Tag: taxes

Trump’s Argentina bailout pits two competing MAGA factions against one another

President Donald Trump’s attempt to give Argentina’s fledgling economy financial assistance is creating a headache for him back in the U.S. as part of his base — farmers — are upset about the possibility of bailing out a country that is competing for a major crop — soybean exports to China.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised a possible $20 billion aid package to Argentina’s leader Javier Milei. They argue the plan is needed to stabilize a major Trump and U.S. ally ahead of October elections that are important for Milei to retain power. At the same time, some of Milei’s policies are helping U.S. investors and negatively impacting American soybean producers.

Investors and hedge funds have bought into Milei’s stewardship of the bedraggled country. Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price Group and Pimco all own bonds in Argentina, according to Bloomberg. In September, traders began selling off investments there after Milei lost some crucial local elections over corruption scandals.

News of U.S. help boosted some of the assets, but Argentina’s currency is still performing poorly among the stable of international currencies.

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24% Michigan marijuana tax, a key piece of the legislative budget deal, has passed

After much hand wringing and consternation from lawmakers who feared detrimental effects to Michigan’s cannabis industry, the Michigan Senate voted early Friday morning by a thin margin to pass a 24% wholesale tax on marijuana products sold in the state.

The measure is estimated to raise $420 million in new revenue to fund road repairs and construction in the new fiscal year, a key component of the budget deal reached by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids).

If the vote had failed, the entire deal would more than likely fall apart, sending the respective chambers and the governor’s office back to the negotiating table. Such a development would have also sent the state into a full government shutdown. House leadership said Thursday that it would not entertain another continuation budget after the one passed Wednesday expired after Oct. 8.

Although many members of the cannabis industry rallied at the Capitol and lobbied lawmakers against passing the legislation, the implications of the entire deal falling through weighed heavily on the Legislature’s mind.

The House and Senate on late Thursday and early Friday morning passed their respective conference budgets to fund the whole of government, K-12 schools and higher education, but all of that hinged on passage of the marijuana tax.

The bill passed by a slim 19-17 vote, which had nearly as much bipartisan dissent as it did support.

Brinks and the following senators voted in favor of the bill: Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), Rosemary Bayer (D-West Bloomfield), Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Township), Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), John Cherry (D-Flint), Kevin Daley (R-Lum), Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), Veronica Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway), Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan), Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo), Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township), Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), Sam Singh (D-East Lansing), Roger Victory (R-Georgetown Township) and Paul Wojno (D-Warren).

Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) voted no against the bill. He was one of the legislation’s strongest opponents. 

Irwin was joined by Sens. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), Joseph Bellino (R-Monroe), Jon Bumstead (R-North Muskegon), John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs), Roger Hauck (R-Mount Pleasant), Kevin Hertel (D-Saint Clair Shores), Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton), Mark Huizenga (R-Walker), Ruth Johnson (R-Groveland Township), Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater), Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township), Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), Sue Shink (D-Northfield Township), Lana Theis (R-Brighton) and Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills).

A large portion of the day was spent debating the measure in caucus meetings and whipping votes to ensure the tax did not go up in smoke.

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White House Releases New Memo Exposing Democrats’ Demand for Nearly $200 BILLION in Taxpayer-Funded Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants — All While Gutting Reforms That Protect American Citizens

A newly released White House memorandum just blew the lid off Democrats’ latest betrayal of the American people.

Buried inside their continuing resolution (CR) is a demand to repeal President Trump’s historic America First healthcare reforms, the very safeguards that protect U.S. citizens from footing the bill for illegal aliens’ medical care.

According to the memo, if Democrats succeed, taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly $200 BILLION in healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants and non-citizens over the next decade, almost enough to fund the entire Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the same period.

