Tag: taxes

Air Force DOGEs $10 Billion in Wasteful Spending

Donald Trump’s Air Force Secretary collaborated with the Department of Government Efficiency to slash a staggering $10 billion in wasteful and unnecessary spending.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised Air Force Secretary Troy Meink in a video revealing the DOGE results. Meink and DOGE “secured more than $10 billion in savings. They’re cutting waste and working with vendors to reduce contract spending,” Hegseth said. “So I want to commend you, Mr. Secretary, and the entire Air Force team for being relentless in rooting out excess.”

The $10 billion in cuts make the Air Force exceptional among the branches for saving taxpayers money, Hegseth emphasized. “The Air Force can now claim the top two spots on the DOGE savings podium,” he joked. “I don’t know where this podium is. I’m told that [it’s] somewhere, maybe the basement in the Pentagon, but we’re going to dust it off.” 

Humor aside, Hegseth repeated that the Air Force “claims the top two spots, symbolizing their commitment to leadership and to you the taxpayer. So thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being an example of stewardship, and we appreciate your dedication to President Trump’s mission of peace through strength, outstanding work.”

Meink returned Hegseth’s compliments and agreed that ensuring wise use of taxpayer dollars “is critical to national security and maintaining your lethality.” What an unusual perspective from a federal official. Usually, bureaucrats can’t wait to find more reasons to spend money they don’t really have. “Over the past six months, we’ve looked at 500 contracts, 50 business systems realizing more than $10 billion in savings,” he added.

Keep reading

“Settlement tsunami”: Chicago spends more than double city budget on police misconduct settlements

The City of Chicago is searching for financial solutions amidst hundreds of pending police misconduct cases, spending more than double the $82 million budget.

Eight years ago, police burst down the door of the Mendez family home unannounced, pointing guns at Hester and Gilbert Mendez, and their sons Peter and Jack (who were 9 and 5 at the time) – only to find they’d raided the wrong apartment.

After years stuck in the legal pipeline, between COVID delays and multiple changes in the judge presiding over the case, Mendez et al. v. City of Chicago finally began on Monday, April 21, 2025 in Courtroom 1941 at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse in Chicago. 

The Mendez family was seeking financial compensation for their rights being violated and the trauma their children endured. 

The city of Chicago has already spent more than $164 million in taxpayer money this year on police misconduct settlements and judgments – more than double its $82 million budget. With hundreds of cases pending, including from people alleging torture by notorious former officers, the Mendez case illustrates how these situations often play out: the city launches into a costly trial, putting families through trauma and stress, only to settle for a large sum at taxpayer expense. Officials say there’s a better way to do it – offering substantial settlements earlier – not the unfairly small settlements that the city often uses to avoid trial, as lawyers see it; or ideally avoiding police misconduct in the first place. 

During the Mendez family’s trial, a now 17-year-old Peter Mendez described on the stand how he was traumatized on the evening of November 7, 2017. “My life flashed before my eyes, my heart was pounding, and I thought maybe I could die.”

To this day, the event has left Jack, the youngest child, with the same recurring nightmare of police shooting his mother, cuffing and taking his father away to jail, and separating him and his brother as they get taken to different orphanages. 

Keep reading

Canada’s COVID jab injury payouts triple in two years, reaching $18 million

Payments to COVID jab-injured Canadians have tripled in the past three years.

According to information recently published by Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), payments to COVID-injured Canadians have totaled $18,140,998, nearly triple the $6,695,716 paid in 2023.

The statistics, which reflect numbers from when the program was launched in 2020 until June 1, 2024, showed that only 234 out of 3317 claims have been approved.

However, the claims do not represent the total number of Canadians injured by the allegedly “safe and effective” COVID shots, as inside memos have revealed that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials neglected to report all adverse effects from COVID shots and even went as far as telling staff not to report all events.

The PHAC’s downplaying of jab injuries is of little surprise to Canadians, as a 2023 secret memo revealed that the federal government purposefully hid adverse effect so as not to alarm Canadians.

Canada’s VISP was launched in December 2020 after the Canadian government gave vaccine makers a shield from liability regarding COVID-19 jab-related injuries.

