Tag: taxes

Ottawa spent $1.8 million on DEI in one year, including paying the Anti-Hate Network to train Environment Canada staff

Federal departments and agencies spent $1,812,162.60 on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) contracts in a single year. That’s according to the government’s response to an order paper question from Conservative MP Vincent Neil Ho.

Ho, the MP for Richmond Hill South, filed question Q-1252 on June 2, 2026. He asked every department to list its DEI contracts from June 1, 2025 to June 1, 2026, including the vendor, date, amount, service and how each contract was awarded. The government tabled its answer on Sept. 21.

Thirty-two institutions responded. Rebel News went through every table and added up the totals, then checked them against the itemized contracts. The final bill came to $1,812,162.60.

The Anti-Hate Network, on the taxpayer’s dime

On March 18, 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada paid the Canadian Anti-Hate Network $2,260 for a workshop titled “State of Hate – Understanding the Landscape.” It was sole-sourced, with no competition.

The group has been chaired by Bernie Farber. Ottawa’s own officials had already flagged concerns about it.

Public Safety Canada officials warned that the Canadian Anti-Hate Network “has been accused of creating products that were not free from bias.” Blacklock’s Reporter obtained that warning through an access to information request. But the Liberals went ahead and approved another $200,000 grant anyway, for research on the “far-right landscape in Canada.”

That brought the group’s federal funding to about $908,000 since 2020.

A 2025 Canadian Heritage memo also cited complaints about “anti-Catholic messages.” It noted that the allegations were “about spreading hate regarding religion and beliefs and further polarization.”

Heritage investigated and cleared the group, but it did the review in-house. It used no outside experts or independent reviewer, only public information and internal consultations.

The group’s federal grant expired on March 31, 2026, just 13 days after Environment Canada paid it to train staff.

Paying the CBC twice

On Dec. 16, 2025, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada paid CBC/Radio-Canada $350 to screen “The Elders,” a CBC Gem documentary. The screening was for its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s Indigenous Elders event. That contract was sole-sourced too.

Canadians already give the CBC more than a billion dollars a year. Ottawa then paid the CBC again so bureaucrats could watch something taxpayers had already funded.

Svend Robinson’s panel fee

The National Film Board paid former NDP MP Svend Robinson $250 on Aug. 28, 2025 to sit on a panel after a documentary screening. It paid Syrus Marcus Ware, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, the same amount for the same thing.

National Defence leads the pack

National Defence spent $628,091.43, more than a third of the total.

The single largest item was $451,202.31 to Calian Ltd. for an “Inclusion and Respect in Defence” training workshop. Calian got another $11,618.40 for a literature review on equity, diversity and inclusion.

National Defence also paid:

  • $22,600 to the Michaëlle Jean Foundation for a speaker at the Canadian Armed Forces apology for racial discrimination
  • $5,650 to Pride at Work Canada for a 2SLGBTQI+ e-learning portal
  • $10,500 for a membership in the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion

Pins, menopause and critical minerals

Other departments listed these as DEI spending:

  • The Canada Border Services Agency spent $11,793 on 10,500 pins with themes like “Positive Space,” gender equity, disability and anti-racism.
  • The Treasury Board Secretariat spent $8,475 on a Menopause Foundation education series.
  • Prairies Economic Development Canada included a $37,800 critical-minerals procurement study.
  • The CRTC included an audience-measurement database ($19,507.87) and a $28,250 sponsorship for Women in Communications and Technology.
  • The Immigration and Refugee Board paid Egale Canada $6,000 for a diversity workshop.

The real number is higher

But that $1.8 million is the floor, not the ceiling.

Several big departments gave no figure at all. They said the information isn’t tracked centrally. They include Global Affairs Canada, Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the RCMP, Correctional Service Canada, Parks Canada and Statistics Canada.

CSIS and the Communications Security Establishment refused to answer, citing security. The Canada Border Services Agency and Crown-Indigenous Relations reported only part of their spending.