The Working Families Tax Cut Act (WFTCA), signed into law by President Trump, was designed to end taxpayer subsidies for illegal immigrant healthcare and redirect resources to the most vulnerable Americans. It:

  • Ended Medicaid & Medicare funding for most non-citizens.
  • Shut down the California loophole that allowed liberal states to siphon federal dollars for illegal alien healthcare.
  • Blocked emergency Medicaid expansions that reimbursed hospitals more for treating illegals than for caring for American children and seniors.
  • Repealed the Obamacare “special rule” that gave subsidies to immigrants earning below the poverty line while denying them to poor American citizens

According to the memo, the Democrat proposal would:

  • Spend $193 billion over 10 years on healthcare for illegal immigrants.
  • Repeal safeguards against fraud, improper payments, and abuse of federal programs.
  • Cancel Trump’s $50 billion rural healthcare investment.
  • Eliminate expanded Health Savings Accounts for 10 million Americans.
  • Gut work requirements for able-bodied adults, reviving failed welfare policies

The memo breaks down just how much repealing Trump’s reforms would cost taxpayers:

  • $91.4B – Restoring Obamacare funding for non-citizens
  • $34.6B – Reopening California’s Medicaid scam
  • $28.2B – Emergency care reimbursements for illegals
  • $27.3B – Obamacare “special rule” subsidies for non-citizens
  • $6.2B – Medicaid for non-citizens
  • $5.1B – Medicare for non-citizens
  • TOTAL: $192.8 BILLION

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New Bill Would Extend US Military Benefits to Americans Serving in the IDF

n May 17, legislation was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Cosponsored by Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and U.S. Representative Max Miller (R-OH), H.R. 8445 went largely under the radar, a strange outcome given the real effect it will have on furthering U.S. support for the Zionist project — in this case through direct support for those wishing to serve in the Israeli Occupational Military.

What H.R. 8445 aims to do is make a series of amendments to programs that are ordinarily only available to members of the U.S. military — the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). These amendments would do something unprecedented: Extend these programs to American citizens serving in the Israel Occupational Forces.

The SCRA, the result of the Bush administration’s efforts to update the 1940 Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act (SSCRA), was passed in 2003. Its primary focus is granting active duty U.S. servicemembers legal and financial protections so that they can do the bidding of U.S. empire a little more worry-free. This act’s benefits include protections against default judgments in civil legal cases, reduced interest rates on any pre-service loans to a maximum of 6 percent, protections against home foreclosure, and more.

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FAFO: Karoline Leavitt says President Trump is Planning to Cut Federal Funding to Portland Amid Violence From “Leftwing Domestic Terrorists” – “We Will Not Fund States That Allow Anarchy”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday addressed the incident in Portland, Oregon, where Republican journalist Nick Sortor was swarmed and attacked by Antifa thugs, then arrested by Portland police. 

The Gateway Pundit reported on the incident, which is now under investigation by the Department of Justice.

“Portland: it’s FO [Find Out] time. Buckle up,” Assistant Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who will lead the investigation, said in an X post.

Leavitt announced to reporters on Friday that not only has the Portland Police Department come into the DOJ’s crosshairs, but President Trump is now taking steps to cut federal aid to the city, citing the lawlessness in the streets.

“Since June alone,” she said, “radical left-wing lunatics have violently breached the ICE facility by using a stop sign as a battering ram, hurled explosives and other projectiles at law enforcement, repeatedly assault and dox officers, berate their law-abiding neighbors, and have even rolled out a guillotine in front of the ICE facility.”

In addition to cutting funding, “there will also be an additional surge of federal resources to Portland immediately, including enhanced CBP and ICE resources. Law and order will prevail, and President Trump will make sure of it,” Leavitt said.

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Illegal Immigrants and Federal Health Benefits: What to Know

Republicans and Democrats offer competing claims about whether people who entered the country unlawfully are benefiting from Medicaid.

“The law prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA. There’s no money, not a penny of federal dollars that are going there,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sept. 30.

Yet Republicans say millions of people who entered the country illegally do receive federal health benefits.

“By some estimates, 20 million illegal aliens came [here] from every country, all around the world,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Oct. 2, referring to the years of the Biden administration.

“[Democrats] gave them all this parole status so that they could get enrolled onto taxpayer benefits.”

The war of words has erupted during a government shutdown because of Democrats’ demand that all health-related portions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) be repealed as part of a continuing funding resolution.

The dispute is over competing visions for the scope of government-funded health. Democrats favor a more expansive list of noncitizens who can apply for federal benefits. Republicans, through the OBBB, have shortened the list considerably.

Here’s a look at which immigrants can now apply for Medicaid, and how that’s set to change in 2026.

