Free Republic

Unlike government, which never has a bottom line and seems not to care one whit for economic consequences in U.S. deficit spending and counting)--such is not the case for any business or any rational person managing a household budget Apparently the liberal MSM and politicians confuse the name Walmart with the concept of welfare. The first is a publicly-traded retailer with stockholders that expect the company to remain profitable. The second is a government-sponsored entitlement program for the needy. The two are examples of entirely different economic animals: the first provides purpose, the semblance of independence and potential upward mobility,...

Taxpayers could be losing up to $6000 of they don't apply for a certain tax credit, Channel 9's Steve Barrett reported. Volunteers from Heart of Florida United Way's (HFUW) "Financially Fit" are going door to door to some homes in Central Florida to make sure taxpayers are aware of the Earned Income Tax Credit. The group said it is also making sure low-income taxpayers know that they qualify for free tax assistance. "It's around $6,000 that they can get for the Earned Income Tax Credit. It's based on your income and the number of people in your household. Then, getting...

Since President Obama took office the number of able-bodied-without-dependents who are receiving government food subsidies has soared by 370%. This increase in participation by persons who in another era would have been expected to fend for themselves was hailed as "great progress on the President's goal of transforming America," by Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell. "Relieved of the burden of feeding themselves, these individuals are free to pursue goals higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs." One of the favorite "higher goals" of this segment of the population is smoking. Fully 50% of the subsidized beneficiaries are smokers...

Here’s a question: Why should lawmakers bother trying to inject transparency into the operations of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation? Wouldn’t it make more sense to apply their efforts to just dumping the MEDC altogether? Given the obstacles, the answer may be “probably not.” As Michigan’s corporate welfare arm, the agency spends the public’s money to entice businesses to start operations in the state, or pay firms already located here not to move elsewhere. The primary goal is to create jobs. Yet according to state audits and independent studies, the MEDC's success rate for creating the number of jobs it...

Bernie Sanders’ “Democrat socialist” policies sound good and have a lot of popular support among certain demographics, but when pressed on how he would pay for all the free stuff he’s promising, he’s a bit nonplussed. Pesky details like that just don’t interest him; it’s all about the utopian ideal in his dreamy little head, not about reality.For example, although he pledged to release his plan for paying for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, he’s now decided that might be a mistake and is considering breaking that particular pledge.CNN reports: Bernie Sanders could break his pledge...

It must be the holidays, because a lot of liberal media types are publishing end-of-year thumbsuckers on democracy. In the Atlantic, Peter Beinart writes that Americans are becoming more liberal; in the New Republic, David Dayen says no, they are not. And over at Vox, Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk show with the World Values Survey that democracy is in trouble as Americans, and people all over the world, are losing faith in it.

Currently, there’s a multilayered debate taking place in the Michigan Legislature. At issue is whether the state should give tax exemptions to all data centers; give exemptions to just a single proposed data center near Grand Rapids; or learn from the past and forget about the tax exemptions altogether. If the deals that produce special breaks like tax exemptions were routinely subject to meaningful public transparency, there might be a good chance of resolving this debate based on facts rather than speculation. That, however, is not the case. On the other hand, if such deals were routinely subject to meaningful...

If you're thinking about ringing in the New Year in two New Jersey cities you want want to think again, according a new study by WalletHub. Analysts at the consumer and small business web site probed the 100 biggest cities based on 17 levels of criteria ranging from the average price of a New Year's Eve party ticket, weather and the legality of fireworks. As for the two New Jersey cities on the list? Jersey City and Newark brought up the rear at No. 98 and 99 respectively.

Emily BadgerDeember 9, 2015Toward the end of every month, hospitals in California see a curious uptick in admissions for hypoglycemia, the kind of low blood sugar that can affect diabetics. The pattern, detected in a recent study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, is almost entirely driven by low-income patients. The non-poor don't show much change in admissions at all. The researchers suspect this trend may point to an underlying challenge for the poor: Food stamps, given out in a lump sum at the start of each month, run out for many families before they reach the...

VIDEO: Woman Finds Out She's Approved For Welfare A video has been leaked on the internet which perfectly captures what life is like in President Barack Obama's America. Watch (below) as the woman reads a letter about welfare as if she might be winning the lottery. She opens it excitedly as she tells her children to leave her alone. At first, she can't understand what the letter means, but ultimately decides she's officially eligible to recieve taxpayer-funded benefits from the state. Another welfare queen who refuses to work. This is outrageous and is going viral! Watch before they take it...

