Free Republic

For the first time in its history, the US federal government has more than $20 trillion in outstanding debt. The milestone was technically hit Friday, with the Treasury Department settling its accounts at the end of the day with $20,162,176,797,904 of debt outstanding.

Thirty-six city workers topped Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $216,210 salary. Most of them worked for the police department (23 employees) or the fire department (12). More than one of every three Chicago city workers made $100,000 or more last year — including 36 who topped Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $216,210 salary, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found. The number of city workers making more than Emanuel was up from 26 in a similar review by the Sun-Times in 2015. And the percentage of city employees topping the $100,000 mark is up slightly since then. ... among the highest-paid was Donald Koplitz, a...

Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) said Thursday that the Democratic Party is headed in the right direction after its November loss, but can no longer only be the "party of redistribution of wealth." MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist asked Ryan if he felt the Democratic Party learned its lesson from the 2016 presidential election loss after seeing blue states go red. Ryan said he believes Democrats are "taking steps in the right direction," and what they need to do is focus on the American job market and economy right now. "We have to say, look, we're the party to...

I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017 …didn't do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017 Answer: Half-true! According to a Wall Street Journal story from mid-July, the White House was indeed looking to stitch a debt-ceiling hike onto the popular, must-pass VA reform bill as a way of...

Connecticut, home to hedge fund billionaires alongside cities mired in poverty, is racing against the clock to pass a budget or face further spending cuts to education and municipal aid across the state. Nearly two months without a budget, Connecticut is getting crushed by a burdensome debt load that has squeezed spending and amplified legislative discord. State lawmakers must agree on a biennial budget soon or else Governor Dannel Malloy’s executive order to slash state aid to municipalities and eliminate school funding for some districts will go into effect in October. The state faces a $3.5 billion deficit over the...

Concern about the political effects of a deeply unpopular county pop tax — on top of recent state and city tax increases — on Thursday hung over the first day of Cook County Democrats' endorsement session for next year's primary election. Northwest Side Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th, said he expects some backlash against the pop tax "down the road in the election next year." People complaining to him about the tax "are blaming the Democrats," he said, adding that the income tax increase would compound the problem. Democrats last month overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a state income tax...

llegals living in Los Angeles County were handed almost $1.3 billion in welfare payouts between the months of 2015 and 2016, Fox News reported, citing data. That’s billion with a capital “B.” That’s a quarter of what the county distributed to its entire needy population in those same months. Liberals and government elitists always like to make the case that citizens ought to support some cheap-sounding fee- or tax-paying cause by grandly pronouncing, “It’s just the cost of a cup of coffee,” or “If everyone just gave up their Starbucks lattes, it’d pay for itself.” Well, guess what $1.3 billion...

President Obama never was shy about using his phone and pen to achieve what he could not get from Congress on regulatory matters. But documents revealed last week show the Obama administration may have been willing to get around congressional decisions on spending by using a slush fund of sorts funded by the profits of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored home loan giants. Fannie and Freddie are federally chartered enterprises which buy mortgage loans from banks and bundle them into securities that are sold to investors, thus freeing up capital so that banks can make more home...

Full Title: A new tax on sugary drinks designed to generate revenue for cash-strapped Cook County will be the third burdensome tax applied to soda prices in Chicago, making a $4 12-pack of soda in the city cost $5.97. Beginning July 1, residents of Cook County may notice their grocery bills growing as a penny-per-ounce tax on artificially sweetened beverages takes effect.The new tax will be added on top of Chicago’s highest in the nation sales tax of 10.25 percent and the city’s 3 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages. With the new sugary beverage tax, soda in Chicago will be...

Top White House adviser Steve Bannon is pushing for tax reform to include a new 44 percent top marginal tax rate, hitting people who earn more than $5 million a year, with the revenue paying for tax cuts for the rest, according to three people who’ve spoken to him recently.

Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial woes aren’t stopping 63,000 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher. Whenever we open the books, Illinois is consistently one of the worst offenders. Recently, we found auto pound supervisors in Chicago making $144,453; nurses at state corrections earning up to $254,781; junior college presidents making $465,420; university doctors earning $1.6 million; and 84 small-town “managers” out-earning every U.S. governor. Using our interactive mapping tool, quickly review (by ZIP code) the 63,000 Illinois public employees who earn more than $100,000 and cost taxpayers...

