Free Republic

With so much going on these days — on multiple fronts — it's difficult to keep up with it all. On Tuesday alone, there were multiple cabinet secretaries testifying before Congress, President Donald Trump made multiple appearances, commenting on everything from trade to FIFA, the Houthis cried "Uncle!", and India and Pakistan appear primed to bust out into an all-out war. All of which is to say: I didn't have an opportunity to watch Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's testimony before the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee oversight hearing live. But looking back over some of the key...

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) about making interest payments on loans for American-made cars tax deductible. While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump revealed that he has spoken with the leaders of both chambers of Congress about his vision for tax deductions on loans for U.S.-made cars. “If you buy a car in the United States that’s made in the United States, if it’s manufactured here… if you borrow money you have interest payments, we’re going to let you deduct the...

More than a million migrants benefited from the universal credit welfare scheme in Britain at a cost to the taxpayer of £7.6 billion in 2023 alone, an analysis of official data has found. Projections based on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data conducted by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) have estimated that around 1,158,000 foreign nationals received universal credit, a monthly welfare subsidy paid to working-age households with low incomes, to mitigate the cost of housing, childcare, and other expenses. Migrants are eligible for the same benefits as native Britons once they are granted either refugee status or...

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency discovered $4.7 trillion in United States Treasury payments on an untraceable budget line. The agency announced Monday that the Treasury Access Symbol, which are used to describe the account the money is linked to, was missing on a number of payments the Treasury Department has made. 'In the federal government, the TAS field was optional for about $4.7 trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,' DOGE posted on X. 'As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.' The account went...

According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1891350795452654076 Here is a video about it.https://x.com/JOKAQARMY1/status/1891414024656421270

I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It! (I Spent The Day Reading The ‘USAID’ Payments Log - this is a weird one to fight global 10:32 warming on Mars now this is not a joke 10:36 this was 22 million dollar for climate 10:39 change resilience for Mars

Did you catch this part? Elon said “I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.” Over $100 BILLION is being sent every year to people in America with no Social Security number This may be the biggest money laundering scandal since Ukraine, ActBlue, and all the other globalist scams This is why Democrats are freaking out - their DC gravy train was just exposed ... Elon Musk - To be clear, what the @DOGE team and @USTreasury have jointly...

Social Security beneficiaries who stood to see a boost in payouts as the result of a law approved earlier this month may have to wait a little longer than expected for higher payments. Under the new law, dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, lawmakers agreed to repeal two tax rules that reduced benefits for many Americans who also receive government pensions, including police officers, teachers and firefighters. Former President Biden, who signed off on the legislation, said at the time that more than 2 million Americans were slated to “receive a lump sum payment of thousands of dollars to make...

The publication of a House Republican memo alleging surveillance violations in the Russia probe has prompted President Trump to declare that he is “totally” vindicated. As many have pointed out, that is not true... That said, the memo is not necessarily the disaster for Trump and the Republicans that it is widely considered to be. Many of Trump’s political opponents remain tethered to the eventual emergence of proof that his campaign colluded with the Russian government in order to win the presidency. But the evidentiary basis so far for Russiagate is thin, to say the least. Meanwhile, the relentless pursuit...

From Mike Shedlock (Mish). It’s a perfect time to do something really stupid, like offering zero percent down payments on mortgages. Case-Shiller national and 10-city indexes via St. Louis Fed, OER, CPI, and Rent from the BLS Perfectly Stupid Timing Morningstar reports One of the Biggest U.S. Lenders is Offering 0%-Down-Payment Mortgages for First-Time Home Buyers. Home buyers will be able to buy a home without putting any money down under a new program launched by United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders. The Pontiac, Mich.-based company’s new program will be available to first-time home buyers and...

First daughter Ashley Biden has paid off a tax lien for more than $5,000 in Pennsylvania after missing payments during her father’s vice presidency and presidency. The Keystone State’s Department of Revenue recorded that the $5,079 lien had been satisfied as of Jan. 3 and “should be removed” from records in Philadelphia County’s Court of Common Pleas, Fox News reported Tuesday. Ashley Biden, 42, had the legal claim placed on her property in a Dec. 1 notice previously obtained by The Post for failing to pay $1,691 in income taxes in 2015 — when Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s No....

