Tag: taxes

Patients go without needed treatment after the government shutdown disrupts a telehealth program

Bill Swick has a rare degenerative brain disease that inhibits his mobility and speech. Instead of the hassle of traveling an hour to a clinic in downtown Chicago to visit a speech therapist, he has benefited from virtual appointments from the comfort of his home.

But Swick, 53, hasn’t had access to those appointments for the last month.

The federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week, halted funding for the Medicare telehealth program that pays his provider for her services. So, Swick and his wife are practicing old strategies rather than learning new skills to manage his growing difficulties with processing language, connecting words and pacing himself while speaking.

“It’s frustrating because we want to continue with his journey, with his progress,” 45-year-old Martha Swick, a caregiver for her husband since his diagnosis three years ago, said during an interview at their home in Minooka, Illinois. “I try to have all his therapy and everything organized for him, to make his day easier and smoother, and then everything has a hitch, and we have to stop and wait.”

Their experience has become common in recent weeks among the millions of patients with Medicare fee-for-service plans who count on pandemic-era telehealth waivers to attend medical appointments from home.

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Federal Judge Weighs Forcing USDA to Pay SNAP Benefits Despite Shutdown

A federal judge considered ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to tap into a $5 billion contingency fund to avoid a lapse in the national food stamp program on Oct. 30.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, during a hearing in Boston, said the government should find a way to continue giving limited benefits to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), rather than cutting it off completely.

“The steps involve finding an equitable way of reducing benefits,” she said.

Talwani is expected to issue a ruling by the end of Oct. 30.

Approximately 1 in 8 Americans benefit from SNAP, and at a cost of around $100 billion per year, it is one of the country’s most amply funded social service initiatives.

On Oct. 10, the USDA informed states that it would not disburse benefits for November because of the government shutdown.

The program is set to run out of funding on Nov. 1 if the shutdown continues. Senate Democrats have declined to support a House-passed bill to fund the government, and earlier this week, Republicans did not support a bill that provided standalone funding for SNAP.

As Republicans and Democrats continue to face off on the issue of reopening the government, 25 states sued on Oct. 27, insisting that the USDA could harness the $5 billion emergency fund to keep the program going.

However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said this was illegal on Oct. 27, noting that those funds were meant to pay for school meals and infant formula.

A memo from the USDA echoed Johnson’s statement, noting that the emergency fund—along with $23 billion in tariff revenue—is being used to cover school breakfast and lunch programs, along with the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which provides infant formula and healthy foods to babies and their mothers.

That memo also notes that state governments cannot be reimbursed if they choose to cover SNAP benefits, a program that costs about $8 billion per month. Some states, such as Virginia, are planning to launch their own stop-gap programs to ensure food security.

The plaintiff states argue that, in addition to harming the tens of millions of Americans who rely on SNAP, the program’s suspension will harm the businesses where they shop.

Attorneys for the government argue that the program cannot be funded during the shutdown, since this is a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which dictates how the government operates during a funding lapse and “forbids the United States from making such an obligation without an appropriation.”

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Democratic Congresswoman’s Dishonesty Exposed When Interviewer Calls Her Out on ‘Poison Pill’ Claim

Democrats’ responsibility for the ongoing federal government shutdown has forced them to perform some hilarious mental gymnastics.

For instance, Thursday on C-SPAN, Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum of Oregon first refused to answer interviewer Greta Brawner’s question and then, when properly pressed on her non-answer, accused Brawner of pinning blame for the shutdown on Democrats, who, in point of fact, have repeatedly refused to vote to end it.

Indeed, throughout the interview Bynum took an absurdly evasive approach to the interviewer’s direct questions.

To begin, Brawner noted that funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will expire on Saturday.

“Should Democrats pass a stand-alone bill to fund SNAP benefits?” the interviewer asked.

Bynum replied with tedious pablum about how Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. She also added platitudes about making sure children do not go hungry.

“Is that a ‘yes,’ then, that there should be a vote on the stand-alone legislation?” Brawner asked.