So the government is spending your money on DEI, and many departments either don’t know how much or won’t say.

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AOC Pushes ‘Free’ College as Only Way to Rein in Runaway Cost of College Tuition

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed the idea of ‘free’ college during a recent event at Cornell University, saying that this is the only way to rein in the ridiculous cost of tuition these days.

It is worth mentioning that this event was called ‘Students vs. Billionaires Town Hall’ so even the name of the event sets up an adversarial relationship between students and wealthy people. The message is clear. Rich people are the bad guys.

It’s also important to point out that there is no such thing as ‘free’ college. Someone is going to pay for it, usually taxpayers.

Breitbart News reports:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested “tuition-free public colleges and universities” as part of an effort to “rein in” the increased costs at private institutions.

While speaking at a “Students vs. Billionaires Town Hall” event on Sunday, hosted by the More Perfect Union, Ocasio-Cortez was asked what her team and the Democratic Party are “doing to ensure that middle and low-income families can continue to afford a quality, higher education.” The question came as Cornell University “recently broke $100,000 a year for tuition.”

Ocasio-Cortez responded by expressing shock at the tuition number, stating that it was “far more than what many households make in a year in this country.”

The congresswoman explained that what a lot of colleges and universities “do with their funds is more of a real estate investment strategy, than an educational strategy.” Ocasio-Cortez continued to state that colleges and universities put a lot of the funds toward “new buildings, and facilities that are often marketed as luxury,” while the adjunct faculty is “barely paid a living wage” and the quality of education is going downhill.

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CHAMPAGNE SOCIALISM: Zohran Mamdani Now Pushing Free Opera Tickets for Some Reason

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani must have run out of things to offer to residents of the city for free, because now he is pushing free opera tickets.

Move over limousine liberals, it’s time to make way for champagne socialists.

It’s at times like this that you remember Mamdani grew up as a rich kid of privilege, just like many of today’s far left socialists.

FOX News reports:

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a plan last week to give away 70,000 free tickets to the Metropolitan Opera House, firing up critics on social media who argue there are more pressing issues facing New Yorkers.

“Opera for All,” a partnership between the city and the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, will allow New Yorkers who have never attended a performance to enter a monthly lottery for tickets to productions ranging from Macbeth to La Bohème, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.

A spokesperson for Mamdani’s office told Fox News Digital the city is not paying for the program. The Metropolitan Opera is donating tickets from its pool of unsold seats, representing about 10% of its seasonal capacity, while the city will help promote and distribute them.

In a video announcing the latest giveaway, Mamdani appeared alongside the cast of La Bohème, telling viewers that “every New Yorker should have the opportunity to see this no matter how much money is in their pocket.”

He also highlighted former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s “People’s Opera,” which was founded in 1943 to offer affordable tickets before filing for bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunching in 2016.

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USDA Says It Reviewed Biden’s Billions, but GAO Couldn’t Tell What Survived.

President Donald Trump asked federal agencies a fairly basic question when he returned to office: What exactly are taxpayers still paying for? For billions of dollars flowing from two of the Biden administration’s signature spending laws, the Department of Energy came back with an answer.

The Department of Agriculture came back with something closer to, “We reviewed it.”

Great! What survived?

Well, about that.

Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, “Unleashing American Energy” order directed agencies to pause certain disbursements under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act while they reviewed whether the spending aligned with his administration’s policies. 

It was a sweeping order, but the assignment itself wasn’t complicated: Review the money and determine what should continue.

The GAO recently examined how the USDA and Energy handled those reviews. Together, the two departments received about $164 billion in budget authority from the laws for programs covered by the GAO’s examination, so this wasn’t an exercise involving loose change found under Washington’s couch cushions.

Energy’s paperwork allows us to follow what happened. By the end of its review, Energy reported that 381 awards totaling about $19.6 billion would continue, while another 155 awards totaling approximately $9.1 billion were terminated.

Whatever you think about those decisions, there’s a scorecard.