Evidence including sworn impeachment inquiry testimony, confirmed emails and financial records increasingly show that President Joe Biden’s meetings with his son’s foreign clients were closely followed by payments and agreements that advanced his family’s business deals. House Republicans on Thursday subpoenaed new financial records belonging to Hunter Biden, his associates, and companies in a growing effort to find evidence that Joe Biden benefited personally from his son’s foreign dealings. Rep. Greg Steube agreed on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Thursday that Joe Biden played a “rainmaker” role in Hunter Biden’s business ventures. “We’ve known that all...

The Federal Reserve quietly lost a fortune in 2023 as interest it pays out to banks swamped the interest it earns on its bond portfolio, data released by the central bank Friday showed. The Fed said it lost roughly $114.3 billion in 2023, its largest-ever annual loss. The losses occurred because the money the Fed pays banks for reserves held at the central bank exceeded the interest earned on the mortgage bonds it holds. The Fed has been raising the interest rate paid on reserves alongside the hikes on the benchmark federal funds rate to stem the worst inflation in...

The media U.S. mortgage payment was down nearly $400 in December from its October peak, enticing some homebuyers back into the market, according to a Thursday report from real estate group Redfin. The median mortgage payment was $2,361 for the four week period ending in Dec. 31, Redfin found. That’s $372, or 14 percent, less than it was in October and the lowest average monthly payment in nearly a year. The weekly average mortgage rate, which hit a 23-year high of 7.79 percent in October, also fell to 6.61 percent at the end of December after the Federal Reserve signaled...

Amazon One: an easier way through your day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH_SVNVIfzk Amazon Rolls Out Palm-Scanning Contactless Payments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WaOq3wQlxI Amazon One, the new contactless way to pay with your palm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL48Gq2l_NY Amazon launches palm scan payment technology | NewsNation Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBsm7EcS6Gs Amazon rolls out palm scanning payment at Whole Foods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf7por-57yI Whole Foods shoppers will soon be able to pay with the palm of their hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-KZTrXLlCY You'll soon be able to pay with your handprint at U.S. Whole foods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVwlkHHxzEM Palm-payment technology coming to all U.S. Whole Foods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbZW_oCUlsg

High home prices and climbing mortgage rates continue to hamper affordability, pushing prospective buyers’ monthly payments to their highest level on record, according to a new report. Home prices posted their largest increase since December in a four-week period ending July 19, rising by 2.1 percent, the report from real estate brokerage Redfin showed. The second straight price jump in the last five months moved up the sale price of a typical home to $382,500. Rising prices, combined with stubborn mortgage rates that are nearing 7 percent, have pushed monthly payments for the typical home to a record high at...

Sometimes I wonder how Republicans get out of bed every morning without severely injuring themselves. Take a minute to hear the truth from a strange but accurate source: sex cult leader Osho. “Democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people. But the people are retarded. So let us say government by the retarded, for the retarded, of the retarded.” I feel this. James Comer (R-Ky.) promised he was going to release evidence of financial misconduct by the Biden family. What we got instead of bank records is a memo written by the House Oversight Committee...

The cost of living crisis in the United Kingdom has seen nearly three-quarters of a million Britons miss a housing payment last month, according to data compiled by a leading consumer body. Research conducted by the British consumer advocate agency Which? found that an estimated 700,000 people in the UK missed or defaulted on a rent or mortgage payment in April. The consumer body reported that the problem paying for housing was “particularly high” among renters, with their figures finding that among those surveyed, one in 20 tenants had difficulties paying their housing bills, including energy costs and local council...

Monthly housing payments hit a record high this week after mortgage rates rose for the first-time in more than a month, according to data from real estate brokerage Redfin. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumped to 6.39 percent this week, pushing up the typical homebuyer’s monthly payment to $2,538. At the same time a year ago, the average mortgage rate stood at 5.11 percent. This week’s rise in mortgage rates followed a dip in the number of new homes under construction, which could put even more pressure on would-be buyers. “There’s not much on the shelves to choose from,...

With a record 16% of American consumers paying at least $1,000 a month for their cars, it's no surprise that drivers are starting to fall behind on their bills. The percentage of borrowers at least 60 days late on their car payments is higher today than it was during the peak of the Great Recession in 2009.There are multiple factors driving this trend. Car financing costs are climbing as the Federal Reserve continues its aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes to combat persistent inflation. At the same time, used car values are dropping, leaving debtors at risk of owing more...