Free Republic

Illegal immigration weighs heavily on the wallets of hardworking American taxpayers - to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars annually.Still, the Biden administration turns a blind eye to these fiscal strains, neglecting the toll on our economy, the structural integrity of our nation, and the safety of our citizens.Estimates suggest that illegal immigrants cost each household about $1,000, adding up to more than $120 billion a year.Sources such as Newsweek hint that the true cost may be even higher, possibly reaching $150 billion annually, an amount shared by both federal and state governments. In all actuality, the financial...

Let’s check in on the not exactly impressive energy and inflation results of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)...Data from the BLS, chart by MishBiden’s energy policy has been an inflationary disaster. And make no mistake, the IRA was nothing but energy policy, more precisely, climate policy.The Inflation Reduction Act Is a Climate BillBloomberg flashback, August 15, 2022: The Inflation Reduction Act Is a Climate Bill. Just Don’t Call It One.“It does seem kind of wacky and counterintuitive for the most consequential climate legislation ever to be called the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’” says Angela Bradbery, a professor of public interest communications...

The Interior Department on Friday finalized a rule making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands. Several of the provisions in the rule — like raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not...

President Biden’s new student debt relief plan is estimated to cost around $84 billion if it is implemented, according to a Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) analysis released Thursday. PWBM analyzed the five components of Biden’s proposed plan, totaling the initiatives to $84.06 billion that could be implemented before the November election. The biggest cost of the plan is Biden’s proposal to cancel up to $20,000 for all borrowers who have a balance that has grown due to unpaid interest. Borrowers who qualify for the SAVE plan or other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans would get all of that balance wiped...

California lacks information on the costs or efficacy of its homelessness programs, despite allocating billions of dollars to them, a report released by the state auditor’s office on Tuesday found. California Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) is responsible for coordinating and evaluating the efforts of California’s state agency in reducing homelessness. ICH, however, “has not consistently tracked and evaluated” the state’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness and, as a result, California “lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs,” according to a report from the California State Auditor. The homeless population in California has...

We all know life has gotten more expensive lately… but has anything provided more sticker shock than healthcare? Health insurance premiums rose 7% last year. Medical costs are expected to rise 7% this year after increasing 6% last year. And I’ve exclaimed “What?! That can’t be right!” after receiving a medical bill or checking out at the pharmacy more times than I can count. Yet my doctor friends claim they make less money and spend more time doing insurance paperwork than ever before. I felt bad that one of my physician friends recently had to spend time fighting with my...

Efforts to build a bridge where the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, stood until Tuesday are estimated to cost anywhere from $400 million to several billion dollars, according to reports. Punchbowl News reports — citing sources from the Biden administration, Capitol Hill, and Annapolis — that the undertaking to replace the bridge, which collapsed after a cargo ship named Dali crashed into one of its pier foundations, will cost “several billion dollars.”

If you pay for car insurance, you’ve probably noticed that rates are really high lately. You’re not alone. Last week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report — the government’s method for tracking what people are paying for goods and services and how that’s changing over time — noted that the price of car insurance was up more than 20 percent over the same time last year. What’s particularly painful is that rates were already rising: CPI reports have shown that, overall, car insurance rates are up more than 38 percent since January 2020. What’s going on? The big insurance companies have...

I have a friend who frequently says that, if you control CO2 outputs, you control everything. Let me explain: Every aspect of modern life is dependent on hydrocarbons and, when hydrocarbons are burned for energy, they produce CO2. By demonizing CO2, you demonize hydrocarbons, which means…ta-dah!...you get to block hydrocarbons and control everything. We’re getting a glimpse of that with Joe Biden’s new energy emission rules, which will effectively make it impossible to build a gas-powered car in a few years, forcing people into costly, dangerous, unreliable, and dirty electric vehicles. Here’s the report from Fox:The Biden administration has finalized...

Tranheuser-Busch claimed it earned record revenues in 2023 but admitted its “full growth potential was constrained” in the U.S. due to a boycott after Bud Light signed transvestite Dylan Mulvaney as a sponsor. Yeah, “constrained” by $1.4 BILLION. In North America, organic revenue, seen as the best measure of operating performance, plunged $1.4 billion last year as beer sales by volume tumbled in the region, primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales in the United States. Beer makes up the lion’s share of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s revenue. Bud Light sales tanked after the company’s partnership with Mulvaney last April...