The USDA is where things get interesting. The department received approximately $37 billion for the programs the GAO examined and obligated $32.2 billion during fiscal years 2022 through 2025. The USDA officials said their reviews were completed by June 30, 2025, and reported terminating 34 contracts worth approximately $67 million.

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Multimillionaire Democrat Rep. Susie Lee Collected $81K in Taxpayer-Funded D.C. Lodging Reimbursements

Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), whose estimated net worth reaches as high as $6.46 million based on her 2025 financial disclosure, received $81,615 in taxpayer-funded reimbursements for lodging in Washington, DC, dating back to 2023, according to House spending records.

An analysis of Lee’s 2025 personal financial disclosure provided to Breitbart News estimates her net worth at between $2,173,035 and $6,460,000. House Statements of Disbursements show that she received $81,615 in lodging reimbursements under budget object code 2107, covering expenses dating to January 2023, with payments reported through June 2026.

Among the largest individual reimbursements were $4,176 for October 2023, $3,354 for March 2023, and another $3,354 for May 2023. More recently, Lee received $2,744 for January 2025, $2,760 for June 2025, and $2,484 for April 2026, according to the records.

The House established a reimbursement program in late 2022 that allows lawmakers to recover qualifying lodging, meal, and incidental expenses incurred while conducting official business in Washington. The program was intended to help members offset the costs of maintaining residences in both Washington and their home districts, particularly those who could not afford accommodations in the capital. A June 2024 Pop Vox Foundation report noted that some lawmakers previously slept in their congressional offices because they could not afford accommodations in Washington.

Lee has previously faced scrutiny over her financial disclosures. In September 2021, Business Insider reported that she failed to properly disclose more than 200 stock transactions dating to early 2020, valued between approximately $267,000 and $3.3 million. Her office said the transactions had been executed by a third-party money manager without her input and that she worked with a financial adviser and the House Ethics Committee to submit the disclosures after becoming aware of them.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) subsequently filed an ethics complaint against Lee. In August 2022, Business Insider reported additional late disclosures involving eight transactions made by Lee and her husband during 2021, valued at up to $155,000. FACT filed another complaint the following month, arguing that lawmakers remain responsible for timely disclosures regardless of whether or not they personally execute their trades.

A September 2022 New York Times investigation also identified Lee among 97 members of Congress whose families had traded stocks in industries potentially affected by their committee assignments. The investigation identified six potential conflicts involving Lee’s transactions, including pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks, while she served on a committee examining drug pricing and surprise medical billing. Her spokesperson said a money manager executed the trades without her input.

Lee has also taken several international trips sponsored by Center Forward, a bipartisan dark-money group that has historically received funding from major corporations and the pharmaceutical industry group PhRMA, according to the Detroit News. Her latest travel disclosure shows that the organization spent $13,765.13 on her June 2026 trip to Amsterdam, including $11,660.13 for transportation and $1,780 for lodging. Lee stayed at the W Amsterdam, which costs $450 per night and is marketed by Marriott as a luxury spa hotel.

In June 2025, Center Forward spent $23,868 for Lee and her adult son to attend an International Issues Conference in London, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They stayed at the five-star InterContinental London Park Lane, where accommodations cost approximately $290 per night. The House Ethics Committee approved the trip.

The organization also paid $3,450 for Lee and her daughter to attend an ethics committee-approved conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2024. They stayed at The Ivens Hotel, where rooms cost approximately $300 per night. Altogether, the three disclosed trips accounted for more than $41,000 in Center Forward-sponsored travel expenses between 2024 and 2026, separate from the taxpayer-funded Washington lodging reimbursements.

House rules permit members to claim qualifying lodging expenses incurred while conducting official business in Washington. The reimbursement program was designed in part to help lawmakers who struggle to afford housing in both Washington and their home districts, although the information reviewed does not establish a personal-wealth restriction. Lee’s reported $81,615 in reimbursements does not, on its own, establish a violation of House rules.

