Free Republic

Brace yourselves … the U.S. Census Bureau just shared some information about the counties with the highest household income in the nation, and you’re in for a major shock: U.S. Census Bureau ✔ @uscensusbureau Highest counties by median household income (2013-2017): -Loudoun County, Va. -Fairfax County, Va. -Howard County, Md. -Falls Church City, Va. -Arlington County, Va. https://go.usa.gov/xPuUe #ACSdata

President Donald Trump reportedly plans to stop financial aid to millions of Americans in Puerto Rico still dealing with the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria. The president believes, without evidence, that the Puerto Rican government is using the disaster relief funds to pay off debt rather than help its citizens rebuild, according to Axios. The island nation is still rebuilding after Maria’s destruction more than a year ago; most of the country waited almost 11 months for power to be restored and thousands of people are still displaced after their homes were destroyed. Trump was initially reluctant to send money...

Congress secretly boosted U.S. spy agency funding last year, pushing intelligence budgets to their highest publicly known level and raising questions about the reason for the surge. Non-military spy agency budgets soared nearly 9 percent to $59.4 billion in fiscal 2018, and military intelligence funding grew more than 20 percent to $22.1 billion. Overall intelligence spending increased more than 10 percent to $81.5 billion, according to the figures released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Department, a month after the fiscal year ended.

As difficult as it may be to believe, there was a time when Republicans were known as the anti-debt and balanced budget party. Now, the GOP prefers to tout low unemployment as the debt soars and they are co-conspirators in its rise. It's not that Republicans (and once-fiscally responsible Democrats) lack a way out of debt; it's that they lack the will. Both parties, but especially Republicans, fear a backlash from voters if they cut spending, much less make actual reductions. How bad is it and what can be done about it? It's this bad: The Treasury Department and Office...

**SNIP** The post office will be closed so there will be no mail delivery Monday for the holiday. Those looking to send mail also won’t be able to, so anyone looking to mail something should be sure to get to the post office Saturday before it closes, their next chance will be Tuesday. The Department of Motor Vehicles offices in most states will be closed for the holiday as well. Some offices even closed early on the Friday ahead of Columbus Day. Schools aren’t required to close for the holiday, so those wondering whether they should head to the bus...

President Trump could decide to veto a spending bill and allow parts of the government to shut down. -- President Donald Trump could decide to shut down parts of the government in the coming days as he pushes for money to build his proposed border wall. (please see link for full article)

President Trump and congressional leaders have agreed to a border wall funding showdown after the upcoming November midterm elections and if he plays his cards right, it could result in $5 billion, more than twice what the White House initially sought. While appropriations bills are moving at the fastest pace in over 20 years, with many expected to be approved by Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, Homeland Security funding for the wall is likely to be delayed, said officials. Plans are already underway to approve temporary, “stopgap,” funding that will cover Homeland until its new spending is...

It's amazing how the prospect of being hung concentrates the mind wonderfully. Congress, facing a serious threat from Donald Trump to shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for border security, including his wall, is working to mitigate that threat by passing spending bills in advance of the September 30 deadline. Washington Times: Congress is taking big strides to defuse President Trump’s shutdown threat, working to pass as many spending bills as possible before next month’s deadline so most of the government will remain open no matter what Mr. Trumpdemands on border security. On Wednesday, the Senate cleared a $154 billion package...

The Senate today easily passed its version of the farm bill by a vote of 86-11,paving the way for a conference committee to reconcile differences with the House's version of the sweeping agriculture and nutrition legislation. The Senate farm bill attracted bipartisan support, as expected, but key differences with the House's partisan version, which passed last week, set up potentially contentious negotiations between the lawmakers who will be tasked with melding the two measures into one. The main differences relate to proposals for the food stamp program, farm subsidy caps and conservation initiatives. Congress has until Sept. 30 to get...

Here are two recent events you might have missed: In March, House speaker Paul Ryan was widely quoted as saying, “The last thing we want to do is pass historic tax relief and then undo that, so we are not going to raise gas taxes.”The next month, in California, Republicans submitted 54 percent more than the required signatures to put on the November ballot a measure that would repeal the 2017 state law increasing gasoline and diesel taxes. Meanwhile, roads in Los Angeles are in such bad shape that it costs the average driver $892 a year in additional vehicle...

