Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s climate proposals will substantially increase average Americans’ home expenses for purchases like appliances, according to data from the Alliance For Consumers (AFC). The financial burden of the Biden administration’s policies targeting household appliances totals $9,166 in new costs for average Americans per home, according to the AFC. The Biden administration has set its sights on a number of appliances to regulate as a part of its green agenda, including gas furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners and more, in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions. “Any government-imposed efficiency mandate creates a burden for American families and businesses for...

In 2021, the median salary for Americans 25 to 34 was $52,156 per year. Meanwhile, the cost of the average wedding was around $30,000. What’s wrong with this picture?You have young couples getting together, struggling to pay their bills, maybe with college debt to pay off, probably getting ready to work on a kid – which we all know is insanely expensive these days – and they’re going to spend $30,000+ on a one-day ceremony. Let’s also not forget that a man is supposed to spend a “two-month salary” on an engagement ring. That’s another $8,692 of that median salary....

If you’ve read much of my writing, you know that I consider myself an expert on Disney — not in the way that leftists who think you should wear masks in perpetuity are “experts” on pandemics, but a genuine expert. Disney has been part of my family life from the beginning. My parents honeymooned at Walt Disney World just months after it opened, and my siblings and I (and later my nieces) grew up on Disney movies and TV shows. Disney’s woke content and political meddling in Florida hurt us as a family. We’re not boycotters by nature, so even...

Six-figure salaries have long been seen as a milestone for gauging success — the peak between the arduous grind of climbing the income ladder and breathing a deep sigh of relief. Those with a $100,000 salary earn more than double the median individual income for 2021, which might imply financial comfort on first glance. But when accounting for taxes and cost of living in America’s largest cities, those six-figures will feel much smaller.Ultimately, to have the purchasing power of $100,000, you will have to earn a substantially higher salary. With this in mind, SmartAsset set out to determine the salary...

Michael Hugo, the chair of the Framingham Democratic Committee, argued in a city council meeting that crisis pregnancy centers are a danger to the community because their screening might not catch a birth defect, the result of which would be the live birth of an expensive-to-care-for disabled child.Best to be sure to kill them before they have a budgetary impact.Hugo is not just the chair of the Democrats in this one town in Massachusetts, but the director of policy and government affairs for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards.Nice to know. If you are planning on getting medical care in...

The United States for months has been urging European countries to repatriate captured ISIS fighters and their families from northeastern Syria, to no avail, and the U.S. is not about to incarcerate them in Guantanamo Bay, President Trump said on Monday. “We’re not bringing 50, 60, 70 – or even 10,000 people to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re not going to be paying them for the next 50 years – or paying to take care of them for the next 50 years.” He characterized the European response to Washington’s appeals as another example...

New York to Chicago by train in under five hours. It’s not science fiction, but old-school tunneling—a critical, yet oddly ignored, part of President Donald Trump’s forthcoming infrastructure plan that supporters say will cost the federal government virtually nothing, but experts say the proposal's deregulation approach amounts to a handout to Big Business. The plan calls for creating new high-speed rail lines deep underground—the basic idea behind the English Channel tunnel, or Chunnel, that whisks travelers at 186 miles per hour from London to Paris in just two hours and 20 minutes. That’s less time than the Amtrak from New...

Martha’s Vineyard August, 2014 Vacation Cost $400,666.30 in Transportation $2,425,085.50 were Spent in Transportation Expenses for Obama’s July, 2014 West Coast Fundraising Trip Obama Hawaii Christmas vacations over the past three years have cost taxpayers $15,540,515.10 in travel expenses alone; (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it obtained records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that the Obama family’s 2014 Christmas vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, cost taxpayers $3,672,798 in flight expenses alone. Christmas in Hawaii is an annual tradition for the family and their most recent visit, from December 19, 2014, to January 4, 2015, marked...

(CNSNews.com) – Despite expanded health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more people are going to hospital emergency rooms (ER) for treatment because they can’t get an appointment with a primary care physician, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). “Nearly half of emergency physicians responding to a poll are already seeing a rise in emergency visits since January 1 when expanded coverage under ACA began to take effect,” according to ACEP, which gives overall emergency care in the U.S. “a dismal D+ grade.” In addition, 86 percent “expect emergency visits to increase over the next...

"Obamacare was sold on a trinity of lies." That ornate phrase, more suitable for the Book of Revelations or perhaps the next installment of "Game of Thrones," comes from my National Review colleague Rich Lowry. But I like it. Most people know the first deception in the triumvirate of deceit: "If you like your health insurance you can keep it, period." The second leg in the tripod of deception was "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." But the third plank in the triad of disinformation hasn't gotten much attention: Obamacare will save you, me and the...

