Tag: taxes

US scales down commitments to defend European allies

The US will prioritize its own defense and offer only “limited” support to its allies in Europe, the Pentagon has said.

In the revised National Defense Strategy released on Friday, the US Department of War said European NATO members must play a key role in protecting themselves and providing military aid to Ukraine.

“Although we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must – and will – prioritize defending the US Homeland and deterring China,” the document reads.

“The Department will therefore incentivize and enable NATO allies to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense with critical but more limited US support.”

“This includes taking the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense. As President Trump has said, the war in Ukraine must end. As he has also emphasized, however, this is Europe’s responsibility first and foremost,” the document reads.

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Trump OMB Launches Full Review of Federal Funds Sent to Blue States

In the wake of the Somali fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota, the Trump administration will soon order a sweeping whole-of-government review of all federal funding awarded to 13 Democrat-leaning states and the District of Columbia, RealClearPolitics is first to report.

It is perhaps the most aggressive budgetary colonoscopy since the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency and the deputization of Elon Musk last year to slash and burn his way through the federal government. Sources familiar with the effort tell RCP it signals the administration’s seriousness about getting to the bottom of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Government agencies have until the close of business next Wednesday to make their report to Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Business and Management.

The review comes as Trump vows to cut off all federal funding to sanctuary cities. “They do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens. And it breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come,” the president said last week during remarks to the Detroit Economic Club. “So we’re not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary cities.”

The Department of Health and Human Services already froze more than $10 billion in social services and childcare funding for a handful of blue states earlier this month over allegations that funds were fraudulently directed to non-citizens. The latest OMB action will likely dwarf that effort in size and scope. Every government agency, with the exception of the Department of War and the Department of Veterans Affairs, must complete the budget data request and detail all monies sent to a list of blue states.

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Jailed Fraud Queen Drops Bombshell: Walz, Ellison Knew About the $250M Heist All Along

A Minnesota woman convicted in one of the largest welfare fraud schemes in state history is alleging that Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud long before federal prosecutors intervened, adding new scrutiny to state leadership already facing a Department of Justice investigation.

Aimee Bock, the former head of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, made the allegations during a jailhouse interview with Fox News from Sherburne County Jail in Minnesota.

Bock has been convicted of welfare fraud tied to the misuse of federal funds intended for child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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JD Vance: California Fraud Dwarfs Theft of Federal Funds in Minnesota

Vice President JD Vance revealed this week that about $7 billion worth of Small Business Administration (SBA) fraud has been discovered in California, an indicator the theft of federal funds across all departments in the Golden State could well exceed any other state’s.

“I think we have a fraud problem that is much worse in California than it is in Minnesota,” Vance said in an interview Thursday with Newsmax.

He continued, “I was talking actually to our small business administrator and I think she found probably a half billion dollars of fraud in Minneapolis and the broader Minnesota area. I think she’s found 7 billion dollars worth of fraud in California.”

“This is unfortunately a problem that is much bigger than Minnesota,” he added. ”But it also highlights how absurd this effort to prevent immigration enforcement is.”

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Zohran Mamdani Announces That Children of Illegal Aliens Will be Included in City’s ‘Free’ Childcare Program

New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently made it clear that the children of people in the country illegally will be included in the city’s new ‘free’ childcare program.

He went on to reaffirm New York’s status as a sanctuary city and pushed lies about ICE arresting people without showing warrants.

It’s amazing that New York City is going down this road just as a daycare centered fraud scandal is on the verge of unseating the governor and attorney general in Minnesota.

FOX News reports:

Mamdani clarifies NYC won’t check immigration status for universal childcare enrollees

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani clarified Friday that the city wouldn’t check the immigration status of children enrolling in his administration’s universal pre-K and 3-K programs.

“Just to put it very clearly, these are programs for every single New Yorker,” Mamdani, who took office at the beginning of the year, said in a media roundtable discussion. “These are not programs that are going to ask the immigration status of any one of the children.

“All of those children are New Yorkers. They should all be enrolled in 3-K and pre-K, no matter where they were born or where they come from. And we are also proud to be a sanctuary city.”

He said that means ICE agents are denied access to schools, hospitals and city properties “unless those ICE agents can present a judicial warrant signed by a judge. We know that the vast majority of the time, ICE agents are not presenting that kind of documentation. If they’re presenting any kind of documentation, it tends to be an administrative warrant. And, a lot of times, there isn’t any kind of documentation provided.”

The mayor said earlier that the program is open to any New Yorkers who have children turning 3 or 4 anytime in 2026, adding the program could save New Yorkers tens of thousands of dollars a year “by providing them with free childcare.”

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California man arrested for allegedly stealing millions in homeless funds

California officials have arrested Alexander Soofer, who allegedly used tens-of-millions of taxpayer dollars meant to house and feed the homeless to fund his lavish lifestyle, Fox News has learned. 

Soofer was the executive director of the charity Abundant Blessings, which received government funding for its work.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in a news conference on Friday that Soofer has been charged with wire fraud, a felony that carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

“I want to tell you a little bit about his organization, Abundant Blessings. It was a South Los Angeles-based charity whose purpose is to help house and properly feed the estimated 72,000 homeless people living in the greater Los Angeles area. His organization received more than $23 million in taxpayer funds for the purpose of housing and feeding the homeless,” Essayli said.