Lee’s office did not respond to Breitbart News’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Lee, who is seeking reelection in Nevada’s Third Congressional District, drew criticism from Republican candidate Dr. Jeff Gunter in March, who claimed she “just wants to line her pockets,” said she had “aided and abetted Joe Biden in flooding our country with illegal aliens,” and called her “out of touch.” Despite touting her bipartisan record, Lee deleted a post about Trump’s planned Supreme Court visit in April in which she wrote, “I’ll pray they fuck him to his face.” She later said War Secretary Pete Hegseth made her want to “beat the shit out of him.” In July, Lee voted for legislation banning congressional purchases of individual stocks amid backlash of a trust tied to her that sold up to $1 million in casino shares in July 2025, approximately two weeks before the stock declined sharply. Her office said she was transferring holdings received in her divorce into diversified funds, “going above and beyond what’s required of her by law and ethics rules.”

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The Democrat Plan to Redistribute Wealth to the Wealthier

Two hypothetical college graduates who are married now have a combined annual income of $240,000; they each earn $120,000 per year.

Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college—and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000?

If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans.

When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for “forgiving student debt.”

“I propose to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000,” Biden said.

His plan, he said, would also “[i]mmediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person.”

After he was elected president, Biden did not get Congress to enact new legislation to implement this plan. Instead, he took unilateral executive action in an attempt to do so—and his administration claimed this action was justified under a law that had been enacted under former President George W. Bush.

In 2003, Bush signed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, aka the HEROES Act.

This act, said its official summary, “[a]uthorizes the Secretary of Education to waive or modify any requirement or regulation applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as deemed necessary with respect to an affected individual who: (1) is serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency; (2) is performing National Guard duty during a war, operation, or emergency; (3) resides or is employed in an area that is declared a disaster area by any Federal, State, or local official in connection with a national emergency; or (4) suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

As the nation headed into the 2022 midterm elections, Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan. “On August 24, 2022,” explained the Congressional Research Service, “the Biden Administration announced it would invoke the Higher Education Relief Opportunities Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) to carry out a ‘one-time student loan debt relief policy’ to ‘address the financial harms of the [COVID-19] pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers.’ Under the one-time student debt relief policy (HEROES Act policy), ED (Education Department) would have cancelled up to $10,000 in qualifying HEA Title IV federal student loan debt for borrowers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2020 or 2021 of less than $125,000 (for individuals or married borrowers who filed federal income taxes separately) or $250,000 (for married couples filing jointly and certain other individuals).”

So, under Biden’s plan, a law that had been designed to help individuals “serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency” or had “suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency” could be used to grant general federal student loan forgiveness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 26, 2022, the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., that estimated the cost of the Biden plan. “As of June 30, 2022, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans,” said this letter. “About $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, CBO estimates.”

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‘Every Taxpayer… Should Be Outraged’: Anger Spreads Over ‘Illegal’ US-Funded Pro-Trump Ad

Outrage mounted Friday over a taxpayer-funded television advertisement glorifying President Donald Trump, with critics describing the 30-second spot as self-aggrandizing propaganda and questioning whether the administration violated federal law restricting the use of public money for partisan communications.

The ad—which aired this week on outlets including Fox News, Newsmax, and CBS—features a dizzying montage of Trump at rallies, White House events, sporting events, and alongside military personnel, captioned, “AMERICA WILL NEVER BE A COMMUNIST COUNTRY.”

The refrain of R&B singer JMSN’s “Love Me” plays over the rapid-fire images. The spot concludes with a voiceover from Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White praising Trump as “the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

At the bottom of the screen, an alarming disclosure appears, reading, “Paid for by the US government.”

The White House dismissed criticism of the ad—which aired ahead of November’s midterm elections—by calling the spot a “public service announcement” intended to remind Americans “to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending.”

However, on Friday, US Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Jack Reed (D-RI), along with Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), excoriated the clip.