Cutting to the chase, right here, right now, is how our fine President can easily pay for the wall. The wall he is attempting to build— and taking even more abuse — for our nation’s best interests. This surefire solution which will pick up the tab on ‘his’ wall is an idea I have been plagued with ever since he, in his obvious masochistic lust, took over the Oval Office. Other people might have suggested what I’m about to propose. But the idea certainly hasn’t achieved much mileage, in that I have not heard this from any other source. Here...

Social Security will spend more than it collects this year, the program’s trustees said Tuesday, marking the first time in more than 35 years that it will run an annual deficit as it slides toward insolvency by 2034. Medicare’s main trust fund is in even worse shape, scheduled to hit insolvency in 2026 — three years earlier than last year’s estimate, the trustees said. The twin warnings add even more pressure to a budget already strained by last year’s tax cuts and this year’s deal to boost spending on defense and basic domestic needs, leaving few bright spots in the...

Don’t ever threaten the liberals’ imagined right to abort. It might just be unsafe. After the Trump administration proposed that health clinics such as Planned Parenthood could not accept federal funds and provide abortions, feminists and media figures raised an uproar. Planned Parenthood, the most recognized name in baby-killing, (with 321,384 abortions in the year 2016 alone), was faced with a choice: to stop providing abortions or stop accepting federal funding (in 2016, they received $543.7 million in federal funding). Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted, “Time to expose all the abortions paid for by the hypocrite politicians that vote for this....

Despite continuous promises to the pro-life cause, Republican budgets still fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of over $500 million each year. Efforts to decertify the nation’s largest abortion-mill chain ran into stiff opposition during the ObamaCare repeal effort from Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and Democrats torpedoed an attempt to include it in the budget agreement. The legislative path seems all but dead unless Republicans can win enough Senate seats to overcome a filibuster as well as hold onto the House in November — an outcome with odds on the order of having the Cleveland Browns win the...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday the administration has no plans to launch another push for infrastructure spending legislation this year. "We're going to continue looking at ways to improve that nation's infrastructure, but in terms of a specific piece of legislation, I'm not aware that that will happen by the end of the year," Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. There have been at least three serious attempts by the administration to spur congressional action on an infrastructure bill, seeing the package as an opportunity for bipartisanship.

A $43,000 soundproof telephone booth that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt put in his office has caused federal watchdogs to speak up loudly. On Monday, the General Accountability Office sent an eight-page letter to Senate lawmakers reporting that the booth violated federal spending law that caps the amount a presidential appointee can spend on upgrading their office at $5,000 without notifying the appropriations committees in the Senate and House beforehand. GAO General Counsel Thomas Armstrong also wrote that the purchase violated the Antideficiency Act, "because EPA obligated appropriated funds in a manner specifically prohibited by law.” The booth —...

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!

For months, Democrats promised to use their leverage on government spending to protect young immigrants at risk for deportation after President Trump canceled the program. More recently, they have demanded Congress pass universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of another deadly school shooting. Now, with Congress less than two weeks from a funding deadline, Democrats are showing little willingness to corner Republicans on those issues. Their lack of appetite to provoke another showdown represents a shift after two previous fights resulted in brief government shutdowns and risks alienating the party’s liberal base crucial in midterm elections. But...

The U.S. government has awarded a Montana-based company a contract worth more than $73 million to design and build replacement fencing along 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico, officials confirmed Wednesday. Existing vehicle barriers west of the Santa Teresa port of entry will be replaced with taller bollard-style barriers.

Last week, Congress passed an outline of the 2019 budget. This week, President Trump rolled out his own budget plan, which would fill in some of the spending details. While most proposals in President Trump’s newly released 2019 budget are unlikely to become law, the fiscal framework does show the White House’s priorities for government over the coming year. And those apparently don’t include support for older adults, younger people with disabilities, or their families. For example, the Trump budget would: * Restructure the Medicare drug benefit to reduce costs for some beneficiaries but raise them for others. * Reduce...