Tag: taxes

In defiance of voter base, DNC rejects resolution calling for Israel arms embargo

On Tuesday, Democratic National Committee (DNC) members at the party’s summer meetings rejected Resolution 18, which called for the recognition of a Palestinian state, a ceasefire in Gaza, an arms embargo, and a suspension of military aid to Israel.

Instead, members backed a status quo resolution introduced by DNC Chair Ken Martin, which simply called for more aid to be allowed into Gaza and a two-state solution. Despite the support, Martin went on to withdraw the resolution.

“I know that there are some who are interested in making changes today, but as we’ve seen, there’s divide in our party on this issue,” said Martin. “This is a moment that calls for shared dialog. It calls for shared advocacy, and that’s why I’ve decided today, at this moment, listening to the testimony and listening to people in our party, to withdraw my amendment and resolution.”

Martin says he will establish a task force “comprised of stakeholders on all sides of this” so that they can “bring solutions back to our party.”

Resolution 18 had faced opposition from lobby groups like Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI).

“Should it advance, it will further divide our Party, provide a gift to Republicans, and send a signal that will embolden Israel’s adversaries,” claimed DMFI president and CEO Brian Romick. “As we get closer to the midterms, Democrats need to be united, not continuing intra-party fights that don’t get us closer to taking back Congress.”

Polling has consistently shown that Democratic voters are, in fact, united on Israel. A majority of them oppose the genocide in Gaza and want the Israeli government held accountable for its actions in the region.

This month, YouGov and The Economist published a poll showing that 69% of Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. That includes 77% of Kamala Harris voters.

According to a June Quinnipiac survey, 12% of Democratic voters sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians, while a July Gallup poll found that just 8% of Democratic voters support Israel’s military actions in Gaza and only 9% support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An April poll from Data for Progress and Zeteo showed that 71% of likely Democratic primary voters think the United States should end arms transfers to Israel until it stops its attacks on civilians and supports the rights of the Palestinians.

80% of likely Democratic primary voters under the age of 45 believe that military assistance to Israel should be restricted.

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Australian ‘Experts’ Propose Tax On Spare Bedrooms To Ease Housing Shortage

In a brainstorm that has leftist central planners around the world salivating, an Australian market analytics firm has proposed that the country start imposing a tax on spare bedrooms. The aim: To ease the country’s housing shortage by incentivizing those who have more housing than they “need” to sell and downsize. 

Cotality Australia notes that 61% of the country’s households comprise just one or two people, yet the housing stock is dominated by three- and four-bedroom homes. Cotality says that, to “fix” this discrepancy, “governments could make it more expensive to have more housing than you need, and cheaper to live in smaller housing.” 

“It’s perfectly acceptable and desirable for people to have spare bedrooms, [but] you could ask them to pay for it through land tax,” Cotality Australia head of research Eliza Owen told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Or you could incentivize them to move on through the abolition of stamp duty or some combination of both.” The stamp duty is an Australian tax on property transfers that’s paid by buyers. Depending on factors that include location and purpose — for example, whether the buyer is going to live in the home or use it as an investment — it usually falls between 3 and 5% of the property’s value.  

Voices on the Australian right are firing back, among them Alexandra Marshall at The Spectator: 

“In the interests of ‘saving the economy’…we’ve witnessed the start of open season on private assets as part of the intellectual discussion to provide equity. The government didn’t just run out of other people’s money, it’s run out of other people’s houses.

It’s not the fault of Australians that the government started importing millions of foreigners into the country or that the government turns a blind eye when millions more refuse to leave after their visa has expired…How wildly unfair and sinister it is to turn around to Australians and say, I see you have an extra bedroom in that house you worked your arse off to pay for… Move or we’ll tax you.” 