To date, the health department does not have an estimate on how many compensation claims will be filed.  Officially, in Canada, there have been 442 deaths linked to the COVID shot, and Canada’s Public Health Agency data claims that 98.2 million jab doses have been administered.

Earlier this week, Conservatives demanded an official investigation into the Liberal-run vaccine injury program, which has given more to VISP administrators than injured Canadians. Notably, there have been no press releases regarding the contracts on the Government of Canada website nor from Carney’s official office.

An explosive Global News report found that Oxaro Inc., the company contracted for $50 million to run the program, misallocated taxpayer funds and disregarded many jab-injured Canadians.

Of the $50.6 million that Oxaro Inc., has received, $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, compared to only $18.1 million going to jab-injured Canadians.

Keep reading

85 Minnesota Autism Clinics Under Investigation for Millions in Medicaid Fraud

About 85 autism clinics in Minnesota are under investigation for tens of millions in Medicaid billing fraud.

The state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is under a microscope for paying out outrageous amounts for services supposedly delivered by the state’s burgeoning autism treatment sector, according to KSTP-TV.

The records show that DHS paid out claims totally about $700 million since the state’s autism program began in 2014. But millions of that seems to be paying for services that were never rendered. And investigators say that some $20 million has been fraud.

Now, DHS is reportedly visiting every one of the state’s locations after data shows that at least 85 of them fraudulently billed the program.

One expert says that the state ignored the warning signs.

Dr. Eric Larsson with the Lovaas Institute Midwest says that some of the bills were obviously suspicious. “No apparent email address, no website. Nobody is answering the phone,” he said. “They’re certainly not trying to deliver services.”

The problem first came to light last December when the FBI raided two Minnesota autism clinics under suspicions of fraudulent billing, KROC radio reported at the time.

State DHS officials are now scrambling to make sure that the hundreds of autism centers in the state are submitting legitimate bills.

Two of the clinics under investigation are Smart Therapy Center, LLC in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center LLC in St. Cloud, which also had ties to the Feeding Our Future child meal fraud case.

Keep reading

US To Fund and Build a Fast Boat Base for the Philippines on the South China Sea

The US will fund and construct a base for fast boats for the Philippine military on the South China Sea amid heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed rocks and reefs in the area.

The base will be built on the west coast of the Philippine island province of Palawan and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. According to USNI News, the base will house five boats, including both “assault boats” and rigid-hulled inflatable boats, which will be constructed by the US-based company ReconCraft.

The USNI report said that the base will be situated approximately 160 miles east of Second Thomas Shoal, a major source of tensions in the maritime dispute and the site of collisions and encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Despite the distance, the Philippine military frequently deploys small boats to the disputed reefs, and the US project will give them a more effective way to do that.

It’s unclear how much the project will cost the US, but it’s the latest in a series of US-funded military construction projects in the Philippines. In 2023, Washington and Manila signed a deal to expand the US military presence in the country, and the US has also been increasing military aid to the Southeast Asian nation.

Keep reading

NPR CEO Lies About ‘Real Risk to Public Safety’ with Taxpayer Funding Cut

NPR CEO and welfare queen Katherine Maher has come up with a brand-new lie to protect her taxpayer-funded slush fund to spread left-wing lies. Get a load of the latest from this shameless broad…

“Public media, public radio, public television, are a critical part of the emergency response plans of nearly half of the states in this nation,” Maher told the far-left CBS News, which just settled an election interference lawsuit with President Trump.

She added, “If these types of emergency alerting go away, you will have fewer outlets to be able to respond in real time” to natural disasters.

Earlier this week, America’s favorite welfare queen laughably claimed there’s no left-wing bias on NPR.

You know why Maher’s been reduced to this kind of desperate lying? Because in a world where Trump, the GOP, and New Media no longer play by the regime media’s rules, she’s got nothing else.

You see, we can no longer be emotionally blackmailed. We no longer play by the fake rules of debate created by the left to stop us from expressing the truth. And all this bullshit about killing Big Bird is debunked as quickly as it’s launched.

