Tag: taxes

Influence Operation? The EU Paid-Off €600,000 To Friendly Media Outlets Right After European Elections

While the European Union likes to throw out terms like “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “influence campaigns,” the reality is that the EU is pumping millions into influencing public opinion itself. The difference is just that when Brussels does it, it is not supposed to be propaganda.

One European politician, MEP Petr Bystron, has revealed that the EU commission has provided Financial support to the American investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) right after the 2024 EU elections. Major German news outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung belong to the group, which is the world’s largest network of investigative media.

These outlets are known for their hit pieces on conservative and right-wing parties, often at opportune times. Notably, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reporting in 2019 on the Ibiza Affair scandal — which involved an undercover video of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) party’s leader — led to the toppling of the Austrian government at the time, which included the FPÖ. Many critics believed that due to the sophistication of the operation, which included an undercover actress, intelligence services may have played a role.

The OCCRP group was founded in 2006 and is most well known for publishing the “Panama Papers” and the “Azerbaijan Laundromat” evasion scandals.

After a massive flow of U.S. money was cut off to key European establishment outlets and NGOs, Brussels is stepping in to fill the gap. Namely, the Trump administration ended the massive levels of funding headed towards foreign organizations, particularly from USAID, which allowed them to pump out pro-EU and left-wing content to wide swathes of the population across Europe.

The OCCRP group has received an extraordinary amount of money from U.S. taxpayers and other U.S. sources. According to French outlet Mediapart, the group received nearly $50 million from U.S. sources, but these funders were not just generous donors. They also could dictate editorial agendas and veto staff appointments.

Two journalists from NDR, a German state media network, questioned just how independent the OCCRP is in a 2024 report.

The two determined that a significant portion of the money was coming from American funds, particularly from USAID. OCCRP was funneling content and material to German media outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

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House Appropriations Committee Unanimously Passes Amendment to Defund All NIH-Funded Transgender Animal Experiments in FY26 Spending Bill

In a significant victory for fiscal conservatives and animal welfare advocates, the House Appropriations Committee has unanimously passed an amendment to the FY26 NIH spending bill that would prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for bizarre and controversial “transgender” experiments on animals.

The amendment, which was added to the spending bill, states explicitly:

“Sec. ___. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for research on vertebrate animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to its biological sex.”

The amendment was first proposed by Rep. Paul Gosar in May, who was working with White Coat Waste Project, a watchdog group focused on ending wasteful taxpayer-funded animal experimentation.

The full FY26 NIH spending bill advanced out of committee and now heads to the full House for a vote. If approved by Congress and signed into law, this provision would permanently bar NIH-funded labs from using tax dollars on such experiments, ensuring no repeat of the disturbing practices uncovered earlier this year.

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Funding for green groups soared after 2009 endangerment finding, nonprofit finds

Changes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s strict regulations on the automobile industry could cost nonprofit groups that reported a 267% funding bump in the years since the federal agency’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, a rule that provided a legal basis for the agency to regulate vehicle emissions and the energy industry through the Clean Air Act.

Democracy Restored, a nonprofit dedicated to showing how government works, reviewed the tax returns of more than 75 of the top nonprofit organizations focused on climate change. Funding for those 75 groups has increased significantly since 2009 with their bottom lines moving from about $3 billion to $8 billion, since the most recently available tax returns were made public, said Houston Keene, director of Democracy Restored.

Government grants to those same 75 organizations increased from $350 million in 2009 to nearly $1.4 billion in 2023, the most recent year for which records were available.

“The endangerment finding seems to have given a very big boost to these groups,” Keene told The Center Square.

In July, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to rescind an Obama-era environmental finding, or endangerment finding, impacting the automobile industry. Trump’s EPA boss, Lee Zeldin, says the endangerment finding cost the industry $1 trillion in regulations. Trump’s EPA blames the 2009 Endangerment Finding for the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate, which aimed to reduce the production of gas-powered vehicles.

Zeldin’s EPA says that if the proposal is finalized, it will lead to the repeal of all “resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines,” resulting in consumer choice and affordability. The agency says that it will save over $54 billion a year.

In support of the proposal, the EPA cited new scientific data it says challenges “the assumptions behind the 2009 Endangerment Finding.” The EPA chief contends the Obama and Biden administrations used “warped science” to cram through new emission standards.

Other groups disagree. Former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore says the move ignores reality.

Keene said the groups are pushing policies out of touch with Americans.

“They’re pushing policies that the majority of Americans wouldn’t want to live under or even agree with at this point,” he told The Center Square.

Keene said that such spending needs to be carefully examined going forward.

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White House requests $58 million to increase security for executive, judicial branches after Charlie Kirk shooting, sources say

The Trump administration is sending a $58 million request to Congress to increase security for the executive and judicial branches in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News Saturday.

Punchbowl was first to report the news.

