Free Republic

The price of products Amazon Inc. displays in its online store may soon include the listed price and how much was added to the value due to President Donald Trump’s tariff impositions. Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday that, according to a source familiar with the matter, the e-commerce giant will start showing the figure added to the value because of the duties right alongside a product’s total price. The move is reportedly an effort by Amazon to inform customers cost rises have nothing to do with it and everything to do with the Trump White House. Response to the reported...

On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) stated that large tariffs won’t bring back steel or auto plants to his state “in less than five or ten years. And the costs of competing, of manufacturing here in the United States are still too high.” Coons said, “There was a 100-year-old steel mill in Claymont, Delaware. We worked hard to try and save it, but, ultimately, it closed. There were two auto plants in Delaware. Ultimately, they closed. High tariffs won’t bring those plants back in less than five or ten years. And the costs of competing,...

The price of eggs has taken a sharp plunge as Americans have watched the cost of the grocery staple shift downward since mid-February, Axios reported Friday. The drop in prices comes as the nation has been grappling with a bird flu outbreak that has affected egg prices and farmers, per Breitbart News. According to the Axios report, “The average wholesale price of a dozen eggs was $3 Friday, down 8% from $3.27 on March 21, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data released Friday.”

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean claimed Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that President Donald Trump’s “crazy” fixation on tariffs would cost Americans a lot of money. Dean said, “We have to be willing to show that we’re going to stand up for people. That’s why Trump won. Trump convinced them falsely because he lied every single day he was out there that he was going to stand up for them. And they figured, well, OK, let’s give it a shot. And, you know, we’ve got to be out there, and we’ve got to be at every door. It...

Walmart, one of the nation’s biggest retailers, is telling its China-based suppliers to absorb the cost of President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese-made products. Sources told Bloomberg News that Walmart is asking Chinese suppliers to cut their prices — some by as much as 10 percent — so that Trump’s increased tariffs on China will be absorbed by the retailers rather than American consumers. Chinese suppliers are reportedly trying to resist any lowering of their prices while some manufacturers are having to go outside China to source their materials. A spokesperson for Walmart told Bloomberg that the retailer is...

A Maine Republican says that her state’s transgender athlete policy is so “extreme” that it will cost the state millions in federal funding. Maine Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby is blasting Democrat Governor Janet Mills for refusing to obey President Donald Trump’s Title IX rules banning transgender athletes in girl’s sports or risk a loss of federal education funding. Maine’s Principals’ Association maintains that its state rules take precedence over the new rules written by Donald Trump’s administration, and the state’s schools will continue to allow transgender athletes to compete in girl’s and women’s sports, Fox News reported.

Elon Musk and his now 100 person strong gang of Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutters are stripping the federal government of waste. While some Americans are up in arms at the sudden upheaval, others express gratitude for Musk and his crew getting under the hood to cut through federal bureaucracy and bring the way it runs into the 21st century. **SNIP** The DOGE-bros – the first 12 were referred to by President Trump as “geniuses” – are a corps comprised largely of twentysomething techies, some of whom dropped out of college, who see themselves on a mission to make America’s...

That’s a buzz kill! Big Apple beer hounds may have to fork over 13% more for a brew as congestion pricing drives up costs for customers and businesses alike in some of Manhattan’s busiest neighborhoods. Anheuser-Busch, whose brands include Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois and Corona, will raise keg prices by $5 across the board for customers throughout the NYC area, a company sales rep told The Post this week. “We’re building the cost of congestion pricing into delivery fees,” the rep said. And that means bars will likely have to charge an extra dollar per pint to offset the...

American health insurance seems to frustrate everyone. Patients complain that it’s expensive and complicated. Providers say it buries them in paperwork and can negatively affect patient care.Poll after poll indicates that most people simply don’t trust their health insurance provider or the health care system itself. Fully 70 percent of the country thinks American health care has major problems or is in a state of crisis. Consumer satisfaction is at a 24-year low.Frustration with health insurers may have turned to rage in a young man accused of killing a UnitedHealthcare executive in New York City on Dec. 4. The alleged...

Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has sent waves through the medical community. This horrific act of violence, while tragic and inexcusable, forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality: frustration with the unchecked power of publicly traded insurance companies has reached a boiling point, for patients and doctors alike. As a pain management physician, I deeply empathize with the anguish of denied care. While my patients desperately seek relief, insurance companies reject treatments that are evidence based, cataloging them as “unnecessary” or “experimental.” They use opaque and unreliable artificial intelligence algorithms to deny care and rely on...