“I’m here; my Republican colleagues are on vacation. We want to make sure that we stand up for American people,” Bynum responded before blaming House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In other words, the interviewer saw from the beginning that the Democrat congresswoman would not give a straight answer.

Moments later, Brawner tried another question. This time, Bynum grew flustered.

“[Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee] made the argument that Democrats in previous situations avoided government shutdowns by voting thirteen times for so-called ‘clean’ continuing resolutions that would fund the government at the previous year’s funding levels,” Brawner said. “Why not agree now?”

Bynum responded by posing as someone who operates above politics, demanding a clean bill.

“They did have a clean CR vote on Sept. 19 in the House,” Brawner said. “Did you vote for it?”

“I disagree with your characterization,” Bynum replied, “and want to make sure that we’re very clear about what Republicans have been doing. Any bill that they put forth, they’ve always had some extra stuff to it. There’s always been a poison pill to it. So I disagree with your characterization.”

“What were the poison pills of the clean CR, or the continuing resolution — you say it’s not clean — that was voted on in the House in mid-September?” Brawner asked.

Incredibly, Bynum then accused the interviewer of having an agenda.

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Perth men charged over seizure of more than five tonnes of illicit cigarettes, vapes and loose tobacco

Two Perth brothers have faced court charged over the alleged distribution of illicit tobacco products in WA after the seizure of more than four million cigarettes, about 50,000 vapes and almost 900 kilograms of loose-leaf tobacco.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged Nedlands man Hossein Al Mansouri, 32, and Dianella man Mousa Al Mansouri, 33, as part of an investigation into a national organised crime syndicate allegedly selling illicit tobacco and vaping products in WA, then sending the profits back to the eastern states.

Police allege illegally distributing the seized products would have avoided about $8 million in Commonwealth excise and taxes.

The AFP and WA Police, along with Australian Border Force, say they executed multiple search warrants in Perth in August.

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America’s $30 Trillion Publicly Held Debt Is 42 Times Larger Than It Was in 1980

In 1980, America’s publicly held debt reached more than $712 billion (about $2.8 trillion in 2025 dollars), or roughly 25 percent of annual U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Today, that figure is a little over $30 trillion, or around 100 percent of GDP. And as the federal debt grew 42 times larger over that span, the economy grew only tenfold. You can’t expand the numerator four times faster than the denominator for 45 years without courting economic danger.

That’s where we find ourselves. The U.S. is at peace, and despite President Donald Trump’s claims, there’s no national emergency. And yet we’ve only seen debt as a higher share of GDP during the years of 1945, 1946, 2020, and 2021. Then, Republicans and Democrats knew to scale back. Now, debt explodes during emergencies and continues to grow in peacetime.

In 1946, after World War II, debt-to-GDP was 106 percent. It declined to just 25 percent by 1980, not only because of inflation and economic growth but because of real fiscal discipline. With budgets nearly balanced, the fruits of a booming private sector could actually reduce the burden. Beginning in the Reagan era, discipline gave way to a new normal of chronic budget deficits.

Three forces made the shift possible.

First, and the main cause of the mess we are in, is that the entitlement state became enormous yet untouchable. The Social Security reforms of 1983 are a rare example of bipartisan structural reform of a major entitlement program in U.S. history. Since then, despite economic and societal changes, the program has never been reformed. Never mind that it faces insolvency and the potential for automatic benefit cuts of more than 20 percent in 2033. The same is true of our other major debt driver: Medicare. And Medicaid is growing far beyond its original intent.

Democrats, occasionally helped by Republicans, have worked to expand welfare programs meant for lower-income people to those in higher and higher income brackets. The most recent and extreme example is the COVID-19–era expansion of the Obamacare tax credit to wealthier taxpayers, a significant share of whom enjoy early retirement. The fight over its continuation is what the government shutdown is about.

