Free Republic

Federal electric vehicle rebates in Canada went 153% over their originally intended budgets, a new report out last week unveiled.Ottawa had shelled out $759 million on EV rebates by March of last year, according to a report by True North. The "unprecedented" number of people claiming the rebates pushed Canada's government well over its allocated spending. Analysts in the Audit Of Incentives For Zero Emission Vehicles Program said: “The uptake of the program was higher than expected and funding was an ongoing concern.”“The program’s main risk is not having sufficient funding to meet the demand,” they continued.In Canada, beginning in...

As Massachusetts officials prepare to send nearly $3 billion in excess state revenues back to taxpayers starting this week, the Department of Revenue late Monday afternoon clarified its staggered distribution plan for Bay Staters.

Americans suffering under the crushing weight of historic inflation should be happy to know they can reduce their energy costs by weatherizing their homes, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on "Fox News Sunday." "If you are low income, you can get your home entirely weatherized through the expansion from the bipartisan infrastructure laws, a significant expansion — you don't have to pay for anything," Granholm said. "If you want heat pumps, insulation, new windows, that is covered," she continued. "If you are moderate income, today you can get 30% off the price of solar panels. Those solar panels can be...

Democrats are proposing to offer drivers cash and rebate schemes to counter President Biden’s record-high gas prices. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA), John Larson (D-CT), and Lauren Underwood (D-IL) last week proposed the Gas Rebate Act of 2022 where American drivers would receive a $100 energy rebate per month for the remainder of 2022.

Highway express lanes provide a faster trip for carpoolers, people who drive low-emission cars, and solo travelers who are willing to pay more.ThatÂ’s the idea, anyway.But as Americans drive more miles than ever before, express lanes are facing a challenge: they are too popular. So many drivers of all kinds are using the lanes that it is increasingly difficult for transportation officials to keep them speedy.For solo drivers, the tolls in express lanes typically vary based on demand. In some places, drivers pay more during peak travel times, and in others prices go up as more cars enter the lane....

Here’s an interesting way the government is blowing your tax dollars, but more on the state and local level than the federal. As much as I love movies, (well, some of them anyway) the process of making them involves a lot of money. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who follows the box office numbers on a regular basis. In 1980 the average cost of making a Hollywood film was $4.3M. By last year the average had gone up to $200M and studios are spending up to $100M just on marketing for the big ticket pictures. With that...

An estimated 8.5 million Americans will receive rebates from their health insurers this summer thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which says companies that fail to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on health care must refund the difference to consumers. Obama today touted the benefit as part of his mid-summer push ... The amount of the individual rebates varies widely by state and insurance company, depending on whether a consumer's insurer was in compliance with the law. The largest average rebates will be seen in Washington state, where 3,007 consumers will receive an average $512 this summer. In...

It sounds too good to be true, and if Texas regulators have their way, it won't happen. About 690,000 consumers are slated to get an estimated $160 million in rebates from health insurance companies by Aug. 1. But the Texas Insurance Department wants to slash that amount by three-fourths and phase in changes slowly. The department says the individual insurance market could be destabilized if companies have to make the payments and cut into profits. Consumer groups say that everything will be fine and that customers deserve their full refunds. A federal decision is expected within two weeks. The rebates...

The latest Senate energy bill, quietly unveiled last week, looks like sweet compromise on radical measures like cap and trade, but buried within is a bitter poison pill that will could be swallowed in a vote that may come this week. Unlike the 1,200-page House of Representatives energy bill, which passed last year, this scaled-down proposal does not call for an 83-percent reduction in greenhouse gases (or any reduction in greenhouse gases) and contains no mention of a cap-and-trade scheme. Also contrary to the House bill, this one does not provide a family of four earning up to $55,000 with...