Romance isn't cheap. But in some places, a night out on the town is a lot more expensive than in others. Deutsche Bank recently came out with its second "The Random Walk" report, which looks at the changing prices of goods and services around the world. We're taking a closer look at how major cities fared on the report's "cheap date" ranking and highlighting a couple of specific items in the index. 1) SYDNEY: A date will set you back $229.77 Delivery of a dozen roses: $139 2 movie tickets: $35.90 Cab ride (3 km): $11.79 A "cheap date" includes...

The cost of health insurance for many Americans this year climbed more sharply than in previous years, outstripping any growth in workers’ wages and adding more uncertainty about the pace of rising medical costs. A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group that tracks employer-sponsored health insurance on a yearly basis, shows that the average annual premium for family coverage through an employer reached $15,073 in 2011, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year. “The open question is whether that’s a one-time spike or the start of a period of higher increases,” said Drew...

Early in my career as a lawyer, I did a lot of work for insurance companies. I once had a case that provoked considerable laughter: a man was building an addition to his motel. He talked with his insurance agent about builders risk insurance, which would cover the structure while it was under construction, but decided not to buy it. One night, the structure caught fire and burned to the ground. The next morning at eight o'clock, the man was at his insurance agent's office, saying that he wanted to buy that builders risk coverage after all. Once the facts...

LONDON – A lawmaker at the center of Britain's growing expense account scandal said Saturday he has been humiliated by public revelations about his attempt to get taxpayers to pay for a duck hut on his country estate. Opposition Conservative Party legislator Peter Viggers' duck hut — used to shield ducks from predators — has become a potent symbol of expense account excess in recent days. He tried in vain to bill taxpayers 1,645 pounds ($2,600) for the structure — just one of many misdeeds in a scandal that has turned British voters against their elected representatives and led many...

February 22, 2008 Clamour grows to reveal the secret report that throws light on EU 'fraud' David Charter and Rory Watson in Brussels Pressure was growing last night on the European Parliament to publish a secret report into the misuse of MEPsÂ’ expenses, which whistleblowers claim shows widespread abuse of taxpayersÂ’ money. There was disbelief among the few MEPs who have been allowed to see the internal audit after officials at the Parliament said that they had not called in EU anti-fraud investigators because they did not think that it showed fraud. The Times understands that the audit of 167...

How many ways can you think of to make money off of students? Well, here's another. I read a report the other day where an independent college counselor in Oregon charged up to $36,000 per student to just help him get into college -- no guarantee! Holy cow! I am definitely in the wrong business. Well, I might be in the right business (education), but I am doing the wrong thing. No matter that the price of college tuition, not to mention room and board and flights back and forth for the holidays and dorm furnishings and cars and and...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief accuser Peter Paul said Saturday that yesterday's acquittal of her former campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, doesn't mean she's in the clear. "This is by no means an exoneration of Hillary's campaign," Paul told NewsMax. "In fact. it's an indictment of her campaign." Calling Rosen a sacrificial lamb who was set up to take the fall for higher-ups, Paul said, "The jurors clearly didn't believe that he filed these false FEC reports on his own." Paul's allegations about expenses he covered for an August 2000 gala fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton spurred a four-year investigation...

WASHINGTON - The Postal Service gives its executives moving expenses of $10,000 or $25,000 without requiring receipts, allowing employees to pocket any leftover money. The mail service says it uses the payments as a way of easing transitions to new, sometimes more expensive cities and ensuring that executives won't be lured away by competitors. One senior vice president received $75,000 — $25,000 each for three moves from June 1998 to February 2001. The mail service gave 265 executives $10,000 each and 10 others $25,000 each in the past two years, according to information gathered by Senate Finance Committee investigators.

Those who subscribe to the retro and misguided theories of 20th century psychology believe there is no age at which a person is accountable for his or her actions. No matter how egregious, premeditated, arch or criminal, there is always a mitigating "reason" – which in the "non-judgmental" world of psychobabbling therapists can never be deemed wrong or evil or stupid or a matter of bad character. That reason, the thinking goes, can be traced back to one's childhood and especially one's parents. And no matter how many years or decades have elapsed, no matter what the influence of peers,...

Oslo most expensiveNorway's capital has done it again, winning the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world, according to the latest report from Swiss bank UBS.The annual UBS Prices and Earnings survey ranks Oslo, Copenhagen and Tokyo as the three most expensive cities, but London would have pushed Oslo down to the number two spot if rents had been factored into the equation.Earnings are also top in the Scandinavian region to compensate for high costs, but with taxes and social security contributions also hefty in Scandinavia, Oslo and Copenhagen have moved down in the overall ranking...