Winter is coming for the North. Last year, three states in the Northeast — New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — landed in the top five places people were moving out of fastest, according to 2017 data from United Van Lines. (The other two states on the list were Illinois and Kansas.) And data from Pew Charitable Trusts found that while people are all about moving to the South (their population grew by nearly 1.4 million people from 2014 to 2015) and the West (866,000 more people,) the population growth in the Northeast is “sluggish.” The Northeastern exodus is particularly...

**SNIP** Democratic leaders shared few details to preserve suspense around the plan, which is scheduled to be unveiled Monday at an event in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, where the party hopes to defeat incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (R). But some lawmakers, aides and outside advocates consulted on the new agenda said that it is expected to focus on new proposals to fund job-training programs, renegotiate trade deals and address soaring prescription-drug costs, as well as other issues. It is also expected to endorse long-held Democratic principles, including “a living wage” of $15 per hour and already unveiled spending plans for...

Recently, Gallup published the results of its annual Values and Beliefs poll. The headline of the report speaks for itself: "Americans Hold Record Liberal Views on Most Moral Issues." Gallup has been doing this poll since 2001, and the change in public opinion on the moral issues surveyed has been in one direction -- more liberal. Of 19 issues surveyed in this latest poll, responses on 10 are the most liberal since the survey started. Sixty-three percent say gay/lesbian relations are morally acceptable -- up 23 points from the first year the question was asked. Sixty-two percent say having a...

The city Conflicts of Interest Board gave Mayor de Blasio the green light for a free trip to Germany because it achieved a “city purpose” — of opposing President Trump, a spokesman said Monday. An email from the conflicts board’s lawyer, sent at 10 p.m. Friday — more than a day after de Blasio flew to Germany — said the board approved his itinerary based on a rule that allows acceptance of travel-related gifts if “the trip is for a city purpose and therefore could properly be paid for with city funds.”

Democrats control both houses of the California State Legislature with 2/3 majorities, allowing them to pass any bills they wish, with no possibility of obstruction from the powerless GOP. As Democrats will when they feel empowered, they recently passed a major hike in gasoline taxes that will take over $5 billion a year more from the pockets of motorists. With the GOP powerless, what could possibly go wrong? ===== [snip] Caught by surprise, the California Dems reacted stupidly. ====== [snip] But trying to quash a recall election following a tax increase, and dragging three kids into court looks really bad...

The train wreck that is the state of Illinois has generated a lot of questions lately, including “Will its government ever pass a budget?”, “Will it ever pay its overdue bills?”, and “Is it possible for a state to go bankrupt?” Looks like we’re about to get some answers to these questions, along with one more: “What happens to the financial markets when people finally realize that Illinois is far from the only impending bankruptcy?” Today’s Wall Street Journal has an anecdote-filled article illustrating what certainly looks like a case of terminal financial mismanagement (How Bad Is the Crisis in...

The city of Chicago is facing bankruptcy due to Democrat Party leadership that has simply destroyed the great American city. But this isn’t stopping the Democrat leadership in Chicago from paying for and placing a statue in front of Trump Tower in Chicago. The statue reads “Real Fake”. It was reported earlier this week that Chicago is on the verge of bankruptcy. Two years ago Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Chicago’s debt to junk status, now politicians in Chicago are arguing that maybe bankruptcy is not such a bad thing. Chicago currently faces $25 billion in pension promises that it cannot...

<p>Actor-producer Ricky Gervais says President Donald Trump convinced his supporters to see “Hollywood liberal elite” as their enemy.</p> <p>In an extensive interview with Vulture, The Officer creator says the liberal celebrities who want politicians to raise tax rates “are the ones willing to pay more.”</p>

The Illinois official responsible for paying the state's bills is warning that new court orders mean her office must pay out more each month than Illinois receives in revenue. Comptroller Susana Mendoza must prioritize what gets paid as Illinois nears its third year without a state budget. A mix of state law, court orders and pressure from credit rating agencies requires some items be paid first. Those include debt and pension payments, state worker paychecks and some school funding. Mendoza says a recent court order regarding money owed for Medicaid bills means mandated payments will eat up 100 percent of...