Second, Republicans discovered that promising tax cuts without offsetting spending cuts was politically painless so long as one claims that they “pay for themselves.” There is one rare and recent exception: this year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which included $1.5 trillion in spending reductions over 10 years to offset some of the tax cuts. It’s not enough, but it’s something. Meanwhile, the Democrats love to claim that debt wouldn’t be a problem if the rich paid their “fair share.” They already do pay an enormous amount in taxes. But the numbers still don’t add up.

Finally, the Federal Reserve, starting under then-Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1987, learned how to anesthetize the political pain of budget deficits by keeping interest rates artificially low and monetizing debt. Politicians concluded that they could borrow endlessly without suffering political consequences. The problem is that this only works insofar as investors don’t worry that they will be paid back with inflated dollars.

That illusion has vanished. Interest costs have surged from $372 billion annually just a few years ago to nearly $1 trillion today, surpassing what we spend on defense or Medicaid. Within a decade, yearly interest payments are projected to nearly double, reaching $1.8 trillion. Even without new programs, the built-in deficit would keep rising and outpace economic growth. And Washington keeps adding more deficit spending.

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The Left’s Secret Repeal of No Taxes on Tips

What began as a campaign promise in Nevada became law this summer with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: “No taxes on tips” is now nationwide. But even as pundits debate its merits, progressive cities are quietly undoing the tax cut—and few are noticing.

Progressive cities such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago have recently eliminated the tipped-wage credit, which lets employers pay tipped employees below minimum wage as long as tips filled the gap. Now, New York City is the next battleground in a push to mandate a one-size-fits-all minimum wage.

The campaign against the tipped-wage credit began before then-candidate Donald Trump floated “no taxes on tips,” but few have considered how these ideas play out together. To see the consequences, look at what happened when D.C. scrapped the tipped-wage credit.

After D.C. repealed the credit—causing such a backlash that the city council has already voted to partially reverse the decision—servers reported tips falling from roughly 23 percent to 25 percent to 18 percent to 20 percent. Research from the Census Bureau shows that for every $1 increase in the mandated minimum wage for tipped workers, tips drop by about the same amount. 

Prior to the repeal, the minimum wage for D.C. servers was $5.35 an hour; the rate was scheduled to increase to $16.10 by 2027—a $10.75 jump. The back-of-the-envelope math shows the potential tax implications.

On an average night, a D.C. server at a quality establishment might turn over four to five tables during the two-hour dinner rush, and the total gross sales from those tables may be modestly estimated at $500. If that server was tipped at 23 percent prior to D.C.’s elimination of the tipped-wage credit, they would have made $115 in tips, vs. an estimated $95 after the repeal—a $20 expected decline in tips. But that is before the “no taxes on tips” landscape.

At first glance, higher base pay seems to offset smaller tips ($16.10 per hour over that two-hour period versus $5.35 per hour would work out to $21.50 total in extra wages). But those new wages are taxable. For a server in the 12 percent tax bracket—typical for D.C.—a $21.50 raise nets only about $19 after taxes, less than the $20 in tax-free tips they lost. The gap widens the more tips a worker earns. 

If every extra dollar in required wages replaces a dollar in lost tips, as Census Bureau data suggest, then repealing the tipped-wage credit effectively swaps tax-free income for taxable income. The same could soon hit gig workers and hotel staff.

Eliminating the tipped-wage credit now shifts earnings from tax-free to taxed—a de facto tax increase on these workers that could also lead to lower take-home pay in many scenarios.

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Who gets food stamps? Viral chart misleads about SNAP recipients’ race, ethnicity

With millions of people at risk of losing access to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1, a viral chart claimed to show the majority of the nation’s food stamp recipients are non-white and noncitizens.

The chart, titled “Food Stamps by Ethnicity,” listed 36 groups of people and said it showed the “percentage of U.S. households receiving SNAP benefits.” 

The groups were labeled by nationality such as “Afghan,” “Somali,” “Iraqi,”  along with the racial groups “white,” “Black” and “native.” The chart appeared to show that Afghan people were the largest group receiving SNAP benefits, at 45.6%, followed by Somali (42.4%) and Iraqi (34.8%). White people, represented on the chart with the American flag, were third to last at 8.6%.

