Free Republic

Do you want your taxpayer dollars funding studies on preventing pregnancy in “transgender boys” or HIV stigma in Thailand? Fortunately, Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary also considers that a waste, so he’s cutting numerous idiotic woke studies. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump’s new agency heads have uncovered billions of dollars of egregious fraud and waste, including the previously unknown agency whose employees lived “like kings” and the Social Security funding for 150+ year olds. Now HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is looking to streamline the massive, unwieldy, unconstitutional, and harmful federal healthcare agencies. It’s time...

Elon Musk claimed in a Fox News interview Thursday night that the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, frequently uncovers "billions" in government waste, citing a supposed $1 billion survey about National Parks as an example. CBS News found no evidence that the Department of the Interior spent or planned to spend that much on a survey or on any single contract. No $830 million contract is visible on DOGE's online "wall of receipts," the list of contracts the group said it has terminated. According to data published on the site, only five canceled contracts have a total estimated...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: DOGE just announced an audit into the SEC for fraud, abuse, and waste. 11:32 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Brendan Carr @BrendanCarrFCC You worked for an Administration that got $42 billion to connect millions of Americans to the Internet 1️⃣,1️⃣6️⃣3️⃣ days later, that Admin exited without connecting even 1 person & without turning even 1 shovel worth of dirt If we need expertise in incompetence, will reach out

Rumors swirl that Elon Musk is running five Super Bowl commercials to expose government waste discovered by DOGE.. Rumors are circulating that Elon Musk is spending $40 million on five Super Bowl commercials aimed at exposing government waste discovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) through USAID. X (formerly Twitter) users are buzzing with excitement, calling Musk a “legend” and suggesting that the ads might provoke panic among Democrats. ... One user asked, “Does anyone know if it's true that Elon Musk bought advertising for the Super Bowl? I hear he spent $40 million on five 30-second spots to...

Paul's 41-page report this year concludes the Biden administration spent $1 trillion on such events as drag shows and projects like the construction of pickle ball complexes. Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul on Monday released his annual "Festivus" report, which included allegations the Biden administration spent $1 trillion on "'government waste," including taxpayer dollars on an ice-skating drag show. The report consists of "grievances" Paul has compiled throughout the past year on the Biden administration's spending. The report gets its name from a celebration that stems from the 1960s but was made popular by the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" in the...

BREAKING: @EPA Advisor Admits ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Trump is Funneling Billions to Climate Organizations, “We’re Throwing Gold Bars off the Titanic” “It was an insurance policy against Trump winning.” “Get the money out as fast as possible before they [Trump Administration] come in ... it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.”

As the Biden regime prepares to exit, it has orchestrated a move as a cunning attempt to undermine the incoming Trump administration’s agenda to streamline government operations. In a last-minute deal, the Biden regime has locked in telework protections for 42,000 Social Security Administration (SSA) employees until 2029. The agreement, reached with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), ensures remote work privileges for these federal workers for the next five years, despite the Trump administration’s explicit plans to slash such arrangements, according to Bloomberg. The agreement, brokered between the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the Social Security...

Senator Joni Ernst put together a fairly spectacular thread detailing how she could eliminate more than TWO TRILLION of Washington waste in just 22 easy steps ... it's a start, right? @SenJoniErnst We can eliminate more than $2 trillion of waste in Washington in 22 easy steps. Here is how @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and @DOGE can begin to trim the fat and #makeemsqueal. @SenJoniErnst 1. Ghost Workers 👻 We are spending $15.7 billion a year on underutilized buildings. Many are vacant! Bureaucrats refuse to show up to work, so why are we paying for empty buildings? [snip] @SenJoniErnst 4. Cancel the...

Javier Milei, the Argentinian president, has become the first foreign leader to meet Donald Trump as he flew into Florida for a visit to Mar-a-Lago. Mr Milei is due to meet Elon Musk in the coming hours where the pair are expected to discuss strategies to cut government spending. Mr Milei arrived on Thursday at Mr Trump’s Florida residence, where Mr Musk has also been holed up for several days, and will be the first foreign leader to congratulate Mr Trump in person on being re-elected US president. The brash libertarian economist will also hold informal talks with the Tesla,...

