Free Republic

The liquid assets in Russia's national wealth fund fell 44% from January 2022 to December 2023. Total holdings in the fund tumbled 12% over the same period amid the war in Ukraine, per Bloomberg. Liquid assets in the fund could last just another year or two if Russia's oil export price falls below $50 a barrel, per Bloomberg Economics.

Right now as I write this there are significant elements of the Ukrainian forces located within 40km of the strategic Soviet city of Belgorod. This city is a critical transshipment and distribution hub for all manner of logistical support for the Soviet Army that is currently trying to steal more land from Ukraine. The foolish Soviets have left this city all but undefended as they've moved their forces to concentrate on preventing the encirclement and capture of 20,000+ orc forces at Izyum, Ukraine. The Ukrainians don't have to even seize the city. They may not even need to cross into...

The current war in Ukraine is not a battle between the good and bad guys; it has everything to do with the setting up of a one-world government. Both sides favor a New World Order, but are they fighting for same vision of it? Both Putin and Zelenskyy graduated from Klaus Schwab’s school for Young Global leaders. Schwab, founder and head of the World Economic Forum (WEF), promotes what he calls the Great Reset, which is a Marxist reordering of the world’s economy under one government. So how do we explain what’s happening in Ukraine? I believe the answer lies...

Top House Democrats wrote letters to the chief executives of four major social media platforms on Wednesday, urging them to preserve and archive content related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that could be potential evidence of war crimes. The lawmakers asked Meta, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok to preserve and archive posts related to the conflict “that may provide evidence of war crimes or human rights violations,” establish a mechanism with human rights-specific organizations to share that content and create a way for content depicting a possible war crime to be flagged by the platforms’ users.

Senator Rand Paul has blocked a fast-track senate vote on the additional $40 billion funding package created by Joe Biden and House Democrats. Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell approved a fast-track vote; however, senator Rand Paul (KY) stood defiant against their effort. Despite the high-profile pressure from the two Senate leaders, Rand Paul refused to move and that means the Senate will have to take procedural steps to overcome his objection, which could take several days. “My oath of office is the US constitution not to any foreign nation and no matter how...

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked the passage of the $39.8 billion House-passed Ukraine aid after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) presented a unanimous consent on behalf of himself and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today. Schumer urged Paul to pass the bill and claimed that the Senator from Kentucky wanted to add certain changes directly to the bill, which have been opposed by members of both parties. “He is not even asking for an amendment. He is simply saying my way or the highway,” Schumer said. Paul asserted that the aid amount will almost equal the entire military budget of Russia...

"Though we expect our NATO allies and EU partners will be making even larger collective contributions than the United States, there is no doubt that continuing to support Ukraine in this war against Russian aggression will require a substantial additional investment on our part," the president wrote.

Obamacare's confusing tax credits, coupled with fines and the implementation of previously delayed mandates, will make the 2015 tax filing season “one of the most chaotic in years,” a national tax expert and tax preparer warned House lawmakers yesterday, reports the Washington Examiner. “I am here today to tell you that the upcoming tax filing season has the potential to be one of the most chaotic in years,” said Ryan Ellis, an IRS enrolled agent and tax policy director at Americans for Tax Reform. Ellis warned the House Ways and Means subcommittees on Health and Oversight on Tuesday that the...

Can you guess which project was funded with your tax dollars? A) $98,000 outhouse on an Alaskan trail B) $1 million bus stop with heated pavement C) Caribbean vacation for bureaucrats staying at a swanky resort D) All of the above If you answered “all of the above,” you’ve either read Senator Tom Coburn’s Wastebook or you’ve grown accustomed to reading headlines about the weird and wacky ways members of Congress spend your money. The video below chronicles 10 projects that received federal funding in 2013: With an $1.012 trillion spending bill likely to make its debut any day in...