A White House official confirmed the extra funds would be directed to the U.S. Marshals Service and would also include enhanced 
protection for Supreme Court justices.

Additionally, the Trump administration expressed support for increased funding to protect congressional lawmakers, but may defer to the legislative branch on that.

This all comes ahead of a Sept. 30 government funding deadline. 

CBS News previously reported on a new pilot program for House members that launched in August that provides an extra allowance for members to hire personal security or make upgrades at home.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said late this week a “deliberate” and thorough review of the program is underway. The Senate is also considering additional safety precautions.  

“We’ve got to protect people who run for public office or no one will, and that’s heavy on our hearts and minds, as we also, you know, work through the trauma of what happened,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. 

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan told CBS News that the department expects to track more than 14,000 threats to members by the end of the year, significantly outpacing previous years. Sullivan said USCP will be operating at a “heightened posture” going forward. 

“We’re prepared to continue to react and keep the members of Congress safe,” Sullivan said.

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NPR’s Luse: Kirk ‘Said Some Extremely Bigoted Things’ and That’s Why Some on Left Downplay His Death

On Friday’s edition of NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” host Brittany Luse stated that Charlie Kirk “said some extremely bigoted things. Because of that, I have seen and heard some folks who are saying something like, this type of violence shouldn’t happen, but I’m not mad that it did happen to this person, meaning Charlie Kirk.”

Luse said, [relevant exchange begins around 12:55] “[L]ooking to the left, Charlie Kirk was undeniably a polarizing figure for his, at times, extreme conservative views. He said some extremely bigoted things. Because of that, I have seen and heard some folks who are saying something like, this type of violence shouldn’t happen, but I’m not mad that it did happen to this person, meaning Charlie Kirk. What would you say to someone who takes that kind of stance in this politically-charged moment?”

Guardian Reporter Abené Clayton responded, “I think that’s a tough one, you know what I mean? Because it’s like, even that comes with its own dangers. You know what I’m saying? I’m a black woman. To me, the things he was saying [were] like, no, this just does not work for me, this is racist, this is trifling. And I also think there’s a little bit of pressure from other folks on the left to see Democratic lawmakers say, like, this person was horrible, this is bad, yes, but also look at what he said. I think that’s what people want, but that’s not super advisable if we’re trying to create an environment of, like, peace, safety, and justice for everyone.”

At the beginning of the show, Luse stated, “America is divided on how to respond to this moment. I have seen some people on the right calling for revenge. I’ve seen some people on the left indifferent or even cheering that this right-wing pundit, who frequently spouted bigoted views, was killed. I’ve also seen people of all political backgrounds fearing for what the shooting and the reaction to it mean for this country’s future.”

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House Appropriators Include Money for mRNA Vaccine Research in Spending Bill

The House Appropriations Committee has approved a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that authorizes the department to spend up to $1.1 billion on research into messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.

Lawmakers on Sept. 9 advanced the $184.5 billion package for HHS and several other agencies from the committee after hours of markups. The vote was 35 to 28.

Before amendments, the proposed bill stated that $1.1 billion would be available through Sept. 30, 2027, for “expenses necessary to support advanced research and development” pursuant to the Public Health Service Act.

An amendment offered by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chairman of the committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, added “including of mRNA vaccines” after the word “development.”

“Very briefly, this amendment includes language that’s been agreed upon by the majority and the minority for the report. And so, with agreement, I would recommend a yes vote,” Aderholt said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the committee’s ranking member, said she supported the amendment. It was passed in a voice vote, with no members voicing opposition.

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NASA Bans Chinese Nationals From Working on Agency Programs

NASA has barred Chinese nationals holding U.S. visas from its facilities and networks, the latest move by Washington to safeguard the space agency as its space race with Beijing intensifies.

Chinese nationals, who until now could work at NASA as contractors or contribute to its research, were informed on Sept. 5 that their access to the agency’s systems and facilities had been revoked. Bloomberg first reported that many suddenly found themselves locked out of NASA data systems and excluded from both in-person and virtual meetings related to their work.

NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens confirmed the decision, stating that the agency had taken “internal action pertaining to Chinese nationals—including restricting physical and cybersecurity access to our facilities, materials, and network to ensure the security of our work.”

The move comes amid heightened scrutiny of Chinese nationals working in sensitive U.S. technology sectors, as in recent years, a growing number of individuals have been accused of conducting espionage on behalf of the Chinese communist regime. In August, the Department of War—then called the Department of Defense—ordered Microsoft to stop using China-based engineers to support the military agency’s cloud computing systems.

It remains unclear if a specific incident triggered NASA’s action. In response to a request for comment, the agency’s press office referred The Epoch Times to a post on X featuring acting administrator Sean Duffy’s appearance on Fox Business.

In that interview, Duffy said the United States must lead what he described as a “second space race,” warning that the Chinese regime is not advancing its lunar agenda “with good intentions.”