“California was pushing this money out quickly. A lot of money went out the door, with, frankly, very little vetting, very little checks and balances. And, he’s one of the individuals that got it in this organization,” he added.

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WHAT HAPPENED TO AFFORDABILITY? Tax Rate in Virginia Poised to Become Highest in the Nation After Democrats Take Over

For months now, Democrats in various locations have been running on talking points about ‘affordability’ but it is just talking points, nothing more.

Case in point, Virginia. Democrats took control of Virginia just days ago and the state is already poised to have the highest tax rate in the country, beating even California.

Does that sound like affordability to you?

From Liberty Unyielding, via the Fairfax GOP:

Virginia State Tax Rate Could Rise From 5.75% to 13.8%, Highest In The Nation

Bills pending in the Virginia state legislature could raise the state income tax a lot. The most likely to pass bill would increase the state income tax rate from 5.75% to 8% on incomes over $600,000 and 10% on incomes over $1,000,000. Another bill would impose an additional 3.8% tax (a “net investment income tax”) on most income above $500,000. If both bills pass, Virginia would have an 13.8% tax rate. That would be higher than what is currently the highest state tax rate in America, the 13.3% rate in California for households with million-dollar incomes. It would be far higher than the top tax rates in the region around Virginia, such as the 3.99% tax rate in North Carolina, the 4.82% rate in West Virginia, and the zero percent tax rate in Tennessee, which has no state income tax.

The most likely to pass bill is HB 979, introduced by Delegate Vivian Watts, the powerful chair of the Finance Committee in Virginia’s House of Delegates. HB 979 “establishes two new tax brackets beginning on and after January 1, 2027, that tax income in excess of $600,000 but not in excess of $1,000,000 at a rate of eight percent and income in excess of $1,000,000 at a rate of 10 percent.”

But wait, there’s more!

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Legislation Proposed To Make It Easier To Denaturalize Somali Fraudsters

In the wake of the massive Somali-fraud scandal out of Minnesota and other states, President Donald Trump wants to denaturalize American immigrants convicted of crimes and deport them, but the current legal framework and federal bureaucracy make such sweeping denaturalization efforts difficult to achieve quickly. 

“I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.”

Existing federal law provides limited pathways for revoking the citizenship of naturalized citizens. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act the government can denaturalize individuals who obtained citizenship through fraud, misrepresentation, or the concealment of material facts during the naturalization process. The law does not allow automatic revocation based solely on crimes committed after naturalization. Current denaturalization proceedings require civil lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice in federal court or criminal prosecutions for naturalization fraud, both demanding individualized evidence, extensive litigation, and meeting high burdens of proof. Civil cases require “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence,” while criminal prosecutions demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has proposed a solution to this problem. He’s introduced the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act in the Senate to expand federal denaturalization authority. The legislation creates a 10-year window after naturalization during which citizens who commit specified crimes could face citizenship revocation and deportation. Among those offenses are welfare fraud exceeding $10,000, aggravated felonies, espionage, and joining terrorist organizations, a category the bill explicitly extends to gangs and drug cartels. The measure also lowers the threshold for federal authorities to begin denaturalization proceedings by broadening the legal grounds beyond fraud committed during the citizenship application process.

The bill even includes a fallback provision that automatically reduces the revocation window from ten years to five years if courts strike down the longer period as unconstitutional.

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Virginia Democrat Moves to Squash Oversight of Nonprofits After Somali Fraud Scandal

A Virginia state Democrat introduced a bill that would bar the state from verifying eligibility to receive federal taxpayer benefits.

“No state agency responsible for the administration of federal funds shall impose a requirement on a nonprofit charitable organization providing a federal public benefit to determine, verify, or otherwise require proof of eligibility of any applicant for such benefits,” the one-page bill stated, which was proposed by state Delegate Jessica Anderson.

The Dominion State Democrat’s bill was introduced as the nation has increasingly scrutinized the misuse of taxpayer funds. The Trump administration has moved to clamp down on fraud across many federal benefit programs.

Billions of dollars of taxpayer funds have been lost due to fraud related to Minnesota’s Somali community.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged at least 78 people as part of the “Feeding our Future” scandal, named for a Somali-linked nonprofit that bilked taxpayers of $250 million.

Those accused reportedly faked invoices, attendance records, and the distribution of meals in low-income and other areas in Minnesota.

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Aimee Bock, “mastermind” of Minnesota’s biggest fraud scheme, says “I wish I could go back and do things differently”

The Trump administration has justified its ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota by citing a need to curb fraud and pointing to a widening scandal involving members of the Somali American community. Yet prosecutors say the mastermind of the state’s biggest fraud scheme to date was not Somali but a White woman — 45-year-old Aimee Bock. 

In an exclusive interview from her jail cell, Bock defended her conduct, admitted regrets and argued that state officials who she worked with should bear some of the blame. It was the first time Bock spoke publicly since she was arrested for her role in what prosecutors say was a $250 million COVID-era effort to defraud a federal program to feed hungry children. 

“I wish I could go back and do things differently, stop things, catch things,” said Bock, who was the head of Feeding Our Future, the now-infamous nonprofit that signed up restaurants and caterers to receive taxpayer money for providing meals to kids. “I believed we were doing everything in our power to protect the program.”

So far, prosecutors have charged 78 defendants connected to Feeding Our Future, with more than 60 pleading guilty or convicted at trial. Nearly all are East African or of Somali descent, except for Aimee Bock.

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