I graduated from college in the 1980s. I took my bachelor’s degree in 2.5 years by taking overloads—up to 22 credits--every semester, and full loads every summer and interim session, as well as a number of correspondence courses from another university when I had to have a class that wasn’t offered when I needed it. At that state college, my education cost a bit less than $10,000. I was an adult, paying my own freight, and needed to get back into the workforce as quickly as possible. I took out no student loans. Tuition then was a fraction of current...

The rush to replace diesel buses with electric buses is not faring well in colder climates. The city of Skellefteå in Sweden has had to drastically cut short its electric bus service due to sub-zero temperatures. Marie Larsson, chief of the city's bus operations, explained, "at minus 40 degrees it is too cold for the electric buses. In hindsight its seems like we should've taken this factor into consideration before we invested so much time and money converting from diesel buses." In Minnesota, the cities of Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Paul are having similar problems. Metro Transit spokesperson Drew Kerr...

Rising costs have pushed the “American Dream” out of reach for most Americans, according to a new analysis from Investopedia. Common milestones associated with success in the United States like marriage, children, homeownership, cars and healthcare are estimated to cost $3,455,305 throughout a person’s lifetime, according to the financial news site. Meanwhile, the average lifetime earnings of an American with a bachelor’s degree is about $2.3 million, according to data from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Those with less education can expect the life associated with the American Dream to be further out of reach. For...

This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm gave Americans an unintended glimpse of the future during her road trip this summer touting the wonders of electric vehicles. Her public relations misadventure in Georgia involved one of her staff in a gasoline-powered vehicle blocking off a coveted charger in advance of her arrival, leading to frayed tempers and a local EV owner calling the cops. It was an illustration of the challenges drivers could face as governments push the public to embrace plug-in vehicles. Hyped as technological marvels, EVs are boobytrapped with a host...

The average American household that uses electricity to heat a home this winter will pay hundreds of dollars more than those who use natural gas, according to a new report from a federal agency. The report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said a home that uses electricity will pay 77 percent more or an average of $462 this winter, compared to a household that uses natural gas. Looking into the winter fuel outlook, the report said electricity will cost $46.19, based on a unit of heat. By comparison, the cost of natural gas will be $13.97. ... officials have...

The cost of providing education, healthcare, law enforcement and other expenditure resulting from millions of extra migrants adds up to as much as $451 billion a year, says the House study. The 49-page report comes as House Republicans push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for allegedly failing to constrain the record numbers of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border. It includes the cost estimate of $451 billion from the Center for Immigration Studies, According to FAIR, US federal and state governments spend $182 billion annually to provide services and benefits to non-legal aliens and their dependents. That figure...

Middle-class families in California are getting slammed with an "unreasonable" cost-of-living-penalty for simply residing in the Golden State, according to a new report. According to data from the Transparency Foundation's Cost of California Report, a typical middle-class family of three earning $130,000 a year faces a financial burden of more than $26,000 because of higher living expenses. The nonpartisan group's report compares costs such as housing, utilities, food, gas, child care and health care, in every major household budget category between California and national averages. The foundation's data showed that on every household budget, the cost to live in California...

American Thinker is fortunate enough to have a number of friends around the world, and one of those friends, an Aussie, sent me a story with this lede from the JoNova blog:Hertz was aiming to make 25% of its fleet electric by 2024, but is finding 11% is too much. Given there are whole nations pushing for 100% EV by 2035 there seems to be a message here…The original item came from a car outlet, and reported that Hertz was dialing back on promises the company had made to transition a sizable portion of its rental fleet from gas-powered vehicles...

Recent proposed solutions for healthcare are what systems thinkers call fixes that fail or backfire. They are like a doctor giving opioids to a cancer patient. Painkillers mask the symptoms but never get at the root cause of illness: the malignancy that is making health care unaffordable and unavailable.Following are some recently touted healthcare fixes followed by why they won’t work. Implementation of artificial intelligence (AI)o AI cannot replace human clinicians, who are in very short supply California passes $25/hour for healthcare workers o Safety-net hospitals say they will close because they cannot afford $25/hour Expanding care for homeless, called...

The cost of an electric vehicle (EV) battery pack can vary depending on composition and chemistry.In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti and Sabrina Lam use data from Benchmark Minerals Intelligence to showcase the different costs of battery cells on popular electric vehicles.Size MattersSome EV owners are taken by surprise when they discover the cost of replacing their batteries.Depending on the brand and model of the vehicle, the cost of a new lithium-ion battery pack might be as high as $25,000:The price of an EV battery pack can be shaped by various factors such as raw material costs, production expenses,...