Administration economists cited Keynesian models that predicted that the $787 billion stimulus package would increase GDP by enough to create 3.6 million jobs....more modern macroeconomic models predicted only one-sixth of that GDP impact. Consider first the part of the package that consists of government transfers and rebates. The nearby chart reviews income and consumption through July (DPI)--the total amount of income people have left to spend after they pay taxes and receive transfers from the government--jumped. The increase is due to the transfer and rebate payments in the 2009 stimulus package. However, as the chart also shows, there was no...

They try ‘use it or lose it’ approach to stalled project in Nevada. BY JAMES ROSEN WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, backed by 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, introduced legislation Thursday to provide “rebates” from a $30 billion fund to build the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. Because South Carolina has more nuclear reactors than most states do, its residents have contributed a disproportionately large share — more than $1.2 billion — to the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund for developing the Yucca repository. Graham criticized President Barack Obama for his decision to mothball the Yucca project,...

Spread it out, and they will spend ... that's what Democrats say.Okay then.I'm ready to do my part by giving this economy a good swift kick in the pants.Let's see ... Eight dollars will almost get me a pack of cigarettes in New York City – and at some places in town, a full one. Eight bucks, however, will not be enough to get me across the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island by car (that’s $10.00), but I would be able to take four subway rides. It’ll also score me a McDonalds double quarter-pounder value meal in Manhattan, or...

Here is Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in his own words that I find most revealing: "I probably always feel on some level I can persuade anybody I talk to." That's what he told Time on Feb. 20, 2006, and I happened to stumble across that quotation while browsing through a book by Lisa Rogak titled Barack Obama In His Own Words. I think it is revealing, because it displays a conceit and arrogance that reveals why he makes many of his most outrageous policy blunders. For example, he wants to negotiate without preconditions with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo...

President Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than previously announced, and should help Americans cope with rising gasoline and food prices, as well as aid a slumping economy. Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help. "Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country," Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House. Those first rebates will be directly...

Over the next several weeks, 130 million Americans will get some easy money, compliments of Uncle Sam. Well, it's actually courtesy of ourselves, the taxpayers. But Congress and the president decided that giving Americans rebate checks is a great way to boost the economy. The idea: Put some money back in the hands of Americans, who can be counted on to squander it. It's almost our patriotic duty to do so. But we don't have to go along with this idea. We live in a free country, after all. So we can take advantage of this opportunity to bolster our...

Merchants struggling with the slowdown in spending are stepping up promotions to court consumers who are expecting a cash infusion from federal rebate checks. Retailers are already planning major sales and big advertising campaigns in the fierce fight for dollars - even though the government won't start mailing out the checks until May. For merchants worried about a bleak year, this is like Christmas in spring. Store owners have good reason to expect a shopping spree. People plan to spend 40.6 percent, or about $42.9 billion, of the $105.7 billion the government is distributing in tax rebates, according to a...

President Bush proposed, and Congress quickly passed, an economic stimulus package in the form of tax “rebates” that could total $150 billion dollars back in the pockets of most Americans. The president and Congress agreed that as much as $600 would be returned to individual Americans, or $1,200 per couple, and even more to households with children. The reason given for the rebates is that it will give the economy a needed shot in the arm and likely avoid or lessen a recession. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? The president’s proposal should forever end the debate whether or...

Agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...April 15th is coming.................aaaggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....   POINTS TO PONDER: If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper? What's the definition of an accountant? Someone who solves a problem you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand. What's the definition of a good tax accountant? Someone who has a loophole named after him. For every tax problem there is a solution which is straightforward, uncomplicated and wrong. People who complain about paying their income tax can be divided into two...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats, under pressure from party colleagues in the House, agreed Thursday to an economic rescue package that would add checks for Social Security retirees and disabled veterans but leave out extended jobless benefits and additional business subsidies. The package would rush tax rebates of $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples to most taxpayers and grant business tax cuts to revive the economy. Leaders in both parties and in both chambers of Congress had agreed by Wednesday night on the idea that 20 million seniors whose sole or main income is Social Security and 250,000 veterans living...