China just dropped an absolute bombshell, but it was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the United States. The central bank of China has decided that it is “no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves”. During the third quarter of 2013, China’s foreign-exchange reserves were valued at approximately $3.66 trillion. And of course the biggest chunk of that was made up of U.S. dollars. For years, China has been accumulating dollars and working hard to keep the value of the dollar up and the value of the yuan down. One of the goals has been to...

Calculating the Cost of Amnesty By The Editors The Heritage Foundation has undertaken to back a plausible theory with numbers. The theory is that the amnesty contained in the immigration bill before Congress will cost taxpayers plenty; it is plausible because we have a large redistributive state, and many of the illegal immigrants to whom this bill will grant legal status — and the relatives their legal status will allow them to bring here — will be net recipients of government benefits.

<p>Even the people set to serve in Barack Obama’s cabinet apparently don’t like ObamaCare.</p> <p>It’s a bit like the old Democratic congressiona trick of not applying new regulations to Congress. Too expensive, of course!</p> <p>It turns out that President Barack Obama’s supporters—at least those rich or important or influential enough to serve in his Cabinet—apparently don’t much like ObamaCare. Too expensive, of course!</p>

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said that some kind of pathway to citizenship “absolutely” must be part of immigration reform. Immigration officials arrested an illegal immigrant and convicted sex offender interning for Sen. Menendez in December. “Absolutely,” Menendez said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, when asked if a pathway to citizenship was necessary. “Latino voters in—first of all, Americans support it in poll after poll. Secondly, Latino voters expect it. Thirdly, Democrats want it. And fourth, Republicans need it.” …

The U.S. Export-Import Bank,an agency of the federal government,is lending $105 million to the Brazilian state of Ceara to help build an aquarium in its capital city of Fortaleza. “An anticipated tourist attraction,the aquarium will boast four floors housing 25 large tanks containing approximately 15 million liters of water and showcasing 500 marine species and 35,000 individual specimens,” the Export- Import Bank said in a press release. “The aquarium will also feature interactive exhibits,two 4D cinemas,one 3D cinema, and an educational platform

A friend of mine was driving through Temple, TX when he snapped this picture of a large billboard by the highway. The billboard had a picture of President Obama and it had a simple, clear message: Bankrupt America YES WE CAN!

Bled white and destroyed by Barack Obama’s “hope and change” hundreds of thousands of Americans have been forced to use tax refunds to pay the filing costs of their bankruptcies. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports that bankruptcy lawyers have seen an increase in personal bankruptcies filings which follow this pattern: many clients are filing bankruptcy soon after receiving their tax refunds. This has been especially true since a law passed in 2005 made bankruptcy more costly and more difficult. For some people, in Barack Obama’s upside down America as fast as money comes in it goes to...

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would generate bigger deficits than advertised each year for the next decade, with the 10-year shortfall totaling $1.2 trillion more than the administration estimated, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan CBO, in an annual analysis of the White House budget proposal, said today that under Obama’s plan deficits would never shrink below 4 percent of the economy between now and 2020. The cumulative deficits would total $9.76 trillion, and debt held by the public would amount to 90 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2020, the CBO said. By 2020, the...

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) now says he never intended to give his state special treatment in the Democrats' health care legislation. The moderate Democrat has been roundly criticized for a so-called "sweetheart deal" he struck with Democratic leaders in return for his support of the bill. In the deal, any expansion of Medicaid in the state of Nebraska would be paid for completely with federal funds, while other states would have to dip into their state budgets to meet the required expansion. Republicans called it the "cornhusker kickback." Now as Democrats in the House and the Senate work to merge...

WASHINGTON – Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.

CNSNews.com) - By 2012, nearly $1 trillion from the top 30 percent of American families will be redistributed among the bottom 70 percent if Obama’s proposals on taxes, health care, and climate change become law, according to the Tax Foundation. “Even if none of Obama’s policies becomes law, the extent of income redistribution is remarkable,” Scott Hodge, president of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, said. “The top-earning 40 percent of families will transfer $826 billion to the bottom 60 percent in 2012.” Under the Obama plan, 70 percent of American families as a group -- those earning less than $109,460 --...