The federal government shutdown, which started Oct. 1, is the cause of the looming SNAP funding lapse. SNAP provides food purchasing benefits to low-income households. Conservatives have peddled the misleading narrative that Democrats are pushing for healthcare for illegal immigrants, and people commenting on the chart rehashed a similar talking point.

“Who is getting their EBT cut,” read the caption of an Oct. 25 X post sharing the chart, which had 3.1 million views as of Oct. 27. EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, which is a SNAP payment system.

“Only 18.7% of EBT or food stamp recipients are American. Let that sink in…” read another post sharing the chart, seemingly mistakenly referring to the figure next to the word “Armenian”; there was no “American” category in the chart. “We are subsidizing foreigners on the taxpayers dime.”

The chart doesn’t show the full picture of SNAP recipients by race or ethnicity. The most reliable source for the breakdown of SNAP recipients by demographics comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program. 

According to the most recent USDA data available, from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4%. African Americans are next, making up 25.7% of recipients, then Hispanic people at 15.6%, Asian people at 3.9%, Native Americans at 1.3% and multiracial people at 1%. The race of 17% of participants is unknown.

The same report found that 89.4% of SNAP recipients were U.S born citizens, meaning less than 11% of SNAP participants were foreign-born. Of the latter figure, 6.2% were naturalized citizens, 1.1% were refugees and 3.3% were other noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens.

While large shares of the groups listed in the chart may receive food stamps, “they are certainly a tiny share of the households and spending on SNAP,” said Tracy Roof, University of Richmond associate professor of political science.

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Study Reveals Taxpayer Funds Meant to End Homelessness Are Being Used to Fund the Radical Left’s Agenda

A new study has exposed waste and abuse in the industry that is meant to ‘end’ homelessness. It revealed that taxpayer dollars that have been earmarked for this problem have been funneled to radical left wing causes for political reasons.

It actually makes perfect sense. There are lots of people who make a ton of money fighting homelessness. Why would they want the problem to be solved? That would mean an end to their industry.

This is a reminder that progressives do not actually care about the homeless. They see them as a means to an end. A way to fund their preferred political causes.

FOX News reports:

A new study just exposed the corruption behind America’s homelessness crisis

A groundbreaking investigation, “Infiltrated” – backed by more than 50 pages of documentation from the Capital Research Center in cooperation with Discovery Institute – pulls back the curtain on a vast system of corruption. It reveals how billions in taxpayer funds intended to lift people out of homelessness have instead bankrolled radical activism and anti-American political agendas, betraying both the taxpayers who fund it and the homeless they were meant to help…

It exposes how radical networks have quietly embedded themselves within leading homelessness nonprofits, sharing infrastructure, donors and ideology.

What began as a movement rooted in compassion has metastasized into what can only be described as a Homelessness Industrial Complex – a sprawling web of nonprofits, bureaucrats and activists feeding off the very crisis they claim to solve.

They’ve built an empire of corruption draped in “evidence-based” slogans that shield politics, protect paychecks and betray the vulnerable.

The report lays it bare: these networks posture as defenders of America’s homeless, yet in truth, they have become their greatest exploiters, dependent on failure to sustain power.

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Senate Republicans Reject Bill to Fund SNAP Benefits During Shutdown

Senate Republicans on Tuesday voted down a Democratic bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through the government shutdown.

As tens of millions of Americans stare down the prospect of going hungry beginning Nov. 1, Senate Republicans rejected a unanimous consent bid by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) to keep the program funded.

SNAP allows those with low to no income to buy food and beverages at grocery stores.

While this benefit is mandatory—unlike Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—it is funded through appropriations.

SNAP benefits were scheduled to be handed out on Nov. 1, but without government funding, that assistance will not be administered.

An earlier, now-deleted Sept. 30 post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities titled “Lapse of Funding Plan,” said that SNAP benefits would continue flowing during the shutdown. The agency is now contradicting that earlier memo.

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