Free Republic

House Republicans are proposing to bar most non-citizens from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits, including food stamps, in President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.” GOP lawmakers are pursuing an extensive overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help offset the cost of the president’s tax priorities. The House Agriculture Committee will include a provision in their draft bill to restrict SNAP benefits to those who are citizens or lawful permanent residents following Republican Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s request to the panel to prohibit certain non-citizens from receiving food stamps. “Taxpayer-funded benefits like SNAP are intended for Americans in need,...

Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt. Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF. “That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said. Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo...

BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added. The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

Lawmakers in the state of Oregon are considering a bill that would provide homeless people with $1,000 a month with no strings attached. Is there any wonder why so many people in Oregon are trying to secede to the state of Idaho? If Oregon wants to become the homeless capital of the country, this is an excellent way to do it. FOX News reports: Oregon bill would pay homeless people $1,000 a month The state of Oregon is weighing a bill to give homeless and low-income people $1,000 a month in universal basic income. The Oregon legislature is considering a...

A guaranteed income program that provides monthly checks to Black pregnant women in San Francisco will expand to other counties in California.

White House officials have been weighing -- and leaning toward -- the cancellation of up to $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower tied to an income threshold, CNN has learned. According to multiple sources familiar with the discussions, the plan is designed to offer the forgiveness to individuals who earn less than $125,000 per year. In addition to that baseline of student loan debt forgiveness for individuals who fall under a certain income level, administration officials have also recently discussed the possibility of additional forgiveness for specific subsets of the population, according to sources familiar with internal discussions in...

Unlike with the Covid relief packages in recent years, there would be no direct payments or checks in the mail for broad swaths of people. So what’s in it for ordinary Americans? Medicare beneficiaries’ yearly out-of-pocket drug expenses would be capped at $2,000 starting in 2025. Today, there is no cap. Medicare seniors would also have the option of spreading out the expenses over monthly payments. In addition, the bill would grant them free recommended vaccines, including vaccines for Covid and shingles. The bill would offer a credit of up to $7,500 for qualified “clean” vehicles, including popular models from...

A few days later, Himars hit a Russian military barracks where new recruits were sleeping, inflicting heavy losses, Lt. Koval said. In a third attack he described, the Ukrainians directed all four Himars at Russian positions in one Ukrainian town, sending 24 rockets against targets in the same area. Another strike struck in the town of Zymohirya, some 30 miles behind the frontline, Lt. Koval said. Due to the $155,000 price tag per rocket, the Ukrainians are focusing the firepower on high-value targets like military headquarters, weapons depots and barracks rather than individual Russian tanks or artillery systems. They expect...

Freepers I need your help. I want to start a business revolving around crafts and creating things. I would love to be able to partner with veterans groups or mental health places to get people suffering from depression using their hands and creativity to make things. Being active helps with depression and I know a lot of people are hurting. I am speaking with a company tomorrow about getting started with this. I need help finding grants to help me get started, I can get some $ from the bank.

More than a million people in the UK are suffering from long Covid, with fears the number could rise due to the Omicron variant. Many patients say they only had a mild initial infection but it went on to ruin their health, social lives and finances.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $47.1 billion package of bills at Cal State Northridge Wednesday intended to smooth the way for more California students to go to college. The bills that were made law Wednesday would make it easier and more affordable for California’s high school students to attend University of California and Cal State University colleges. They also help fund affordable housing for students, particularly those attending community college, and add more funding to financial aid programs.... ...Nearly three dozen bills were signed into law at the Cal State Northridge event, all with the intention...

Democratic efforts to include a special $50,000-per-year journalist tax break within President Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending package have sparked accusations of “media collusion.” Sen. Ron Johnson argued the tax credit would create an improper relationship between the federal government and the nation’s leading media outlets.... ...The tax credit would allow “local news” outlets to receive a quarterly tax credit, “equal to 50%” of a journalist’s wages up to a cap of $12,500-per-quarter....

The Biden administration asked Congress on Tuesday for at least $24 billion in disaster relief and urged swift passage of a short-term funding bill as a government shutdown looms at the end of September. White House Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Shalanda Young requested "urgent" spending in a blog post to respond to natural disasters and the relocation of Afghans who partnered with the US during the war in Afghanistan. Specifically, the administration is asking Congress for $14 billion for natural disasters that occurred before Hurricane Ida, $6.4 billion for the Afghan relocation, and it anticipates another $10...

Up to 50,000 students, including some in the country illegally, could have their debt forgiven under the 'CUNY Comeback Program' City University of New York announced this week that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to wipe out up to $125 million in debt and unpaid fees for more than 50,000 students who were enrolled during the pandemic. ...Students who paid off all their tuition and fees during the pandemic are eligible for a $200 grant.

The Paycheck Protection Program has run out of money for most borrowers before its planned May 31 end, the Small Business Administration said. Going forward, the program will only accept new applications from community financial institutions, which typically serve minority borrowers, as about $8 billion in funding was set aside for such businesses. The SBA will continue to fund outstanding approved PPP applications from other lenders but won’t accept any new applicants. The exhaustion of funds, which was announced Tuesday, comes just weeks after the PPP was extended through the end of May to allow borrowers more time to apply...

The federal government program designed to help cover funeral costs for people who have died of COVID-19 was inundated with more than 1 million calls on its launch day. The Federal Emergency Agency (FEMA) rolled out its hotline Monday, inviting Americans to apply for up to $9,000 per funeral and up to $35,500 per applicant to help with expenses related to coronavirus deaths occurring after January 20, 2020.... ..."This is going to be a nightmare on fraud," Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told CBS News. "FEMA didn't willingly undertake this. Congress directed it."

Checks headed to families eligible for the child tax credit are on track to go out starting in July. The Internal Revenue Service commissioner confirmed the agency expects to launch its portal for the credit on July 1, despite concerns about the challenges the IRS would face implementing a program... ...As part of the COVID relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, the child tax credit was increased for one year with children ages 6 to 17 eligible for a $3,000 credit and children under 6 getting $3,600. The legislation also makes the benefit fully refundable...

San Francisco is investing in its arts community. Starting in May, 130 local artists in the city will receive $1,000 per month in cash, with no strings attached. The pilot program in universal basic income is scheduled to last for six months, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The artists will be selected from those “whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community.”

Here's a heads up for parents with college age children who claimed them as dependents in 2019 but the children didn't get a stimulus check last year: If you file their return separately, they will get the $1800 in their tax refund, even if they didn't have a W-2. That is how Turbo Tax figured it anyway. If you count them as a dependent, it only reduces your taxes by $500. So it's $1300 net gain.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says "every American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. It will decrease the risk of getting the coronavirus expodentially. Of course in an ideal world everyone should be staying at home like I am. If you don't go anywhere you can't get infected. Staying home is what we should all do." "Trump's notion that we should open up the economy is insane," Biden contended. "The federal government has the power to create money. They can just mail everyone a government check. There is no...