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE) policy, a welfare enhancer with roots in the Clinton administration that has incentivized wholesale theft from U.S. taxpayers ever since. Undersander has worked alongside the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) to end the BBCE loophole and prevent millionaires like himself from tapping into benefits they have no business receiving. 

In a new video exclusively provided to The Federalist, FGA breaks down the scam that more than 40 states have used to balloon the nation’s welfare rolls. The foundation calls it “fraud by design.”  

“In fact, millions of food stamp recipients exceed the federal asset or income limits,” the video explains. Roughly one in five of those Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients count assets of $100,000 or more, the FGA notes. 

Undersander began “auditing” the SNAP program in 2016 — by collecting SNAP benefits. 

‘Fully Weaponized the Loophole’

The retiree was volunteering at the Central Minnesota Council on Aging, helping seniors sign up for Medicare plans, when he learned about Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility. The loophole helps states bypass federal food stamp eligibility requirements, specifically income and asset thresholds. The latter limits take into account liquid assets, such as cash on hand or readily available money in bank accounts. Wealth in property, retirement accounts, life insurance, personal goods and other possessions don’t count toward the asset limits.

States get around the limits through the so-called “non-cash benefit” provision. 

“If someone is deemed eligible to receive other welfare benefits, they automatically qualify for food stamps,” FGA explains in the video. “And states have fully weaponized this loophole.” 

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Woke Boston mayor hands out $500 haircut and MASSAGE vouchers to migrants despite city’s budget plunging $50m in red

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is handing out $500 vouchers to migrants so they can enjoy haircuts, massages and other self-care benefits, despite the city’s budget plunging nearly $50 million short. 

Applicants who are ‘low-income, isolated queer and trans migrants, asylum seekers and refugees’ are prioritized for the ‘wellness allowance.’ 

The initiative, called ‘Belonging Matters’, was created by OUTnewcomers, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ migrants in Boston alongside the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, Mass Daily News reported. 

Applicants get $250 to $500 toward ‘non-clinical care’ completely funded by the city agency, which is run by the Democrat’s administration. 

They can participate in activities like meditation, yoga, peer support, creative healing, acupuncture and gym memberships, as detailed in the post. 

It comes as the city faces a $48.4 million deficit and teachers are faced with possible staffing cuts due to a $53 million shortfall for Boston Public Schools, according to statistics for this fiscal year. 

OUTnewcomers was founded by Sal Khan, a ‘queer activist’ and drag performer who is also the organization’s executive director, according to the group’s Facebook page. 

The 33-year-old, whose drag queen name is Miss Chilly Masala, also refers to himself as ‘angry brown queer,’ according to his Instagram. 

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Pro-Life Father Targeted By Biden’s FBI Wins $1M Settlement

During the Biden administration, pro-lifers were routinely targeted by the Department of Justice.

In 2022, under the leadership of then Attorney General Merrick Garland, father of seven and pro-life warrior Mark Houck was arrested in Pennsylvania as dozens of fully-armed FBI agents raided his home and terrified his family.

The arrest stemmed from an incident outside an abortion clinic in 2021.

A 72-year-old abortion escort allegedly insisted on harassing Houck’s 12 -year old son, who was accompanying him during sidewalk counseling in front of the clinic. After weeks of agitation, Houck ultimately shoved the abortion escort. No injuries were reported.

Although local prosecutors declined to pursue the case and a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by the escort, Federal authorities charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Houck was found not guilty.

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Today Would Be a Great Day to Expel Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

Happy Tuesday. 

While the rest of the country is already well into the workweek, Congress is just getting started. Must be nice. 

But as they drag their feet on a growing list of priorities that Americans demand, from the SAVE America Act to funding the Department of Homeland Security, there’s at least one thing they could get done quickly. Something simple that shouldn’t drag out any longer than it already has. 

Expelling Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. 

It’s been nearly six months since the Florida Democrat was charged with stealing $5 million in FEMA disaster relief funds, money prosecutors say she used to bankroll the very campaign that got her into Congress. That primary campaign was won by five votes, and in a seat where that’s effectively the election, it meant the seat and everything that comes with it. The salary, the staff, the offices, the travel, and the power that she’s been enjoying ever since. 

Republicans didn’t wait around when it was one of their own. They expelled George Santos with a razor-thin majority and gave up the seat. 

Now months have passed, and she is still there. 

And during that time, she’s been trying to cover it all up. 

Her official congressional portrait already showed her sporting a roughly $100,000 yellow diamond ring—one prosecutors say she bought with the very FEMA funds at the center of the case. By Christmas, I caught her posting the same image with the ring inconspicuously photoshopped out. 

Not suspicious at all. 

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