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Property Taxes Are Theft

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has an absolutely thrilling idea, one I never imagined I would see unfold in my lifetime. He is putting on the ballot next year a referendum that would abolish or restrict local governments from taxing owner-occupied homes.

That’s right, he wants to get rid of the property tax, saving residents some $3,400 a year and fundamentally disrupting the way schools and local governments are financed.

Texas is considering the same path.

If this really happens, I can easily predict more of a demographic shift out of the Northeast and Northwest to the South and Texas. If this spreads to more states, it would amount to a revolution in public finance.

It’s long overdue. These tax schemes are brutal on home ownership. Indeed, it’s hard to say that you are ever really the owner of your home if you are having to pay rent to the government every year.

It’s especially a problem in an environment when the home valuation goes up every year and so does the tax you owe on the place. You have done nothing but lived there and enjoyed life. It is entirely paid off. Meanwhile, the government keeps coming after you with ever more pressing demands for money.

You cannot really say you are an owner of anything under these conditions. Of course when I hear about how this will save $3,400 on average in Florida, I nearly faint. In my area of the country, this would be pennies. Property taxes in New England can be $20K–40K and that is not unusual.

These taxes fund schools that people don’t use. That’s how public schooling in this country came to be financed. The system of school districts really is a system of tax districts. That’s why they are so heavily enforced. Live on this side of the street instead of that one and your taxes can be completely different. It’s all to fund the public schools, whether you use them or not.

Friends of mine are paying $30K in property taxes plus $70K per kid for private schools for three kids.

If that kind of expenditure shocks and amazes you, you are not alone. I find it all unfathomable but that’s how New England works.

It’s a different world in Texas and Florida. Here you have new experiments in school choice. The plans are different but they generally let the parent use the money that would otherwise go to the public school for private schools, charter schools, or homeschools, either in the form of direct payments or deductions from the tax bill overall.

We might ask how all of this is happening now. The answer traces to the school closures of 2020 and 2021 which dramatically reduced confidence in the public schooling system and hence the way they are financed. If millions of people are homeschooling and millions more are attending newly established private schools, the political pressure for ever-higher property taxes is thereby reduced.

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Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Banning Illegal Immigrants From Social Programs

A federal judge on Sept. 10 ordered four federal agencies to stop banning illegal immigrants from programs such as Head Start, which provides child care for poorer families.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, and the Department of Labor must halt, at least for now, efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the programs.

HHS and other agencies said in July they were reinterpreting a federal law called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which states that illegal immigrants cannot obtain “federal public benefits.”

Under previous interpretations, people accessing certain programs that lawmakers intended only for Americans and legal immigrants did not need to provide proof of legal status, officials said.

As Zachary Stieber reports for The Epoch Times, twenty attorneys general sued, alleging the new interpretation wrongly applied to programs that fell outside the act. In a motion for a preliminary injunction, or a block while the case proceeds, they also said that the government failed to provide “fair notice” to states of the change.

McElroy sided with the states, writing on Wednesday that “while reasonable policymakers can debate the merits of restricting access to programs to lawful citizens—and it is surely not this Court’s job to wade into that debate—the Agencies offer at best incomplete answers to serious questions.”

That appears to violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which lets judges block agency actions determined to be “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,” she said.

McElroy also pointed to the change in interpretation from decades of precedent.

“The Government argues that it has somehow interpreted this statute incorrectly for the nearly thirty years that it has been the law,” she said.

“In its view, everyone (from every past administration) has misunderstood it from the start—at least until last month, when the right way to read it became clear to the Government. The Court is skeptical of that.”

The four agencies, which had pointed to an order from President Donald Trump that directed officials to make sure that taxpayer-funded benefits are not going to illegal immigrants, did not respond to requests for comment.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat and one of the attorneys general who sued over the change, said in a statement that “with this victory, we are protecting children’s education, safeguarding critical health care, and preserving the safety net that keeps families afloat.”

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Supreme Court Grants Trump Admin Request to Withhold Foreign Aid Funds

The Supreme Court on Sept. 9 granted a Trump administration request to temporarily withhold approximately $4 billion in foreign aid funding previously authorized by Congress.

The federal government’s emergency application in U.S. Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Global Health Council v. Trump was granted by Chief Justice John Roberts one day after it was filed with the nation’s highest court.

The court issued an administrative stay, which puts a lower court order requiring the release of the funding on hold to give the justices more time to fully consider the matter. The court did not provide reasons for its decision.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had asked the justices to pause a ruling by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who ordered the federal government to spend about $4 billion in previously appropriated funds.

The money is earmarked for foreign aid and United Nations peacekeeping projects.

The Supreme Court’s new order states that Ali’s orders of Sept. 3 in the two cases are “hereby partially stayed for funds that are subject to the President’s August 28, 2025 [rescission] proposal currently pending before Congress pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.”

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