Qualified Aliens

Under current federal law, “qualified aliens” can apply for federal benefits. This category includes people lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

Generally, there is a five-year waiting period before eligibility begins, though most states waive that for immigrant children and pregnant women.

Parolees are also qualified aliens. Federal law gives the director of Homeland Security the discretion to release them into the United States temporarily, “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

More than 2.8 million people were paroled into the country between February 2021 and January 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Parolees are eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA Marketplace after one year.

Immigrants who are granted asylum or refugee status are also qualified aliens. They have no waiting period.

Qualified aliens also include people who are under an order of deportation that has been withheld, come from certain designated countries, are victims of domestic violence, are victims of sex trafficking, are members of certain Indian tribes, or certain others.

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Federal Government Freezes $2.1 Billion for Chicago Transit Projects Over Alleged Race-Based Contracting

The federal government will withhold $2.1 billion for two Chicago infrastructure projects, the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced, citing a new rule that bars race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grant programs.

The agency said in an Oct. 3 statement that the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) Red Line Extension and Red and Purple Modernization Program have been placed under administrative review “to determine whether any unconstitutional practices are occurring.”

The suspension follows similar moves in New York earlier this week, where $18 billion for the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway projects was also put on hold, amid similar concerns around constitutionality.

White House Budget Director Russell Vought took to X to say that the reason the two projects have been put on hold is to “ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

The pause stems from an interim final rule the Transportation Department issued on Sept. 30 that rewrites the agency’s longstanding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which aims to assist small businesses owned and controlled by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.” The rule now states the department must operate its programs “in a nondiscriminatory fashion,” and it specifically “removes race- and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution.”

Under the new standard, all applying businesses must make individualized showings of disadvantage to qualify as DBEs. The rule eliminates automatic presumptions previously granted to women and members of certain racial and ethnic groups.

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Elizabeth Warren Loses Her Mind When Journalist Notes That Democrats Actually Do Want Healthcare for Illegals on the Taxpayers’ Dime 

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lost her cool on CBS News this week, when reporter Tony Dokoupil noted that Democrats actually do kinda want to provide healthcare to illegals, funded by taxpayers.

She got really angry but then pretty much confirmed what Tony Dokoupil was saying, while giving a long, confusing explanation.

You know what’s very telling in this ongoing debate? The anger and frustration of Democrats. It’s a tell that indicates that they are losing this argument and they know it. You see the same thing with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lost her cool on CBS News this week, when reporter Tony Dokoupil noted that Democrats actually do kinda want to provide healthcare to illegals, funded by taxpayers.

She got really angry but then pretty much confirmed what Tony Dokoupil was saying, while giving a long, confusing explanation.

You know what’s very telling in this ongoing debate? The anger and frustration of Democrats. It’s a tell that indicates that they are losing this argument and they know it. You see the same thing with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

Transcript via Curtis Houck on Twitter/X:

Dokoupil: “So, senator, you know, Republicans say what you’re really fighting for is taxpayer dollars for, as they put it, illegal aliens. I know that’s not strictly true but there is a provision –”

Warren: “Oh, excuse me not strictly true.”

Dokoupil: “It’s not directly true, but –”

Warren: “It is a flat-out lie. It is a flat-out lie.”

Dokoupil: “– the way that they frame it –”

Warren: “There is nothing in Medicaid, nothing in Medicare, that permits one undocumented immigrant to get one dollar of assistance. None.”

Dokoupil: “– Senator –”

Warren: “Zero.”

Dokoupil: “– if you let me finish the question –”

Warren: “Of course. I’m sorry.”

Dokoupil: “– sorry, in the Democratic counter offer the proposal for funding, there is a restoration of Medicaid benefits for certain noncitizens that had been taken away in the Big, Beautiful Bill as Republicans put it.”

Warren: “No!”

Dokoupil: “Republicans don’t think those people should be getting health care on the taxpayer dime. I’m not asking on the merits. Politically, putting that in there, exposes you to this talking point, this lie as you put it. Why put it in there? Why is it worth it?”