Meanwhile, Australian redistributionists are busy cooking up other means of extracting wealth from homeowners. In a new paper, university professors Peter Siminski and Roger Wilkins assail Australia’s capital gains tax exemption for owner-occupied housing, by which the government foregoes the coercive collection of $50 billion a year. They also urge the imposition of a tax on “imputed rental income” — the value of owning a home and not having to pay rent. In a manifestly Marxist sentence, the academics complain that favorable treatment of owner-occupied housing is “a major driver of inequality, undermining the redistributive role of government.“

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European Post Halts Mail to U.S. – Undermining Security and Trade Enforcement

Ahead of the August 29 implementation of President Trump’s executive order ending the de minimis exemption, which had allowed packages under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free, postal services in Britain, France, Germany, India, Belgium, Denmark, and New Zealand announced they will suspend shipments to the United States.

They claim confusion over the rules, though packages worth less than $100 remain exempt, something hardly difficult to understand. The timing suggests this is more political theater, an attempt by Europeans to pressure Washington into reducing tariffs on other products.

Trump signed the order on July 29 to combat China’s abuse of the system, particularly its use of low-value parcels to smuggle fentanyl and circumvent trade sanctions. U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed more than 4 million such packages daily. Closing the loophole prevents sanctioned Chinese goods from bypassing tariffs through postal networks.

Retail giants like Temu and Shein built their entire business model on exploiting de minimis, shipping 1.36 billion parcels in 2024, mostly from China and Hong Kong.

As carriers scramble to adjust their systems, letters and documents remain unaffected, but parcels to the U.S. face delays and backlogs until new procedures are clarified. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy have already halted most package shipments, while France, Austria, the U.K., India, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia cite “lack of clarity” over how duties will be collected and what extra data is required.

In reality, the rules are straightforward. With the exception of personal gifts under $100, all shipments are now subject to country-of-origin tariffs. Transportation carriers are required to collect and remit duties to U.S. Customs and Border Protection using methods long in place. Postal shipments even have a grace period and remain duty-free until CBP establishes a new entry process.

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Wisconsin Judge Charged With Helping Illegal Alien Evade ICE Rakes In Nearly $50K In Pay

Suspended while she faces charges for allegedly helping a violent illegal immigrant elude federal law enforcement officials, Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan continues to collect full pay and benefits on the backs of Badger State taxpayers. 

The Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge has raked in $48,997 in pay since the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, according to information obtained through an open records request by The Federalist. Dugan’s biweekly pay rate is $6,712, with an annual salary of $174,512, according to the Wisconsin Court System. 

Meanwhile, Dugan has established a legal defense fund to pay for a high-powered team of lawyers that includes former Solicitor General Paul Clement and former federal prosecutor Steve Biskupic. In its first three weeks, the fund had raised nearly $140,000, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Dugan doesn’t have to report on who gave what until next year, the news outlet reported. 

“Judge Hannah Dugan deserves a full and aggressive defense,” states the fund website, which bills the federal felony charge against her as “the prosecution of America’s independent judiciary.”

‘Denied’

The judge insists that she is immune from prosecution, that she has the right to do as she pleases in her courtroom — apparently up to breaking the law. She argues that the charges should be dropped. 

U.S. Magistrate Nancy Joseph disagrees. Last month, Joseph found Dugan’s arguments “unconvincing” in recommending Dugan’s motion to dismiss the charges be denied. 

“It is well-established and undisputed that judges have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits for monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts. This, however, is not a civil case,” the magistrate wrote in her thorough, 37-page decision. “Accordingly, I recommend that Dugan’s motion to dismiss the indictment on judicial immunity grounds be denied.”

Dugan has been charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor concealing an individual to prevent arrest. She is accused of aiding previously deported illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz’s brief escape from federal law enforcement officials in April while he was appearing in front of Dugan on battery charges. Dugan faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if found guilty. 

As The Federalist has reported, FBI agents arrested Dugan on April 25 at the courthouse, a week after the judge, according to the criminal complaint, misdirected federal agents, delaying them from apprehending Flores-Ruiz. The illegal immigrant was set to appear before Dugan for a pretrial conference on three misdemeanor counts of domestic battery. Flores-Ruiz is expected to be deported again after he serves a federal prison term for violating immigration law, Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate, WISN, reported. 

