Free Republic

Key FactsNew York lawmakers are planning the tax, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the state budget negotiations who noted the proposal would be levied at 1% of the buying price and be paid by buyers. The legislators are also considering expanding the tax to $1 million or more cash purchases in the state that would incorporate the suburbs and upstate New York, Bloomberg added. The tax in New York City alone could generate up to $160 million, according to the unnamed sources Bloomberg cited. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., told Bloomberg she “announced a general agreement...

Don’t break up because of that Mam! New York leaders are desperately trying to stop billionaire bigwigs from hightailing it out of the Big Apple with their cash, businesses and thousands of jobs — as fears mount that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policies will accelerate the Empire State’s nation-leading loss of wealth. The splashy one-two punch of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Apollo Global Management honcho Marc Rowan pledging to expand outside New York City has been coupled with a silent wave of businesses “quiet quitting” the city over its hostile environment, insiders told The Post. The burgeoning biz bolt has...

The flight of the productive from our major cities has been going on for a while now, but nothing seems to pour accelerant on that flight faster than the election of a "democratic socialist" (you can read that as "communist") mayor, which is what has happened in New York and Seattle. In New York, in particular, anyone with a net worth in the black is looking to the exits, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems determined to knock the Big Apple's economy clean out and then go through its pockets for loose change. One business leader, determined to remain in New...

Democratic tax policies always follow the same basic script: They tax the wealthy. The wealthy leave. Democrats increase taxes on the middle class and everyone else to make up for the revenue losses. Economic destruction follows. That's going to happen in New York City, too, as Zohran Mamdani's "tax the rich" plans have prompted the start of a wealth exodus from the Big Apple. Wall Street giant Apollo aims to open 'second headquarters' outside NYC - in latest fallout from Mamdani's war on the wealthy https://t.co/ozffxGvIbE pic.twitter.com/kNwowJ0Mqw— New York Post (@nypost) May 6, 2026Here's more:Yet another major Wall Street firm...

When someone says a retiree is "living off Social Security," it's not usually $100,000 a year. But some U.S. retired couples will be receiving that much in a few years - and a proposal to cap their benefit at that amount has started a painful and much-needed conversation about who should get government benefits and how much.

SALEM, Ore. (KATU) — Two Democratic Oregon Senators will introduce a bill that would change how the state’s personal income tax “kicker” is distributed when revenues exceed forecasts. The resolution would amend the Oregon Constitution. Under current law, when state revenues exceed projections by at least 2%, most of the excess personal income tax revenue is returned to taxpayers as the kicker. Under the resolution, that system would largely remain in place, but with a new threshold. If the total personal income tax surplus exceeds $300 million in a biennium, only half of that excess would be returned to taxpayers....

Former President Joe Biden’s long career in politics allowed him to retire with the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any ex-prez in US history — $417,000, or more than his presidential salary, an expert says. Biden, 83, was in line to rake in the massive amount from two pension funds in his first year as former president, according to an analysis by National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady. “It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” Brady told The Post. “I would have to say that it’s the largest,” the taxpayer advocate said when asked...

President Donald Trump halted his motorcade at a Florida shopping center Friday morning to buy marble and onyx “at his own expense” for the new White House ballroom, according to the pool report. The out-of-town press pool remained in vans parked near railroad tracks while Trump was inside Arc Stone & Tile in an industrial area of Lake Worth, Florida , located off of I-95., according to the report. Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email Friday morning for comment. Why It Matters Trump said he recently refurbished parts of the White House with marble floors and...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani opened his administration Thursday with an explicit pledge to govern the nation’s largest city as a democratic socialist, saying he would not soften his politics as he ushered in the “new era.” “I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said in his inaugural address on New Year’s Day before a crowd of thousands gathered at City Hall and at a block party down the Canyon of Heroes. The declaration, made on the steps of City Hall, set the tone for a speech that framed his mayoralty as a...

President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs from the federal work force, disproportionately affecting Black employees.When President Trump started dismantling federal agencies and dismissing rank-and-file civil servants, Peggy Carr, the chief statistician at the Education Department, immediately started to make a calculation. She was the first Black person and the first woman to hold the prestigious post of commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. As a political appointee, she knew there was a risk of becoming a target. But her 35-career at the department spanned a half dozen administrations, including Mr. Trump’s first term, and she...