Warren: “No. What’s happened is that what we’re saying is that whenever hospitals give care, what is going to be the level of reimbursement? And the Republicans said it’s going to be a low level. The Democrats said we just want go back to the level it was before because you’re going to bankrupt hospitals. You’re going to put rural hospitals out of business. The Republicans and the Democrats’ plan, nothing changes the number of undocumented immigrants who still get care if they show up bleeding and unconscious at an emergency room. There is absolutely zero difference. The difference is whether or not hospitals who, under laws that date back to Ronald Reagan, may provide emergency care to anyone who’s unconscious, will actually get reimbursed at a very low level that will put the hospital ultimately out of business potentially or at a higher level. The Republicans – there is no change, no change in the number of undocumented migrants who get any help under what the Democrats want. Look, what we’re looking for is help for people who are going to get pushed out of nursing homes, help for people who are at home and relying on home health aides.”

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom Threatens to Withhold Billions from State Colleges Signing Trump ‘Compact’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened to withhold billions in state funds from any college that signs an agreement to support President Donald Trump’s education agenda.

Deemed the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the Trump administration seeks to require universities to adhere to “rules written by the administration in a variety of areas, including admissions, hiring, free speech on campus, teaching and the use of endowments,” per KCRA.

“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits,” the compact states.

Gavin Newsom denounced the compact as a “radical agreement” and pledged to withhold billions in state funds should any college cooperate with it.

“IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY’LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM,” Newsom said in an intentionally uppercased statement as a troll of President Trump.

At least nine universities in the country have received the compact, with only one — University of Southern California (USC) — residing in the Golden State.

“USC is a private school that receives Cal Grants from the state. Cal Grants are part of the state’s financial aid program that provides funding to students that does not need to be paid back,” per KRCA.

“According to the California Department of Finance, USC received a total of $28.4 million in Cal Grant funding in the past year. The independent AICCU intuitions together received $227.6 million in total in that same year,” it added.

Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said Newsom opposes the protection of free speech.

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Yes America, Democrats really do want tax dollars for illegal immigrants

At midnight Tuesday, the government shut down. Prior to the deadline, Republicans passed their budget proposal out of the House of Representatives, but Senate Democrats, along with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, shot it down, 55-45. 

While Republicans have branded this the “Schumer Shutdown,” blame-slinging began months ago when negotiations commenced to avert the budget showdown. 

The clarity of Democrats’ desire to give illegal immigrants free healthcare is abundant, as evidenced by every single Democratic nominee eagerly raising their hand in support of the policy at the June 2019 NBC presidential debate. In practice, it has become more of a shell game.

How the shell game works: Channeling federal dollars through states

Some states, often Democratic-led, are stretching the boundaries of federal Medicaid rules to extend coverage to certain immigrants who aren’t fully “qualified” under the law, effectively routing federal dollars toward groups legally considered ineligible.

The New York Times issued their own “fact check,” which vaguely admitted that “Separately, the federal government does reimburse hospitals for providing emergency care to low-income unauthorized immigrants who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid.”

The funds in question are designated for Medicaid, which is supposed to only be for legally present immigrants, like refugees and green card holders. Republicans point out that emergency services, accessible to all including illegal immigrants, inflate these costs, and argue that the asylum-seekers who entered during Biden’s term are not in the United States lawfully. 

Additionally, Republicans are concerned that the bill allocates $8 billion for migrant hotels. The nuance is that the funds ostensibly support broader federal law enforcement, including ICE facilities that detain both immigrants and U.S. citizens. However, with a specifically allocated amount of money, this inevitably diverts resources toward immigration-related expenses and away from lawful, legal residents and citizens.

For clarification, Sen. Joey Arrington, R-Texas, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Budget committee, sent a list of queries to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The agency’s response was registered on their government website and clarified that from 2017 to 2023, federal and state governments spent a total of $27 billion on emergency Medicaid services for people who were ineligible for full Medicaid coverage because of their immigration status. The federal portion of that bill is a little over $18 billion. 

The letter further clarifies that under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193), “eligibility for many federal benefit programs—including Medicaid—has generally been limited to “qualified aliens,” as defined by that law. That group includes lawful permanent residents (also known as green-card holders), asylees, refugees, and people who are paroled into the United States for one year or more. Those people generally are eligible to participate in comprehensive Medicaid after a five-year waiting period, which may be waived for people in some groups, such as asylees and refugees.”

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