The United States sent faulty military items to Taiwan including mouldy armour and expired ammunition. Most military equipment that suffered water damage was delivered from November 2023 through March 2024.... Photos clearly show damaged pallets and mouldy body armour that arrived in Taiwan in 2023, including more than 3,000 mildewed body armour plates and 500 wet and mouldy tactical vests... This included expired, loose, and rounds of ammunition in the wrong packaging... The National Defense Authorization Act 2023 authorised the US president to draw down up to $1 billion from existing DoD stock to provide military assistance to Taiwan

Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with state officials and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, announced Thursday that low-income New Yorkers are now eligible to receive rebates for energy efficiency upgrades through a federal program called the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) Program, which aims to lower household energy costs. The governor, at a press event held at the Andromeda Community Center in Long Island City, unveiled the Biden administration’s new initiative that will help reduce household utility expenses via a rebate program that incentivizes energy efficiency upgrades. The plan, which stems from the Inflation Reduction Act and is...

Friday in North Carolina is going to be crazy. Kamala Harris, who doesn't list any policies on her website, is expected to announce her economic plan. President Joe Biden seems convinced that she's going to stick with Bidenomics, but she's already announced Soviet-style price controls for grocery stores trying to make a quick buck. That will lead to food shortages and bread lines. It's communism — it's doesn't work.ABC News' Selina Wang has another hint as to what Harris will propose Friday: $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homeowners … with more generous support for first-generation homeowners.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tapped to lead the administration’s rural broadband expansion, failed to connect one person with high-speed internet despite having $42.5 billion from the so-called infrastructure bill. During his 2021 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden tapped Vice President Harris to lead the effort “because I know it will get done.” Now, in 2024, it appears that the Biden-Harris admin has made little progress getting Americans connected to high-speed internet. ... Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commission Brendan Carr noted in June that Biden and Harris did not connect one American despite having access to...

In many ways, Speaker Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he did his own Republican members.The outline of the spending agreement House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., cut with Democratic leaders sounds bad on its face. But the underlying reasons for that agreement seem far worse.As I wrote last week, “Speaker Johnson and Republican ‘leadership’ … bailed the Democrats out of the predicament they put themselves in last May.” To which I should make an important addition: In many ways, Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he...

...The cost of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was about US$75 million, which, as John pointed out, is less than the cost of the Barbie movie. If you want to be nitpicky, you might quibble that that doesn't include the cost of the first two less successful Chandrayaan space missions. Okay, total expenditures on the Indian space programme since 2003 are approx $140 million - which is still less than the Barbie movie. Okay, I don't want to beat up on Barbie, because, as you know, our friend Andrew Lawton is a huge fan. So let's use instead the cinematic example the...

OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the Titan submersible disaster, was forgiven of its $450,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, according to the ProPublica PPP Loan Database. OceanGate builds submersibles for tourism and research, but its inherently risky business model raises questions, and led to the tragic deaths of five people in the ocean in June. Its liability waiver for sub tourism mentioned the possibility of death three times on the first page alone. Now, some are accusing the company of cutting corners. James Cameron, the renowned Titanic explorer and director of the 1997 movie, said, "I was very suspect of the...

What is already arguably America's worst public transit project is about to get a whole lot more expensive. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is moving ahead with plans to build a 2-mile extension to the city's 2.7-mile streetcar line, with an estimated price tag of $230 million. The Center Square reports that the first batch of that new spending—an $11.5 million contract awarded to a firm that will design the extension—was doled out last week. The project is being funded by a half-cent increase in the Atlanta sales tax, and the extension is scheduled to open in 2028....

The trash burning industry was eager to show it is not a polluting relic but a pioneering clean tech sector worthy of millions of dollars in new federal subsidies. As the Biden administration allocates billions of dollars in new climate subsidies, environmentally challenged industries are sharpening their green pitches. The companies argue they are just as entitled to lucrative federal incentives as solar farms or electric carmakers, and are working to frame their businesses as global warming solutions. The money up for grabs from the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs are in amounts large enough to guide whether they...

Among the elements contained within the relevant portion of the bill are additions to the scope and authority of AARO, with Congress now directing the Office to report directly to Defense and Intelligence Community leadership. The bill also directs AARO to extend the scope of its inquiries further back into history to review potentially relevant government records dating as far back as 1945. *snip* Significantly, Sec. 1673 of the FY 2023 NDAA also outlines protections for U.S. personnel that have signed any such agreements [NDA's--Non Disclosure Agreements], allowing them to come forward with any information and report their involvement with...