Free Republic

In a moment that surprised approximately no one, President Donald Trump recently complained that oil companies are making too much money, and they ought to give some of it back. Left unsaid, of course, is that oil companies are making money because of increased prices for the product they sell. Those increased prices are a direct result of a conflict that the companies did not start and almost certainly would rather not have. This follows on the president’s order to the Justice Department in June to investigate big oil companies for not bringing gasoline prices down fast enough, as crude...

It sounds as if it is hot off the pages of the Babylon Bee yet, amazingly, it is a dead serious Associated Press story. The reason one might think it a Bee satire is the subject matter the AP decided to stress which you can read in the title of their Thursday story by Kristen Gelineau, "Sex work or starve: Aid workers in Nepal left jobless by USAID cuts turn to sex work to survive."The premise of the AP story is that because USAID funds were drastically cut last year, the result is that transgender people in Nepal that were...

The White House on Wednesday officially asked Congress for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding to pay for the Iran war, curtail the ongoing Ebola outbreak and provide aid to U.S. farmers, among other requests, according to a copy obtained by The Hill. In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought asked for $67 billion for the Defense Department, down from an expected $200 billion first floated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in March. But even with a smaller price tag, the bill will need some support from Democrats to...

The Trump administration on Wednesday sent Congress a long-awaited supplemental funding package to help cover the cost of the Iran war. The administration is asking for about $87.6 billion to address "urgent needs" related to the Iran war, as well as other funding to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and provide support for American farmers. The request will face an uphill battle and puts vulnerable Republicans in a politically tricky position, since backing it could be seen as support for the unpopular war. It's all but certain to face stiff opposition from Democrats, putting its passage in...

[From Grok, after my prompts] Here is a simple, ready-to-use formula for your "Work Life Hours" metric, expressed directly in average taxpayer lifetimes: Taxpayer Lifetimes = (D × 1.104) / 2,960,000 Where: D = dollars funded to the project 1.104 = overall multiplier for government overhead/efficiency (IRS collection cost ≈ 0.36% + typical agency/program administrative overhead ≈ 8–10%) 2,960,000 = dollars of tax revenue that one average U.S. taxpayer generates over a full 40-year working lifetime (based on current data) Why this formula works. It first calculates the total taxes that must be collected to deliver D after overhead: D...

The story behind the New York Times’ 1903 claim that human flight was between one and ten million years away is even worse than it looks. Once you understand the backstory, you realize that the New York Times story is not really about flight at all but about how elites and credentialed “experts” mistake their own failures for the boundaries of possibility. The New York Times did not dismiss the possibility of powered flight at random. There was a very specific reason behind it. At the time, America’s most prominent scientific authority, Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley, had been showered with...

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, and New York to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, two law enforcement sources told CNN. Employees in the FBI’s DC and New York field offices received a highly unusual message from their leadership flagged with high importance late Tuesday telling them: “Per a priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, please search any areas where papers or physical media records may be stored, to include both open or closed cases, for records...

>> Jesse: tonight, our Exclusive look into d.o.g.e. Elon musk was nice enough to Invite us into the Eisenhower Building last night to sit in on His weekly 10:00 p.m. d.o.g.e. Meeting. Yeah. They usually meet at 10:00. I'm almost in bed by then. We met the whole crew, even Big Balls. They showed us how d.o.g.e. Really gets done. We sat back, listened and Learned a lot and we hope you do Too. Here's part one of our exclusive Interview.

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...