The criminal complaint states that Dugan was “visibly angry” in confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who appeared with an administrative warrant to take the illegal alien into custody. After sending the law enforcement officials to the chief judge’s office, Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his legal counsel out of the courtroom through the “jury door,” which leads to a non-public area of the courthouse, according to the charges. 

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick voids ‘illegal’ $7.4B payment to Biden ally-staffed nonprofit for semiconductor research

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick canceled an Biden administration agreement Monday to distribute billions of dollars for semiconductor research through a nonprofit set up and staffed by former political appointees, according to a letter obtained by The Post.

The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provided for $11 billion in semiconductor research and development funding to be given out by the Commerce Department’s National Semiconductor Technology Center.

“Rather than establishing these operations within the Department, however, Biden Administration officials spent significant time, effort, and resources creating an unaccountable, outside entity–Natcast–to administer taxpayer funds,” Lutnick wrote Natcast CEO Deirdre Hanford.

Four days before Biden left office on Jan. 20, Lutnick noted, the Commerce Department agreed to set aside $7.4 billion in “advance payments” to Natcast after spending nearly two years setting it up and tapping administration officials, advisers and allies to fill out positions.

That arrangement both effectively removed the incoming Trump administration from being involved in the process and provided “virtually all” of Natcast’s funding — prompting incoming Departments of Justice and Commerce officials to take another look at the Sunnyvale, Calif., nonprofit.

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Zelensky Wants $1 Billion Per Month From NATO Countries To Buy US Weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he wants $1 billion per month from NATO countries to purchase US weapons, comments that come as a peace deal seems increasingly unlikely following the summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

NATO recently announced a new scheme under which member states commit to spending on US weapons to ship to Ukraine, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative. So far, about $2 billion has been committed to the effort in pledges from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Canada.

“Our goal is to fill this program with no less than $1 billion every month,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Ukraine. “We also discussed our domestic drone production and joint opportunities with partners. Investments now can help not only physically but also force Russia to end this war.”

During his visit to Ukraine, Store pledged that Norway would provide Ukraine with $8.4 billion in aid for 2026, the same amount Norway provided this year. The Norwegian leader said the $8.4 billion will go toward “military and civilian support.”

Zelensky and Store also discussed the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine, an issue that could sink the peace process as Ukraine and its European backers are insisting on some type of arrangement that would involve Western troops deploying to Ukraine, an idea Moscow has made clear is unacceptable and a non-starter for negotiations.

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California’s Small Cannabis Farmers Have Been Left High and Dry

Dan Golden has been growing weed for almost 20 years. As he hand-watered his plants on his 70-acre farm, he maintained a firm stare. He’s long abstained from alcohol—ever since his daughter was born—and his daily routine begins at 6 am. “This is life or death for me. I’ve never done anything else,” said Golden. The property is seated in a narrow valley in Humboldt County, California, a three-hour drive from the nearest store in Garberville, with large rock outcroppings running east to west. Before 2020, he owned the land outright, but four years ago, he was forced to refinance it to pay for the exorbitant fees and permits required to be a compliant legal cannabis farmer.

Cannabis has long been part of counterculture in America, and arguably no place and its peoples have done more to fuel the evolution of the plant and its mythos than Humboldt County. And yet, perversely, no place has been as left behind by legalization.

Through a series of broken promises, legislative missteps, and onerous compliance measures, the small, legacy farmers once on the front lines of normalizing marijuana for decades have been snuffed out. Now their communities are suffering. “Everyone thinks: Growing weed, that must be fun,” Golden said. “They don’t know how hard it is.”

Since 2016, when cannabis was voted legal for adult use by ballot measure, the market has been rife with snafus in California. Promises to protect those that gave rise to the industry fell flat; instead, these farmers have been met with byzantine laws, expensive permit fees, regulations, and taxes that have hampered their ability to stay competitive in open markets. Most attempts to aid craft cultivators have failed or have been denied, and many farmers say the July 1 increase of the California cannabis excise tax—from 15 percent to 19 percent—could be yet another crushing blow. Though Governor Gavin Newsom said he’d sign a freeze of the increased excise tax if it reached his desk, legislators have so far failed to act.

