Free Republic

@tomselliott Sen. @RandPaulon @SpeakerJohnson's "obscene" spending bill: "No conservative should support raising the debt ceiling $5 trillion. So, that alone is enough for me not to support the bill, even though I support large segments of the bill."

A draft of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” includes a proposal to establish so-called “MAGA” savings accounts for children. The pilot program — described as the “money account for growth and advancement” or “MAGA account” in the GOP bill released on Monday — would give every baby with a Social Security number born in the next few years $1,000. That money will then accumulate interest and value through investments over time — and families and employees can contribute up to $5,000 in the children’ s accounts annually. The goal would be that once the kids become adults they will have...

Canada’s national debt has reached a point where the entire Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue is now being used to cover interest payments. Every dollar collected from GST is funneled directly to bondholders, leaving nothing for essential government services. The numbers are staggering. In the last fiscal year, $55 billion was collected in GST, and $55 billion was paid out in interest on government debt. The Bank of Canada holds 20 percent of these bonds, meaning it is effectively paying itself interest on the debt it owns. This raises serious concerns about the sustainability of Canada’s fiscal policy. When...

In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar -- a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News. The gift is expected to be announced next week, when Trump...

The National Debt has stopped skyrocketing since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025. The fiscal collapse of the USA may be avoided.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is delivering a big win to businesses that have been pressuring her to pay off their billions of dollars in unemployment-insurance debt — but she’s stealing the cash from state reserves to do it. Hochul said Monday that the state will cover the roughly $7 billion debt still lingering for employers from the pandemic. The businesses had hoped federal money that the state received during COVID-19 would at least partly be used to help cover the deluge of unemployment claims spurred by the pandemic, as most other states did.+ But the state used the money for other...

Buffett had largely avoided commenting on politics during the afternoon part of the annual meetings Q&A and seemed reluctant to directly address a question on what he thought about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. What Buffett did say was Congress isn’t doing its job to reduce the fiscal deficit. “We are doing something that is unsustainable,” he said. Buffett said the gap between revenue and spending was about twice as large as what can be maintained and that the more the gap widens, the more risk of it...

College graduates are calling their degrees worthless. According to new data from Indeed, piling student loans and fears of AI reshaping the workplace are to blame. While experts say higher education is still important, Gen Z should constantly prioritize “upgrading their toolkit” to be successful. College is often advertised as the best four years of one’s life, but many Americans now have regrets.

House Republicans are planning to include several of President Trump’s campaign promises in the first draft of the bill, which they hope to release soon.It was easy to miss, but last weekend President Trump floated a fundamental rewrite of the American tax code. In a social media post, and again in remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump suggested the United States could stop taxing income under $200,000 and instead rely on revenue from his extensive tariffs. “It’ll take a little while before we do that, but we’re going to be cutting taxes, and it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut,”...

What is going on; US DEBT CLOCK is posting $36.798 Trillion as of today. GOV DEBT TO THE PENNY is posting $36.213 Trillion as of 4/30/25.

So, you be the judge of the best reason to vote “no…” ... [Graph at URL]

DOGE is working: in Q1, US debt funding needs were $2BN less than the Treasury forecast in February, and in Q2 the Treasury is expected to need $53 billion less than it forecast 3 months ago. The result?

President Donald Trump is pushing hard for interest rate cuts. He should be careful what he wishes for, because he is begging for more inflation. Literally. Trump started badgering Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell about rate cuts even before his inauguration, saying last January that "interest rates are far too high." In fact, this running battle with Powell over rates dates back to Trump's first term. As the Fed finally tried to normalize rates in 2017 after holding them at zero for nearly a decade in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Trump frequently criticized Powell and urged him...

Shares in China Evergrande, the massively indebted property developer, fell back to all-time lows on reports that its chairman and founder has been arrested. Hui Ka Yan, who started the company in 1996, was taken away by police earlier this month and is being monitored at a designated location, Bloomberg reported.

The Trump administration has been mulling ways to get more Americans married and having kids — including a $5,000 “baby bonus” for every new mom after delivery, according to a report. White House officials have recently been brainstorming plans to tackle the declining birth and marriage rates — and push more Americans toward the traditional family values of Trump and his allies. Policy experts and advocates for boosting the birth rate have been meeting with White House aides to come up with plans to convince more women to have babies, four people who have been part of the meetings told...

Beyond etymology, Good Friday can be called “good” because of the results of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice was a demonstration of God’s love for us (Romans 5:8). Through Jesus’ death, we can have peace with God: “While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). As 1 Peter 3:18 says, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God” (NLT).

Millions of student loan borrowers are expected to see their credit scores drop by summertime, reversing progress made under pandemic-era protections that lifted credit scores but expired last year.New York Fed research released Wednesday found that over 9 million borrowers with past-due balances could see "significant" decreases in their credit scores. The warning comes after many student loan borrowers' credit scores increased during the period of federal student loan forbearance, which temporarily suspended payment requirements and interest during the COVID-19 crisis. The typical borrower's score jumped 11 points in 2020, rising from 662 to 673.Ads by Money. We may be...

Debt, illegals, outsourcing -- the United States is heading for a catastrophic fall. Trump understands this. Middle-class America is rapidly going the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. And California, where mansions and homeless people abound, is the template Democrats want to bring to America as a whole. Because it suits their needs. Big money donors and poor people in crisis who think they need ‘compassionate’ Democrats’ help. The ‘American Dream’ was that any normal person who worked hard and saved could have a house and a relatively comfortable — and meaningful — life, expecting to live better...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries extended heavy losses on Wednesday in a sign investors are selling even their safest assets as a global market rout unleashed by U.S. tariffs takes an unnerving turn towards distress and a dash for the safety of cash. "This is beyond fundamentals right now. This is about liquidity," said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, the globe's benchmark safe-haven anchor, was up 20 basis points and rising in Asia - a remarkable move in a time zone where it's usually fairly steady. At 4.46% the yield is...

If Republicans like Tillis actually care about lowering Americans’ cost of living, they should slash the federal budget they’ve spent years ballooning.It’s been less than a week since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff blitz against foreign nations, and Republicans on Capitol Hill are already in full-on freakout mode. Throughout the past several days, GOP members of Congress have run to their favorite legacy media talking heads to express their supposed concerns that the president’s tariff policies could result in higher costs of living for everyday Americans. The latest example of this came on Tuesday, when Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., while...