As a teenager in the late 1970s, Steve Richardson was sweeping and stocking shelves at a toy store on the edge of L.A.’s Skid Row when he noticed the first signs of a monumental change in the city. Day after day, workers, hired from the surrounding streets to unload trucks full of toys, would take the empty boxes and transform them into makeshift shelters where they would spend the night. “They were called cardboard condos,” said Richardson, a Skid Row leader now known as General Dogon. “They went on block after block.” At the same time, Los Angeles Times columnist...

Legislation moving through Congress includes breaks for the upper and middle classes as the House rebuffs President Donald Trump’s suggestions.House Republicans rejected a push by some allies of President Donald Trump to include tax hikes on the rich in sweeping legislation they passed last week — a decision that could carry repercussions into next year’s elections.The legislation House Republicans approved last week extends tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017, cutting rates across income groups, including large benefits for the Americans who pay the highest share of federal income tax — those in the top 5 percent of the...

Republicans are trying to lock in Trump’s tax cuts and Democrats are resisting. We now know that DOGE is trying to end the wasteful spending in DC. But I would really like to see tax rates on the middle class fall. The wealth gap between the top 1% of taxpayers and the bottom 50% of taxpayers is enormous. And has gotten worse since 1990. Meanwhile. to fight off the temporary effects of the tariff war, Trump is urging Fed Chair Powell to cut rates. Powell will likely NOT cut rates. But what does “Lunatic Liz” Warren say about rate cuts??

Tariffs are advertised in the name of helping American workers, but what do you know? They turn out to favor the powerful and politically connected. That’s the main message of President Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and assorted electronic goods from his most onerous tariffs. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) late Friday issued a notice listing products that will be exempt from Mr. Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs that can run as high as 145% on goods from China. The exclusions apply to smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives, computer processors, servers, memory chips, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and other electronics. The CBP...

President Trump began his Wednesday with some advice for those rattled by his steep tariffs. “BE COOL,” Mr. Trump told his followers on social media after the markets opened. Just a couple of minutes later he wrote, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” Hours after that, Mr. Trump sent the markets soaring when he paused the levies for 90 days. The S&P 500 climbed several percentage points in a matter of minutes and was on its way to its best day since the recovery of the 2008 financial crisis. Soon after Mr. Trump’s pause, Democrats and government ethics...

Moonbat Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) has gone completely crazy after President Trump proved once again why it’s unwise to doubt him about the art of the deal. As The Gateway Pundit’s Cassandra MacDonald reported, Trump today announced an immediate tariff increase on China to 125%. He also granted a 90-day pause and tariff reduction to 10% for over 75 other countries. Trump announced the tariff change on Truth Social, writing that it was due to China’s “lack of respect for the World’s Markets.” An angry Schiff lashed out a few hours after Trump announced his new tariff policy. After receiving...

A protester at the anti-Trump/anti-Musk rally holds a sign reading, “Somebody just do it already.”

A large anti-Trump protest took place in D.C., followed by a smaller Gaza protest and then a hamburger. Saturdays. Show not Tell PenguinSix is an apolitical guy in a political town who likes to walk a lot. He has hiked over 17,000 miles (27,000kms) in the past six years and is still walking today. He is an American expat who spent the last decade in Hong Kong with his family and is now back in Washington DC, continuing his daily ritual of taking very long hikes around the city catching the sights and sounds of the city while live streaming...

Dem Rep Maxwell Frost: Elon Musk became the richest person in the world because he steals from people.

The Democratic Party’s favorability among Americans has plunged to a record low. In an attempt to reverse this decline, the rudderless party of leftist lunatics has openly launched a domestic color revolution—facilitated by a shadowy network of billionaire-funded NGOs. Initially, the operation targeted Elon Musk and DOGE; now, the leftist NGO machine is gaining momentum and redirecting total mobilization efforts at President Trump on Saturday in nationwide protests called “Hands Off!”… Protest Map Hands Off 2025’s website shows that 186 NGOs, unions, and other leftist groups support the mass mobilization effort of crazed leftists. Color revolutions have generally been used...