“This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and utterly illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” the four senior congressional appropriators said in a joint statement.

“The law is not complicated,” the lawmakers added. “You cannot use taxpayer dollars for political advertisements.”

Federal appropriations law—including the funding bill Trump signed earlier this year—prohibits the use of government funds for unauthorized “publicity or propaganda purposes,” while the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has interpreted the prohibition to encompass communications whose obvious purpose is “self-aggrandizement” or “puffery,” as well as “purely partisan” communications.

The consumer advocacy watchdog group Public Citizen on Friday filed a complaint with the GAO alleging the ad “violates laws prohibiting the use of government resources for propaganda, the Hatch Act, and other related laws.”

“Whether or not President Trump was personally involved in the ad, it was conceived, produced, and distributed by Trump’s White House staff,” Public Citizen said.

US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Friday on social media that “every taxpayer, no matter your party, should be outraged by this.”

“Your money is being used to fund campaign ads for Trump,” the senator added. “It’s totally, completely [illegal]. He’s stealing your money for his campaign.”

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Federal appeals court orders Trump admin to release Los Angeles homeless funds

federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to release federal funding that has already been allocated to homeless service organizations in Los Angeles but was not distributed. 

The court order was in response to the Trump administration’s attempt to oversee how homeless service organizations in Los Angeles can seek millions of dollars in federal funding, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angles Homeless Services Authority was seeking up to $239 million on behalf of dozens of organizations, but HUD suspended LAHSA in June, citing a record of mismanagement, and directed the groups to apply directly through the federal government.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday largely upheld a district court ruling in a 2-1 split, which restored LAHSA as the applicant for the organizations.

The court determined that HUD “chose to suspend LAHSA at a time when it would leave the Los Angeles region particularly vulnerable” with ill effects on “vulnerable populations, critical programs and ongoing services.” 

“It is likely that its plan is unworkable and, at this late stage, extremely difficult if not virtually impossible to implement,” the decision added.

The new deadline for LAHSA to apply for HUD funding is Oct. 14. The original deadline was the end of August.

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California Has Highest Personal Income Tax Rate, 8 States Have None…

Where you live can make a major difference in the state income tax rate applied to your earnings, with systems ranging from no individual income tax to top marginal rates above 10%.

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Gabriel Cohen, compares U.S. states based on their top marginal individual income tax rate in 2026 using Tax Foundation data. Both local and federal income tax rates are excluded.

Which States Have No Individual Income Tax?

Eight states levy no individual income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.

New Hampshire is a relatively recent addition to the list, having repealed its tax on interest and dividends in 2025.

The table below lists all U.S. states and Washington, D.C., alongside their top marginal income tax rate and tax system.

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IRS Probing $100 Billion In Potential COVID-19 Loan Fraud

Earlier this year, the Small Business Administration (SBA) referred more than $200 billion in suspected COVID loan fraud to the IRS.

The tax agency then compared the information that the borrowers submitted to the SBA when applying for the loans with the information they declared to the IRS.

Analysis identified discrepancies associated with approximately $100 billion in loans, the SBA said in a Sept. 23 statement.

The IRS will determine whether additional taxes and penalties apply, including penalties for committing fraud, according to the SBA.

The suspected fraud pertains to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) initiatives.

PPP was aimed at helping businesses keep their workforce during the pandemic, while EIDL provided loans and advances to help businesses recover from the economic impacts of the crisis.

In 2023, the SBA judged that 20 percent of the $1.2 trillion pandemic relief program could have been obtained by fraud.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said:

“The IRS’s identification of approximately $100 billion in suspected tax fraud sends a clear message: fraudsters who stole from SBA’s COVID-relief programs will … face accountability at the SBA.

“If they inflated payroll, fabricated employee counts, falsified business records, or otherwise lied to obtain taxpayer-funded loans, they will also face scrutiny from the IRS.“

The federal government is estimated to lose $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud, the Government Accountability Office said in an April 2024 report.

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