Many of the players have since quit the game altogether. Agricultural real estate prices have tumbled in Humboldt County as local businesses not directly associated with cannabis try to hold on in the shifting economic landscape. Meanwhile, mega-cannabis corporations dominate the market with questionable labor practices and deflated prices meant to eliminate competition. In typical corporate-capture fashion, these companies have pushed out competitors by sheer scale, lowering their prices so no one else can survive, then, once they’re the only ones left standing, they’re able to jack the prices back up.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Bill Banning Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Travel

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday banning local governments from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion travel out of state.

The law, Senate Bill 33, bars cities and counties from paying for hotels, airfare, meals, and other travel expenses for women seeking abortions outside of Texas. Abortion is outlawed in Texas with limited exceptions. 

Abbott also signed Senate Bill 31 at a signing ceremony on the same day. That bill, called the Life of the Mother Act, emphasizes that healthcare providers must treat a pregnant woman who has a life-threatening physical or medical emergency that places her at risk of death or serious injury. The law “clarifies and standardizes existing statutes related to medical emergency exceptions to abortion prohibitions, providing healthcare professionals with additional clarity around Texas’ pro-life laws,” according to the governor’s office.

“In Texas, we support mothers and their children,” Abbott said in a statement. “This session, the Texas Legislature worked together to pass the Life of the Mother Act to protect both mothers and babies while giving medical professionals the legal security and clinical clarity they desire. I am also proud to sign a law to ban taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. Texas is a pro-life and pro-family state. With these laws, we will stay that way.”

Abbott signed SB33 into law after the Austin City Council allocated $400,000 in the city’s budget in 2024 to help fund abortion travel. San Antonio considered a similar program this year, but was stymied by a lower court. 

Members of the pro-life organization Texas Values were present at the bill signing ceremony, along with state lawmakers, and other pro-life leaders. 

Policy Director for Texas Values Jonathan Covey celebrated the passage of the bills in a press release. 

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‘Right This Wrong’: GRACE Act Would Strip Federal Funding From Schools That Ban Religious Exemptions

A member of the U.S. Congress has drafted legislation that would strip federal funding from schools that don’t allow parents to apply for religious exemptions from vaccination requirements for their children.

The GRACE Act, or Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education Act, drafted by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), would target elementary and secondary schools, as well as local and state educational agencies.

The legislation would not require state authorities or educational institutions to offer religious exemptions, but it would deny federal funds to those entities if they maintain vaccine mandates that don’t include provisions for religious exemptions.

“The denial of religious exemptions to families and children is un-American and unconstitutional,” said Michael Kane, CHD’s director of advocacy and founder of Teachers for Choice. “CHD and I thank Rep. Steube for putting forth this important legislation to right this wrong that is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

The GRACE Act is a response to the “alarming erosion of civil rights” that occurred under the Biden administration, said Cait Corrigan, a former congressional candidate from New York and an advocate for medical freedom and religious liberty.

“This issue is one of religious freedom, individual liberty and parental rights, which I often describe as part of a broader response to years of increasing concern,” Corrigan said.

Steube’s office did not respond by deadline to The Defender’s request for comment on the legislation.

‘A matter of conscience, faith and the fundamental dignity of every family’

Corrigan said the proposed legislation is “not just an issue of policy” but “a matter of conscience, faith and the fundamental dignity of every family in this country.”

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USDA Ends Solar Subsidies On American Farmland

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Monday that the Department of Agriculture will no longer use taxpayer dollars to fund large-scale solar or wind projects on productive farmland, nor allow solar panels made by foreign adversaries in USDA programs.

The department cited farmland loss as a driving concern. Tennessee has lost more than 1.2 million acres in the past 30 years and could lose 2 million by 2027. Nationally, solar installations on farmland have risen nearly 50% since 2012.

“Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green new deal subsidized solar panels,” Rollins said. “One of the largest barriers of entry for new and young farmers is access to land. Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.”

On X, she added: “This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country. Starting today, [USDA] will no longer deploy programs to fund solar or wind projects on productive farmland, ending massive taxpayer handouts. Also ENDING the use of panels made by foreign adversaries like China.”

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