Free Republic

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which recently passed the House, contains $1400 stimulus checks. But some federal workers will have more than one check. They can get paid time off with up to 15 checks of $1400 each. Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund Neatly tucked within the $1.9 trillion emergency aid package is the $570 million Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund. This budget is exclusive for federal workers who need to stay home to tend to their kids. Thus, this will fund the paid time off for federal workers with children enrolled in schools yet to return to...

The $3 trillion coronavirus aid package Democrats introduced Tuesday calls for the Treasury to make payments of up to $10,000 per student loan. The proposal, which Democrats plan to vote on Friday, calls for Treasury to make student loan payments until September 2021. Any unused portion of the $10,000 would be applied to the outstanding loan balance if it’s not reached by the 2021 deadline. Senate Democrats earlier this year proposed the cancellation of student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic in addition to wiping out at least $10,000 in student loan debt.

The economy is still limping along, but some members of Congress are nevertheless riding in style: At least 10 House members are spending more than $1,000 a month in taxpayer money to lease cars. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver appears to be the biggest spender. In the last quarter of 2009, the Missouri Democrat doled out $2,900 a month to lease a WiFi-equipped, handicap-accessible mobile office that runs on used cooking oil. “Rather than paying for an additional office, the congressman has a mobile office, with all the capabilities to do casework across the district,” Cleaver spokesman Danny Rotert wrote in an...

Food stamp programs in 30 states and the District of Columbia provided data on the number of recipients who had no other cash income in 2007 and 2009. These numbers reflect not only the economic conditions in various states, but also the extent to which food stamp recipients qualify for other safety net programs, such as welfare or unemployment compensation.

General Motors (GM) has agreed to finance private equity firm Platinum Equity’s buyout of Delphi Corp. GM will provide more than $2 billion to Platinum Equity for purchasing most of the assets of Delphi.Troy, Michigan-based Delphi, which has been operating under ban kruptcy protection, is a former GM subsidiary and the auto-maker’s largest supplier. Under the deal, Platinum Equity will acquire most of Delphi's global operations, including its Troy headquarters. GM is also acquiring some troubled assets of Delphi. Further, the company is providing $250 million to help Delphi emerge from bankruptcy protection....

President-elect Barack Obama has made a big mistake that, as usual, the mainstream media has given him a pass on by not making a big deal about it. It’s not his cabinet nominations, which the mainstream media are all gushy about. It’s not whether he or any of his staff can be linked to the sale of his Illinois Senate seat by “caught red-handed but I didn’t do it” Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And it is certainly not who Obama has chosen to pray at his inauguration. It’s his inauguration for peace sake! “We can’t worry, short-term, about the deficit” is...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to unveil a multibillion-dollar transportation bond tonight that could jump start long-delayed road projects in the East Bay. The new largess -- anticipated to provide $25 billion for roads, levees and schools -- could help pay for new interchanges along Interstate 80, merging lanes on Interstate 680, a wider Highway 4 and a fourth bore through the Caldecott tunnel. "I think what the bond would enable us to do is fund those projects already on our to-do list but haven't been able to get to," said Janet Abelson, president of the board for the Contra...