Finland's citizens could soon receive tax-free payouts of roughly $868 a month - just for living in the country. Proposals being drawn up by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution call for a national basic income that would replace other benefit payments, regardless if the recipient is working or not, The Telegraph reports. It's not clear how Finland would shore up enough cash to make the payouts each year, according to Bloomberg. Still, government officials say they're trying to encourage more people to return to work. More than 10 percent of Finland's workforce is unemployed, with figures soaring to 22.7 percent...

I just returned from the grocery store. While waiting in line, as usual, I checked out the tabloid headlines. One particular headline, from The Globe I believe, caught my immediate attention. It read: IMPEACH OBAMA: He’s a disgrace. No thinking person could be opposed to such a thing. It would make for the ultimate national Christmas stocking-stuffer. On the way home, however, I asked myself, “Would impeaching Obama really change anything, I mean, fundamentally and systemically? And the answer was unequivocally, “No.” Even if you impeached Obama, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid, it wouldn’t...

Two city workers exploited flaws in the city’s welfare system to swipe $2.1 million worth of food stamps and rental subsidies — and then spent $120,000 on Red Bull, authorities said Tuesday. Petronila Peralta of The Bronx and Cherrise Watson-Jackson of Queens — both longtime employees of the Human Resources Administration — were charged with fraud, along with 11 co-conspirators who allegedly helped carry out the scam between 2008 and 2013.

Monday morning, reporters Zoe Clark and Rick Pluta published a radio story and article about how Lansing Republicans “had adopted the tax break religion” on targeted tax breaks. As evidence, there is apparently a deal in the works that would provide taxpayer funds of some sort to a particular business in exchange for a promise to locate or expand in West Michigan. The article tries to make the case that Republicans have been opposed to tax credits. But this is hardly the case, whether in the early to mid-2000s or even more recently. Consider the evidence presented by the authors....

The U.S. government was not instituted to take care of you. It was not instituted to feed you. It was not instituted to provide you with health care or insurance. It was not instituted to provide income for you in your old age. It was not instituted to educate you or your children. It was not instituted to dictate how your land could be used. It was not instituted to provide subsidies or special favors to some individuals and businesses. It was not instituted to prevent you from being offended. It was not instituted to provide charity programs for the...

Food hunger in America: More Hype than Reality. Why?He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit. (Proverbs 12:17)We see often such claims in the media such as that "millions in people here in American could be staring at an empty plate," "49 million people [approx. 1 out of 6 in American]...face hunger," "millions of Americans go to bed hungry," "1 in 7 people struggles with hunger in the US," (Feeding America) or "1 in 6 people in America faces hunger every day," (https://www.dosomething.org) or "50 million Americans—including 1 out of every 4 children—do not know where...

Charles Koch, the billionaire CEO of Koch Industries, says welfare is making people’s lives worse, but he’s not talking about welfare for low-income parents or the elderly. He’s aiming at a much bigger target. He’s talking about welfare for some of the most valuable companies in the world in the form of government handouts such as tax breaks and subsidies. Before you go on a rant about how Koch’s own company—the second largest private company in the United States behind Cargill—benefits from the very same corporate benefits, he readily acknowledges that fact. In his new book, Good Profit: How Creating...

Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton blasted GOP front runner Donald Trump’s plan to deport those in the country illegally as “another absurd Republican attempt to suppress Democratic votes. If these immigrants weren’t the kind going on welfare, if they were self-supporting owners of businesses or skilled workers—in other words, likely Republican voters—he’d be singing a different tune.” “Deporting people is inhumane and un-American,” Clinton contended. “We have no practical experience with such a large and complicated operation. We do have a wealth of experience, however, with providing, food and shelter for the tens of millions who cannot provide for...

Since 1964 the United States Governments (Federal and State) have transferred over five trillion dollars from the middle class and the rich to the poor. Are the poor better off today or have they become more enslaved and dependent on government? How much is five trillion dollars? A billion dollars is one thousand million dollars. A trillion dollars is one thousand billion dollars, thus five trillion dollars is five thousand billion dollars. That amount is inconceivable to the human mind. That is how much government has taken from the middle and rich class and transferred it to the poor. This...