Texas taxpayers pay an average of more than $50,000 per pupil for the state’s government-run schools. Vance Ginn, an economist who runs the Texas-based Vance Ginn Economic Consulting firm, highlighted Tuesday on X that when maintenance and operations (M&O) and debt service (I&S) taxes are combined with current levels of outstanding debt, the total per-pupil cost is $50,334. The average private school tuition, meanwhile, is only $11,340 annually per pupil. In Birdville Independent School District alone, “Texas has taxpayers funding $42K+ per student at ‘public schools,’” wrote Ginn. “1) $15,125 per student for M&O and debt service. 2) $27,504 per...

Illegal immigration cost American taxpayers a whopping 2.6 percent of the entire U.S. government's $6.1 trillion in federal spending for the entire 2023 fiscal year. This amounts to $150.7 billion, according to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). If the figure is correct, the staggering sum of money going toward illegal immigrants entering and living in the U.S. would rival spending across some other agencies.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would be attending the grand reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, slated for Saturday. The Cathdral was horribly damaged in a fire in April 2019. It has undergone extensive repairs. "It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago," Trump said. "President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full...

Social media was abuzz this week after NBC published an article that claimed “Thanksgiving dinner is historically affordable this year” and suggested the average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people would cost just $58.08. The $58 dollar estimate comes from a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has conducted the same survey since 1984. That survey, however, has a limited number of items on it, which together can’t be considered a full Thanksgiving meal, let alone a meal for 10 people. The survey asks volunteer shoppers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico to search their...

General Motors (GM) announced Friday it is is laying off some 1,000 workers worldwide, cutting costs as it tries to compete in a crowded global automobile market. The GM workers impacted, mostly white collar, were told early in the morning as they prepared for the weekend. The company confirmed the layoffs in a statement but gave few details, AP reports. The move comes on the back of a recent GM recall for 450,000 vehicles due to a fault in the braking system. “We need to optimize for speed and excellence,” the statement said. “This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we...

The eye-watering financial cost of the migrant crisis hit $150 billion last year and is causing devastating consequences for residents of hard-hit cities struggling to cope with the influx, The Post has learned. Of that figure, calculated by Washington DC-based non-profit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), $67 billion came from the federal government, but majority of the burden was shouldered by states and local governments. More than 15.5 million migrants are in the US, receiving millions in funds from FEMA. Chart showing where FEMA Shelter and Services funds were allocated in fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1,...

Many Americans continue to find homeownership financially out of reach due to rising house prices and stagnant wages, among other contributing factors. But which U.S. cities are the least affordable?One way to assess housing affordability is through the home price-to-income ratio, which measures the ratio of the median home price to the median household income.This map, via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, shows the home price-to-income ratio of 54 large cities (population over one million) in the U.S. using data from Construction Coverage’s analysis of Zillow and U.S. Census Bureau data.Housing Affordability Worst in Coastal U.S. CitiesBelow, we show the home...

During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “11th Hour,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that people are unhappy with their personal finances because “the cost of living is very high.” But that’s been the case “for a long time. But the inflation that we saw after the pandemic really exacerbated it for so many people.” Host Stephanie Ruhle asked, “By most major measures, the economy is doing very well. Yet, most people in America, many people in America still don’t feel good about their personal finances. What do we do about that, how do we solve for it?”

The purpose of constantly invoking the specter of a dictatorship under Trump is to condition Democrats to react violently if Harris loses. By now it’s commonplace to note that Kamala Harris often seems out of her depth, like she’s unsure what to say about policy, or how to explain her past positions, or why she hasn’t already done the things she’s promised to do if she’s elected given that she’s the current vice president. But on one particular subject she’s been consistent and forceful throughout her campaign. She’s adamant that Donald Trump will destroy America if he’s reelected. And not...

Health-benefit costs are expected to exceed salary increases despite the Biden-Harris administration claiming to have helped redress the issue, a study from advisory firm Mercer found.Employer-provided health insurance expenses rose 7% in 2024 and are expected to rise 5.8% in 2025, with over half of the 1,800 employers surveyed telling Mercer they plan to cut insurance plan costs in the new year, often through increasing out-of-pocket costs for employees. The increase in healthcare expenses is expected to outpace salary growth, with performance-based raises and total salary budgets predicted to rise just 3.3% and 3.6% next year, respectively.Prescription drug spending is...