So what is Maher reduced to? Laughably, claiming NPR is not biased in favor of the left…

Bias? What bias? Oh, you mean this bias…

Keep reading

Israel and US to forge $200m tech hub for AI and quantum science development

Israel and the US are advancing a strategic initiative to create a joint science center for artificial intelligence and quantum innovation at an investment of $200 million. The center will serve as a hub to promote technology-driven cooperation and diplomacy with Gulf countries in the realms of AI and quantum science and challenge China in the global race for supremacy of next-generation technologies.

The initiative led by Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, the director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and Dr. Smadar Itzkovich, founder and CEO of AI & Quantum Sovereignty Lab (AIQ-Lab), is expected to be implemented either through a presidential executive order signed by US President Donald Trump or a legislative process.

“This is a strategic initiative that aims to reshape the Middle East through US-Israel scientific and technological collaboration in AI and quantum,” Itzkovich told The Times of Israel. “Israel is a powerhouse for physics and quantum technology, and by using our advantage, we can translate it to unbelievable achievements for economic growth and prosperity and for stability and security to create regional sovereignty in the areas of AI and quantum science.”

As part of the proposed initiative for the science center, each nation will contribute $20 million annually, starting in 2026 and through 2030, to support research and development projects at dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and Arlington, Virginia. The technology collaboration will focus on shared, urgent regional challenges, including cybersecurity, medicine and genetics, and water and food security in arid environments.

The initiative comes at a pivotal point, as concern has been growing that Israel could be missing out on a regional boom of investments into the next wave of technologies. In May, Trump and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the joint launch of the largest AI campus outside the US. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia aims to become a global center for AI and reportedly has plans to create a $40 billion fund to invest in AI.

Keep reading

Obama-Biden Holdovers at NIH Continue Spending Tens of Millions on Cruel Dog Tests, Despite Claims of Phasing it Out

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, is facing mounting criticism from across the political spectrum for its ongoing and newly funded experiments involving dogs.

Despite pledges from new leadership to reduce animal testing, recent revelations highlight persistent funding for controversial labs, sparking outrage from conservative figures like investigative journalist Laura Loomer and liberal-leaning outlets like The Guardian.

This bipartisan backlash underscores a rare consensus: taxpayer dollars should not support cruel and unnecessary animal abuse.

“Information obtained by…White Coat Waste shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars’ worth of new animal experiments…NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since their April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12M”

NIH under fire for funding… pic.twitter.com/4Zt3gFzBXg

— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) July 16, 2025

The NIH’s use of animals in research has long been a contentious issue, particularly following exposés during the tenure of former director Dr. Anthony Fauci. In 2021, the nonprofit White Coat Waste Project (WCW) uncovered and The Gateway Pundit reported on NIH-funded experiments where beagles were infested with sandflies and had their vocal cords removed to prevent barking during painful procedures.

The Trump administration has prioritized ending the barbaric practice.

Trump’s Navy, Department of Veterans Affairs, and EPA have already eliminated such testing in direct response to WCW’s investigations. Holdovers from the Obama and Biden Administrations appear to be preventing this kind of progress at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending. The best place to start would be to cut funding for animal labs which make up 40% of the NIH budget. It’s outdated, expensive, there’s little return for taxpayers and the American people don’t want pets tortured,” WCW Vice President Justin Goodman told The Guardian.

Keep reading

USAID food for nearly 30,000 hungry kids to be destroyed: Official

Food intended to feed 27,000 starving children in Afghanistan and Pakistan will soon be incinerated in the wake of President Donald Trump’s closure of the United States’ aid agency.

A senior US official on Wednesday said nearly 500 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, to be used as emergency food for malnourished young children, expired this month while sitting in a warehouse in Dubai.

Under questioning by lawmakers, Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state in charge of management, tied the decision to the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which closed its doors on July 1.

“I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID,” Rigas said, adding that he was “distressed” that the food went to waste.

Aid officials managed to save 622 tonnes of the energy-dense biscuits in June – sending them to Syria, Bangladesh and Myanmar – but 496 tonnes, worth $793,000 before they expired this month, will be destroyed, according to two internal USAID memos reviewed by Reuters, dated May 5 and May 19, and four sources familiar with the matter.

The wasted biscuits will be sent to landfills or incinerated in the United Arab Emirates, two sources said. That will cost the US government an additional $100,000, according to the May 5 memo verified by three sources familiar with the matter.

Keep reading